By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT–A new restaurant and a new use for a large and prominent historic downtown building that has been vacant for years, were reviewed and assessed on Tuesday by the town’s two historic boards, and they approved the plans for both.

Yuzu, a Japanese sushi restaurant, will be opening at 35 Main St. in the space occupied for only two years by the Original Pancake House. And the former Westport Bank and Trust building on the corner of Church Lane and Post Road East – previously the home of the Patagonia clothing store – will now be the home of the real estate brokerage Compass.

A joint meeting of the Architectural Review Board (ARB) and the Historic District Commission (HDC) conditionally approved the outward appearance and signs for both businesses, suggesting changes to make the exteriors consistent with the architectural legacy of downtown Westport.

35 Main Street

Yuzu had planned to extend the awnings on the building’s façade beyond the building itself and across the entrance to the alleyway leading from Parker Harding to Main Street. But both the length of the new awning facing Parker Harding and the placement of a three-foot circular sign on the Main Street side of the alley, drew criticism from the commission members.

“It’s a public access way that should not have signage on it. I think you want one awning going across and stopping at the end of the frontage of the store,” said Jon Halper, a member of the Architectural Review Board.

Elayne Landau of the Historic District Commission agreed. “It’s an alleyway and shouldn’t have a store or restaurant sign. It leads to Parker Harding, not to one special store,” she said. Ward French, chair of the ARB, called the proposed three-foot circular sign for Main Street “a bad precedent.”

The joint board approved the restaurant plans unanimously after their suggestions were accepted.

87 Post Road East

The building at 87 Post Road East began life in 1923 as the headquarters of Westport Bank and Trust. It is currently owned by David Adam Realty, which bought the building in 2004. On a triangular lot at the corner of Church Lane and Post Road East, the outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia leased the space from 2005 through 2023.  

Last night, the new anchor tenant at 87 Post Road East, Compass, presented plans for new signage on the west- and south-facing facades. Compass is the country’s largest independent real estate brokerage; it currently leases space at 54 Wilton Road,

The consensus of the joint commission was two-pronged. One of their three proposed signs was too large, and all three of the lighted signs would be too bright. The plan for the proposed bright lights “was more urban, not Westport’s style,” commented Grayson Braun, the chair of the Historic District Commission.  An unanimous vote favoring the plan was taken after French said the joint commission would approve the signs if Compass would “lower the temperature of the lighting.”

The purview of the joint commission is to protect the distinctive character and historic structures in the town’s historic Village District Overlay Zone and Business Center Historic District, which are both represented in the town’s Main Street and Jesup Green business area.

Gretchen Webster

^{_{Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, has reported for the daily Greenwich Time and Norwalk Hour, the weekly Westport News, Fairfield Citizen and Weston Forum. She was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman for ten years. She has won numerous journalism awards over the years, and taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.}}