The gelato case at 178 Main Street is gone. Cold Fusion Gelato opened there in 2020 and has closed the Westport shop to focus on its wholesale business, The Connecticut Scoop reported in early September. PopUp Bagels has signed the lease for the space and expects to open in early 2027. Holiday shopping season falls in between.
The newest retail on the street is a three-month pop-up. Two of the most talked-about arrivals have signed for addresses but won't open until after the new year. And the sixth annual Holiday Stroll on Saturday, December 5, is where at least one of them will greet Main Street first.
A move from a drive-up window to a front door
PopUp Bagels started in Westport. Founder Adam Goldberg is a Westporter, and his first shop, at 971 Post Road East, is the one now moving downtown. Anyone who has used the current location knows how it works. You pull up, and you don't go inside.
Goldberg described that setup plainly to CT Insider. He said the Post Road East site had no service counter and "was only drive up, you couldn't walk in," adding, "It was built in a catering kitchen. It was never really designed to be a store." The shop at 178 Main Street will be a full-service store.
In that same interview, Goldberg said the business began as a "COVID hobby" about five years ago and is close to opening its 50th location, in Times Square. Connecticut locations include Fairfield, Westport and Greenwich, with Stamford planned. So the move to Main Street brings a national chain back to its hometown in the kind of storefront it built everywhere else. Goldberg told CT Insider the company settled on its store model and design when it opened its first New York City storefront in 2023.
The brand reaches Main Street before its storefront does, though. According to 06880's preview of the Holiday Stroll, PopUp Bagels will be at the December 5 event "celebrating their opening in Westport." The 178 Main Street shop's opening date is still listed as early 2027.
The corner across from Starbucks
The second early-2027 arrival is Barvida, the smoothie shop, which plans to open at 14 Post Road East, across from Starbucks, according to the Westport Journal. The owners, Brennan Branca and Tara Rose Schreiber, are an engaged couple from Greenwich. Barvida already has shops in New Canaan and Darien and opened a third in Greenwich last year.
Westport customers pushed for this one. "We have a lot of Westport guests," Schreiber told the Westport Journal, adding that "People in Westport have been coming to Barvida and saying we should come here." She said the couple were already looking in Westport before they opened in Greenwich. "We were just looking for the right location," she said.
Until it opens, the nearest Barvida stops are still a drive to New Canaan or Darien.
What is downtown this December, and for how long
| Business | Location | Status for the holidays |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Fusion Gelato | 178 Main Street | Closed; focusing on wholesale |
| PopUp Bagels | 178 Main Street | Projected to open in early 2027; scheduled for the Dec. 5 Stroll |
| PopUp Bagels | 971 Post Road East | Original drive-up location, moving to Main Street |
| Barvida | 14 Post Road East | Projected to open in early 2027 |
| Sea Bags | Bedford Square | Holiday pop-up for about three months from Oct. 2 |
Sea Bags is the newest shop you can walk into right now. It opened in Bedford Square on October 2 as a holiday pop-up and plans to stay three months, 06880 reported. Sea Bags makes totes, handbags and accessories from reclaimed sailcloth. The Westport shop also carries skincare, home accessories and apparel as gifts. Three months from an October 2 opening puts the end of its run around the start of January. That means the gift shop leaves at about the same point on the calendar when the bagel and smoothie shops are set to arrive.
December 5 on Main, Elm and Church
The Holiday Stroll runs from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 5. The Westport Downtown Association presents it with Dan Woog's 06880, and this is its sixth year. The event fills Main, Elm and Church Streets. The Elm + Main Lot works as a second hub, with holiday vendors and live music.
06880 lists this year's program as:
- Staples Orphenians, a string ensemble and a DJ
- Santa Claus, face painting and a photo booth
- Special promotions from merchants and restaurants, including freebies
- Street vendors and nonprofits along the route
- A menorah lighting with Chabad of Westport, since the Stroll falls on the second night of Hanukkah
The WDA sells vendor spaces in two places, along Main Street and in the Elm + Main Lot, first come, first served. WDA members pay a discounted $300. Westport-based retailers, restaurants and service businesses can list a Stroll promotion for free, and the WDA features each one on its page and on 06880. Submissions close Wednesday, December 2, at 3 p.m. On December 5, then, the street will have shops that are open year-round, shops here for the season or just the evening, and at least one brand whose Main Street storefront hasn't opened yet.
The WDA thanks Aubuchon Realty Company, Inc. for lending the Elm + Main Lot to the community every year. That is why a downtown parking lot becomes the event's second stage for one evening.
The riverfront tables behind Main Street
When Main Street gets crowded, Parker Harding Plaza is right behind it along the Saugatuck River, and its picnic tables are new this fall. 06880 reported in September that Julie and Jim Whamond donated replacement tables for the riverfront, with help from SCA and the Westport Downtown Association. Maxx Crowley and his team assembled the new tables and took away the old ones. On a cold December evening the tables won't see much use. Once 178 Main Street opens as a walk-in bagel shop, though, the river is the obvious place to eat a bagel that was previously handed through a car window.
How this season ties into the next
Each of these changes fits the same sequence. A storefront opened in 2020 closed. A hometown brand that never had a door customers could walk through signed for it. A Greenwich business followed customers who had been driving out of town and picked a spot on Post Road East across from Starbucks. A sailcloth gift shop took a three-month spot to cover the holidays. And the Stroll gives the street one night when the businesses that are here, the ones visiting and the ones on the way can all show up together.
PopUp Bagels and Barvida both list early 2027 for their openings. Sea Bags plans to stay about three months from its October 2 opening.
At The Riverside Realty Group, we follow Main Street the way our neighbors do, one storefront at a time, and we'll keep noting which shops are open and which are still coming as the new year begins. If you'd like to talk about life in downtown Westport, or about a home within walking distance of it, we would be glad to meet with you. Book an Appointment.
