On a weekday morning in Weston Center, the newest business on the plaza is closed. The Chase opened over Memorial Day weekend with a new entrance facing Weston Road, Route 57. Its doors open at 3 p.m., and last call comes somewhere between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m. For anyone who wants a coffee, a muffin and a familiar face before noon, the center's answer for more than a year has been to get back in the car.
That gap is real, and it is being worked on. Both of the efforts to close it are being introduced to the town away from the plaza. One is a chef's café that will debut over dinner at Lachat Town Farm. The other is a 1790 building whose future is being worked out with the Weston History & Culture Center. Until either opens, this November's daytime gatherings in Weston happen at the farm on Godfrey Road West.
The table The Lunch Box used to set
Josh and Jessica Tolk bought The Lunch Box in 2014. As 06880 reported in July, it was then the only place to eat in town outside of Georgetown or Westport, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. Josh Tolk told 06880 that 2019 was the restaurant's best year. After the pandemic, he said, eating habits changed: people were "willing to hop in their car, and spend more money in fancier places." Breakfast was dropped about three years before that story ran, and the restaurant itself closed roughly a year before it.
It was the second daytime loss in a few years. Weston Today reported in January 2021 that Peter's Weston Market would close for good by the end of that month. Today the plaza's grocery is Lily's Weston Market at 190 Weston Road, a natural-food market with a prepared-food department and catering. That works for picking up lunch. It is a market, though, not a place to sit down with a neighbor over a second cup.
The Chase keeps evening hours
The Tolks didn't leave the space empty. They spent nine months on design and structural changes and opened The Chase, named after their dog, without a soft launch. Inside are beer cans from Josh Tolk's decades-old collection, neon signs, a jukebox, TVs up front and video games in back. The menu is pizza and fried food for now, with more planned. Almost all the seating is at the bar or high tops, plus three regular tables.
06880 described a crowd of every age. Parents come out after the kids are in bed, older regulars settle in, and restaurant workers arrive from Westport, Norwalk, Bethel, Redding and Ridgefield once their own kitchens close. The Chase gives the center its evenings. Mornings are another matter. 06880's profile of The Chase reported that, with the Lunch Box closed, Westonites are "clamoring for breakfast again," and added that a new spot might open nearby.
Hemma Café gets its first Weston dinner at the farm
The new spot now has a name, and it is introducing itself at the farm before it opens on the plaza. Lachat Town Farm's event page for its November 14 harvest dinner says Chef Molly Healey plans to bring Hemma Café to Weston Center in summer 2027. Healey lives in Weston and graduated from Johnson & Wales. She is known locally for Manna Toast in Westport and for Hemma Kitchen, her health-focused meal delivery business. Hemma is Swedish for "home," and the farm's page describes the café as a home base where residents can socialize, eat well and relax.
The Fall Harvest Dinner with Hemma starts at 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 14, and costs $90 a person. Guests sit at long communal tables in groups of eight and eat from shared platters. The menu reads like a preview of the café's style:
- Spiced cider spritz with lemon, with a mocktail version
- Kale and squash salad with lemon vinaigrette, breadcrumbs, bacon and almonds
- Fennel orange roasted chicken and miso roasted eggplant
- Garlic braised greens, trumpet mushrooms and smashed fried potatoes
- Buttermilk biscuits with whipped honey butter
- Pastries from Hemma Café, with coffee and tea
Vegetarian options are part of the meal. Other dietary requests go to [email protected], and guests may bring their own drinks after the welcome cocktail. The dinner is on a waitlist, so list your full group size in the notes when you sign up. Tickets aren't refundable but can be transferred if you tell the farm who is coming in your place.
A 1790 building enters the conversation
The second idea centers on a building that is older than Weston's official post office. At the October 1 Board of Selectmen meeting, First Selectwoman Samantha Nestor described what Weston Today called a very preliminary plan for the Old Post Office and General Store next to Bisceglie Scribner Park. The Friends of the Weston Old Post Office Committee and the Weston History & Culture Center brought in experts, who confirmed the building is worth saving and can be restored. The small circa-1790 structure has lately been vandalized. Under the idea, it would move to the WHCC grounds and reopen as a coffee shop, artisan gift shop and gathering place run by an independent operator.
The building already has a long history as a meeting point. Weston Today's 2021 history of it says it was first called the Norfield Post Office and became the official Weston Post Office in 1883. A post office with a general store attached is where a small town used to run into itself every day. The idea would give it that job again. Much still has to happen first. The town has to work out the legal side of moving a town-owned building, estimate the costs, find the funding and get input from the relevant authorities.
Thanksgiving week runs through Godfrey Road West
So for now, Weston's daytime gatherings happen on a working farm. Leon Lachat deeded his 42-acre farm to the town and The Nature Conservancy in 1997. The Conservancy manages the wooded acreage, and the town manages the meadow and buildings. The farm hosts both Hemma's preview dinner and the town's Thanksgiving week. These are the dates for the rest of November:
- Saturday, November 14, 7 p.m. The Fall Harvest Dinner with Hemma, $90 a person, waitlist only.
- Friday, November 20. Registration deadline for the Thanksgiving Community Feast.
- Saturday, November 21, 10 a.m. Last call for orders in the Kneads Thanksgiving Sale.
- Wednesday, November 25, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Kneads order pickup at Lachat.
- Thursday, November 26, noon to 3 p.m. The Thanksgiving Community Feast in the Offutt Center.
Kneads is a small family-run bakery, café and flour mill in Westport. It mills 100% whole grain organic flour on its New American Stone Mill and is a favorite at the farmers market. For the farm sale it offers pies, cakes, breads, breakfast pastries and Thanksgiving sides, and it donates part of the proceeds to Lachat. Orders go through the Friends of Lachat online shop.
The Thanksgiving Day feast is for people who would otherwise spend the holiday alone. It is a casual, family-style meal with a fire in the Offutt Center's fireplace. AMG Catering provides the turkey, sides and dessert, and guests are asked to bring apple cider or a bottle of wine to share. Registration is $25 a person, and children under 12 are free. The table seats 75, and groups are limited to four. You can register online or by calling 203-984-8403. The farm suggests anyone for whom cost or transportation is a problem contact Weston Social Services. The Offutt Center itself opened in September 2023, as Weston Today covered at the time.
The farm's fall schedule fills in the regular days too, with yoga and meditation on Saturday mornings, tai chi, and a Monday watercolor and landscape course that runs through November 23. Hemma's opening is planned for summer, and the Old Post Office is still an idea. Until then, the Lachat calendar is where Weston gathers during the day.
I've lived in Pound Ridge for more than 24 years, and I know what one good morning spot does for a town. If you'd like to talk about Weston Center, Hemma's plans, or how this corner of Fairfield County works day to day, Kathleen Usherwood would be glad to hear from you. You'll find more about the town on my Weston page. Let's Connect.
