above: The exterior of hi’Amba; Bagels
Chef Bill Taibe opens hi’Amba, a neighborhood spot rooted in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Highly respected, regarded and celebrated, Chef Bill Taibe is bringing hi’Amba to Westport this fall, and it’s set to become the neighborhood’s next great canteen, think all day dining, with a focus at each point of the day.
The concept: a working bakery on the ground floor, a grab-and-go market stocked with house-made dips and pantry goods, and a full dining room upstairs built for sharing. The menu draws on the flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean — shakshuka, hummus, man’oushe — with a seasonal, locally-driven approach that shifts with what’s fresh.
Taibe calls it the neighborhood spot you don’t need a reason to visit. We got an exclusive sneak peek at the layout, and it delivers. “hi’Amba is about creating the kind of place you want in your neighborhood and can rely on every day,” Taibe says.
For more than 25 years, Taibe has been a defining presence in the Fairfield County dining scene. He got his start as a teenage butcher shop worker near Patterson, New York, before training at Baltimore International Culinary College and working kitchens in Port Chester and Greenwich. In 2009, he opened LeFarm in Westport, earning four James Beard Best Chef: Northeast semifinalist nods. The Whelk followed in 2012, Kawa Ni in 2014, Jesup Hall in 2016, Don Memo in 2020, and the Norwalk Art Space Cafe in 2021. In 2023, he opened Kawa Ni Denver, which caught MICHELIN’s attention a year later. Taibe has also been named Restaurateur of the Year by the Connecticut Restaurant Association.
The team behind hi’Amba is formidable. GM Branden Hahn (Don Memo, Kawa Ni, Jesup Hall, Augusta National, The NoMad) will run the floor. Executive Chef Karen Nicolas, a Food & Wine Best New Chef alum who trained under Tom Colicchio and Charlie Palmer, will run the kitchen. On pastry: Michael Finehirsh, whose résumé includes Daniel under François Payard, Bouley, and the legendary Lutèce, plus training at Fauchon and Le Gavroche in Paris and London.
Rounding out the team is Jason Epstein, Bill’s longtime friend and a self-taught home cook raised on his Syrian grandmother’s cooking. He’s been in the kitchen with Bill since day one — tasting, testing, and shaping the menu.
hi’Amba opens early fall at 33 Jesup Rd, Westport.