"Hopefully we'll have longevity instead of change every 2 or 3 years as the operators get worn down." Attorney Eric Bernheim said that to the Planning & Zoning Commission on Oct. 19, according to 06880. He represents Soundview Empowerment Alliance, the nonprofit that owns the century-old market at 222 Hillspoint Road near Old Mill Beach.
The line explains why the corner store keeps losing operators. Money is not what drives them out. Romanacci, the operator for the past three years, did not lose money at Old Mill, as 06880 reported the morning after its farewell. In a September opinion piece collected on 06880's Old Mill Grocery page, SEA's founders wrote that Elvira's and Romanacci were both profitable. The open question is what the building is allowed to be. That question is now before P&Z and the Appellate Court at once. Whoever runs the market next will sign on under rules that are still being written.
A 1919 Market That Keeps Changing Hands
The business at Hillspoint Road dates to 1919. Over the decades it has been Old Mill Grocery, Kenny's, Elvira's and Joey's by the Shore. Elvira's alone lasted 22 years under one family. The years since have moved faster.
- Through 2019: The Yiovanakos family ran Elvira's for 22 years and sold in 2019. Hal and Betsy Kravitz reopened it that July as Elvira Mae's.
- 2022: Neighbors formed Soundview Empowerment Alliance and raised the $1.51 million purchase price in about two months so the site would not go to a developer, 06880 reported. The group's mission includes jobs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
- July 2022: TGB Hospitality Group, the team behind The Granola Bar, relaunched the store as Old Mill Grocery.
- January 2024: After TGB's departure that September, SEA named Romanacci as the new operator. SEA's Jim Hood said more than a dozen operators had shown interest, according to 06880.
- Sept. 29, 2026: Graziano and Maurizio Ricci held a final night for dozens of friends and customers and did not renew the lease. They are turning to a new restaurant in Darien.
Since SEA bought the building in 2022, the store has had two operators, and neither stayed three years. When an operator in good standing leaves a profitable store, the cause has to be something other than the balance sheet.
The Permission the Last Operator Lost
The thing that changed during Romanacci's run was permission. In November 2024, P&Z moved to allow alcohol sales at the store and consumption at outdoor tables. A group of neighbors sued, raising concerns about parking, traffic, noise and pedestrian safety.
On Feb. 18, 2026, Judge Dale W. Radcliffe of Connecticut Superior Court in Bridgeport sustained the neighbors' appeals. The court's memorandum, posted on the town's website, decides consolidated cases against the commission. 06880's account of the decision says the court found that alcohol sales and outdoor dining would be an impermissible expansion of the property's preexisting nonconforming use. That means a commercial use allowed to continue in a residential zone, but not to grow.
Romanacci announced in September that it would not renew. 06880 reported that the decision followed the court fight. The owners have since gone after the ruling and the rulebook at the same time. Westport Journal reported that, according to Bernheim, the Appellate Court has accepted the owners' petition to review Radcliffe's ruling. He has also said an appellate decision could take more than a year. That is too slow for anyone hoping to open by next summer, which is why the zoning route is getting the attention right now.
What Text Amendment 875 Would Change
The new proposal does not stretch the existing residential zone. It would create a new kind of zone. Text Amendment #875 would set up a Food and Beverage Planned Development District. A companion map amendment would move the grocery property out of Residential Zone B and into it. Inside the district, outdoor eating areas would be allowed within 25 feet of the main building, along with liquor sales for on-site consumption. According to 06880, the owners hope that would let them sell and serve alcohol next summer.
At the commission's Nov. 2 Zoom meeting, Bernheim presented a revised version, Westport Journal reported.
- Indoor seats: up to 20, compared with the 10 proposed earlier.
- Outdoor seating: still part of the plan.
- Purpose language: added at town planning staff's recommendation. It says the district is meant for "neighborhood food and beverage establishments" serving residential areas "within convenient walking distance."
- Housing guardrail: Rezoning would also open the site to the town's "transit community middle housing development" rule. The revision holds any such project to the building-size limits that applied before. Bernheim said that kind of project is "unlikely to make sense from a financial standpoint" because the store already exceeds zoning enacted long after it opened.
- Commission discretion: Bernheim said the rule lets P&Z decide which properties get the designation and under what conditions they operate.
The "walking distance" wording matters here. Few stores in Westport fit the description better than a market a short walk from Old Mill Beach and Compo.
Both Sides, in Their Own Words
Support at the Oct. 19 hearing came from the dais and from the public. Commission chair Paul Lebowitz called the amendment very supportable, according to 06880.
"This is exactly what is needed to save a jewel of Westport."
Representative Town Meeting member Jimmy Izzo, one of two members of the public who spoke in favor, said, "The community really loves it, and it's a not a crazy place."
The opposition is led by attorney Joel Green, who represents the Old Mill Preservation Group. His concern reaches beyond this one property. He warned that the new district could be used to bring alcohol-serving businesses into quiet residential areas across town. "I can't imagine the residents of Westport understand the Pandora's box of legislation that is being opened," he told the commission, as 06880 reported. On Nov. 2 he pressed the preservation argument directly, according to Westport Journal. "The Old Mill Grocery was a grocery store for 100 years….This was never a restaurant and bar, so what are you preserving?"
Abutting residents raised practical concerns too. One neighbor told the commission that outdoor seating would sit too close to his home and that store patrons already park on his property, Westport Journal reported. Bernheim answered the fear that the store could become a bar. "If we were to change it to a restaurant or a bar, we would have to come back for a special permit for parking requirements, and that's impossible on that lot," he said at the same meeting.
The small lot at 222 Hillspoint Road sits at the center of both arguments. Opponents point to the parking spillover they already see, and the owners point to the same lot as the limit that would keep the store from becoming a restaurant or bar.
The Calendar for the Corner Store
As of early November, SEA was still looking for a new operator for 222 Hillspoint Road. When Romanacci left, SEA said it hoped for a fairly quick reopening. The owners' own reasoning connects that hope to the zoning outcome. If #875 passes in its current form, an incoming operator could plan for up to 20 indoor seats, outdoor tables and on-site alcohol service. If it does not, the store stays under the nonconforming-use limits the court applied in February.
At the Nov. 2 meeting, commissioners voted to continue the discussion to their Nov. 30 meeting, which is the next date on the calendar. The appellate review runs on its own, slower track. For anyone who misses the Riccis' cooking in the meantime, Romanacci also has a Westport location at 46 Railroad Place, as the Stamford Advocate noted when the Old Mill chapter ended.
If you own near Compo or Old Mill and want to talk through how neighborhood changes like this one tend to come up when a home is valued or marketed, Jillian Klaff is glad to help. Request a personalized market consultation.
