"The viable future is an operator who comes in with a really site-specific plan and concept that's less seasonal in nature, more year-round in offering," Ian Warburg told the Westport Journal in September. Warburg is a co-founder of Soundview Empowerment Alliance, the nonprofit that owns Old Mill Grocery & Deli at 222 Hillspoint Road. The 107-year-old market near Compo Beach has been closed since Romanacci held its goodbye night for friends and customers at the end of September.
The building is dark for the first time in a few years, and the most important fact about it is a pattern. The last two operators did not leave for lack of customers. Both had growing restaurant businesses elsewhere, and both stepped away to focus on them. The owner's search for a successor, and the zoning proposal now before the Planning & Zoning Commission, are both attempts to keep that from happening again.
Two Operators Since 2022, Both Called Away by Growth
The store has changed hands many times. Its recent history is laid out below, drawn from CT Insider's 2022 history of the market and later local coverage.
| Era | Operator | How the era ended, as reported |
|---|---|---|
| 1950s onward | Kenny Montgomery, known to generations of local kids as Grub's | Montgomery's tenure ran until his death |
| Two-plus decades | Elvira's, run by Nick and Stacey Yiovanakos | Sold in 2019 when the owners were ready to retire |
| Late 2010s to early 2020s | Elvira Mae's, then Joey's by the Shore, under Hal and Betsy Kravitz with partner Joey Romeo | Property listed for sale; food operators toured it, and none made an offer |
| From 2022, for more than a year | TGB Hospitality, the Granola Bar group | Left to focus on expanding its other business |
| Jan. 2024 to Sept. 2026 | Romanacci, run by Graziano and Maurizio Ricci | Did not renew its lease; turning to its other restaurants, including a new Darien location |
The bottom two rows tell the current story. In January 2024, CT Insider reported that the Granola Bar owners had left to focus on their other business's expansion. In September 2026, 06880 reported that Romanacci was concentrating on its other restaurants, including a new one in Darien.
Interest in the space has held up each time. When Soundview Empowerment Alliance first went looking for a partner in 2022, SEA's Jim Hood told CT Insider the group had met with "more than a dozen potential operators." When Romanacci took over in 2024, Hood said about 14 candidates had reached out. This fall, Warburg described "no fewer than four very capable and experienced groups" in active talks, and said one of them "wants to start like tomorrow."
Profitable, Just Not Profitable Enough
The owners have been direct about why a busy beach market keeps losing operators. "They made money," Warburg said of Romanacci in the Westport Journal. "It was a profitable operation, not wildly profitable and not sufficient to keep their attention when they have other much more profitable activities to engage in and pursue." He also said the Ricci brothers did "a really great job" but could not get past the location's seasonal swing, and that the two sides were "parting as friends."
Warburg and Hood made the same case in an opinion piece for 06880. They pointed to Elvira's, which stayed profitable for more than two decades and closed only when its owners retired. For a growing company with several locations, they wrote, "the return at Old Mill hasn't been enough to justify the considerable time and attention the location requires."
That is why the search now centers on winter. Old Mill has long done its best business in summer, with beachgoers walking past the door. The owners want an operator whose plan holds up from November through March. Warburg said the current candidates "absolutely believe they've got ideas that will not only address the high season but that will carry the business through the winter months."
What Amendment 875 Would Change
A year-round business needs a reason for people to stay longer and spend more on a cold Tuesday, and that is where zoning comes in. Romanacci's three years included a legal fight over alcohol. A group of nearby residents sued over the town's zoning amendments allowing the market to sell and serve alcohol, citing concerns about parking, traffic, noise and pedestrian safety. In February 2026, a Superior Court judge overturned those amendments, finding they improperly expanded a nonconforming commercial use in a residential zone. SEA's attorney has said the Appellate Court accepted the owners' petition to review that ruling, and that a decision could take more than a year.
The owners have also tried a second route. At the Planning & Zoning Commission's Nov. 2 Zoom meeting, attorney Eric Bernheim presented a revised version of Text Amendment 875. The Westport Journal reported that the proposal would:
- Create special food and beverage "planned development districts" in residential areas, which the commission would assign property by property
- State the purpose as fostering "neighborhood food and beverage establishments" within "convenient walking distance," wording added on the town planning staff's recommendation
- Raise the allowed indoor seating to 20, up from the 10 proposed earlier
- Keep outdoor seating
- Hold any "transit community middle housing" project on the site to the building-size rules that applied before the new designation
"You can decide whether or not you'd be comfortable with 20 patron seats for a food and retail establishment in those zones," Bernheim told the commission. Because the existing building already exceeds zoning adopted long after the store opened, he said, a housing project there was "unlikely to make sense from a financial standpoint."
The Old Mill Preservation Group, a group of residents who oppose alcohol sales at the store, argued the changes would be disruptive. A neighbor raised concerns about outdoor seating and customer parking. The group's attorney, Joel Green, questioned what the effort would actually preserve. "The Old Mill Grocery was a grocery store for 100 years," he said. The group worries the site could eventually become a bar, restaurant or liquor store. Bernheim said those concerns were unfounded, because turning the store into a restaurant or bar would require a special permit for parking, "and that's impossible on that lot."
The two sides disagree on how much change fits on a small lot on Hillspoint Road, and both are arguing about the same off-season. Warburg has said SEA is open to a BYOB component, depending on what the next operator proposes and what the town permits.
The Beach Around It, in the Off-Season
The neighborhood Old Mill serves is already on its winter schedule. On Oct. 1, dogs were allowed back on Compo Beach for the next six months. They stay off the pavilion, playground and walkways, and must be leashed except in the off-leash area south of the pavilion, including South Beach, as 06880 reminded readers.
Just up the shore, the seawall replacement at Ned Dimes Marina is close to finished under a new arrangement. On Oct. 28, the Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 to approve a termination and settlement agreement with the contractor, Martello Enterprise. Public Works Director Larry Roberts said the work was "95 percent complete" and that he was satisfied with it. What remains is topping off the seawall with stones, which a new contractor will handle, and grading and seeding a lawn area, which the town will do, according to the Westport Journal.
The Westport waterfront in the cooler months is the setting any new Old Mill operator will be judged against.
The Dates to Watch
- Monday, Nov. 30. The Planning & Zoning Commission resumes its discussion of Text Amendment 875.
- The operator decision. As of the Nov. 2 meeting, Soundview Empowerment Alliance was still seeking a new operator, and Warburg has said the group will consider every proposal carefully before choosing.
- The Appellate Court review of the February ruling, which SEA's attorney said could take more than a year.
The nonprofit's mission has stayed the same since 2022: keep a neighborhood market at 222 Hillspoint Road and provide inclusive job training and employment for people with disabilities. Whoever signs the next lease will take on that mission along with the winter months the owners say the next plan has to carry.
If you live near Compo and want to talk through what changes at Old Mill and along the shore could mean for your corner of Westport, Barbara Sweeney Homes is glad to help. Barbara has followed this neighborhood through many seasons and many tenants. Work with Barbara: Schedule a free consultation.
