By Andy Brophy

WESTPORT–An upscale men’s clothing store and restaurant had their proposed signs approved at a joint meeting of the town’s Historic District Commission and Architectural Review Board Tuesday night.

Brooks Brothers wants to open at 44 Main St., while hi’ Amba, a new bakery, cafe and restaurant, wants to open in a 33 Jesup Road building formerly occupied by Basso Restaurant & Wine Bar, which closed in December after 19 years. The address is also referred to as 76 Post Road East.

Brooks Brothers

Brooks Brothers would move from its current Westport location at 136 Main St., though that move likely wouldn’t take place until around February, according to an employee. The 44 Main St. storefront, between Chanel and alo, a women’s and men’s clothing store, is currently vacant.

Brooks Brothers has 141 stores in 35 states, with the highest number of stores in New York (15), Florida (14), New Jersey (10) and California (10), according to the clothing store’s website. The men’s clothier has five locations in Connecticut – Clinton, Danbury, Farmington, Mashantucket and Westport.

Brooks Brothers and hi’ Amba would need permits from the town’s Planning and Zoning Department before they open, though Vesna Herman, an Architectural Review Board member, questioned whether hi’ Amba’s proposed sign would need approval from a town zoning board based on its height from the street.

The main concern expressed by members of the HDC and ARB during its 25-minute Zoom meeting centered on lighting of the proposed signs for Brooks Brothers and hi’ Amba.

Brooks Brothers proposed 12-inch-high illuminated channel letters that would create a “halo effect,” said Luis Quintana, the project’s architect.

The illumination on Brooks Brothers’ proposed letters would be 6,000 degrees Kelvin. Degrees Kelvin measures the warmth or coolness of the light’s appearance (lower numbers look warm and yellowish, while higher numbers appear cool and bluish.)

HDC alternate member Alina Cavero thought 4,000 degrees Kelvin would be better based on the atmosphere downtown and other lights nearby.

“I would not go below 4,000,” Herman said.

After a brief discussion, the two boards approved Brooks Brothers’ sign application on condition the degrees Kelvin be reduced from 6,000 to 4,500.

hi’ Amba

Meanwhile, two board members thought the illumination on a hi’ Amba sign proposed for the south side of the 33 Jesup Road building should be increased from 3,000 degrees Kelvin, but that was not a condition of approval.

The hi’ Amba sign would have green letters that appear randomly placed painted onto the face of the stucco building, and the letters would be illuminated by two gooseneck light fixtures. The sign is proposed at an overall height of 4 feet, 6 inches and overall width of nine feet, according to Rocco DiLeo, an architect at RDstudio Inc., which has offices in Port Chester, N.Y.

Westport chef Bill Taibe, who wants to open hi’ Amba, wasn’t available Wednesday morning, but the new restaurant was described as an “all-day bakery, cafe and restaurant” with dishes that feature “the flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and Southwest Asia” in online articles.

Ward French, chairman of the Architectural Review Board, said he’d be fine if hi’ Amba’s proposed sign was increased from 3,000 to 3,500 degrees Kelvin.

But board members did not change the proposed degrees Kelvin as a condition of approval.

Herman said DiLeo should check with town zoning officials since the sign appeared to be above the first floor. But DiLeo said the building didn’t have a second floor behind the facade where the letters would be painted.

“I think it’s an interesting sign, so I would approve,” Herman said.

Andy Brophy

Andy Brophy is an experienced Fairfield County journalist. Andy was a staff writer at The Connecticut Post for 10 years. He also wrote for the Norwalk Hour, Fairfield Minuteman, Fairfield Patch and weekly newspapers in Westport, Fairfield and Norwalk. When not reporting, Andy enjoys playing chess and listening to pianist Art Tatum. ^_.