Breakfast at the Lunch Box ended about two years before the restaurant itself did. Josh and Jessica Tolk bought it in 2014, when it was the only place to eat in town without driving to Georgetown or Westport, and served three meals a day, seven days a week. 2019 was their best year. After the pandemic, as Josh Tolk told 06880, "People's eating habits changed." First breakfast went. Then, in July 2025, the whole restaurant closed.
It had opened in 1977. According to CT Insider, it was the only standalone restaurant in Weston's main commercial district. Fifteen months later, Weston Center has a bar that opens in the afternoon and a market with prepared food, and still no sit-down breakfast. Hemma Café is expected to fill that gap in summer 2027. For this November, though, the places in Weston where people sit down to eat together are a farm, a grange hall and a library, and the farm is where the café's chef is cooking first.
Weston Center, after 3 p.m.
The Tolks kept the Lunch Box space. They spent nine months on design and structural changes, including a new entrance that faces Weston Road, Route 57. Over Memorial Day weekend 2026 they opened The Chase, named for their dog.
06880 described it in July as an honest dive bar. Beer cans from Josh Tolk's decades-old collection, neon signs, a jukebox, TVs in front, video games in back, and pizza and fried food, with a bigger menu promised. Most of the seating is at the bar or at high-tops, plus three regular tables. The crowd it described covers all ages, from parents out after the kids are in bed to restaurant workers from Westport, Norwalk, Bethel, Redding and Ridgefield winding down after their own shifts.
As of that July report, The Chase opened at 3 p.m. and last call came between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m. So the evening side of the old Lunch Box has been replaced, and then some. The morning side has not. "It's still early," Tolk said. "We're going to grow organically."
For a daytime meal in the center, the nearest option is Lily's Weston Market at 190 Weston Road. Its own site calls it a full-service natural-food marketplace with prepared foods. CT Insider also mentioned its hot bar when it covered the Lunch Box closing. It does good business, but a market is not a place to linger over coffee.
The breakfast gap has a name now
The same July story ended with a note that Westonites were "clamoring for breakfast again," and a hint that a new spot might open nearby. In October, Lachat Town Farm named it. Chef Molly Healey plans to open Hemma Café in Weston Center in summer 2027.
Many people in town will already know Healey's cooking. A 2025 06880 profile describes her as a Weston High School and Johnson & Wales graduate who cooked at Blue Hill and catered in the Bay Area before coming home. She also created Manna Toast in Westport and Little Dumpling. Her current business, Hemma Kitchen, is a once-a-week prepared-meal delivery service. The à la carte menu changes weekly and deliveries go out across Fairfield County on Tuesdays.
The café's purpose fits the gap the Lunch Box left. Lachat's announcement calls it "a community meeting place where Weston residents can come to socialize, nourish themselves, and simply relax." It also explains the name: hemma is Swedish for "home."
The preview is at Lachat, not on Route 57
The first chance to taste Healey's plans is the Fall Harvest Dinner with Hemma at Lachat Town Farm on Saturday, November 14, at 7 p.m. The farm's listing bills it as a "sneak peek of the delicious offerings coming to Weston Center next year." Tickets are $90 per person.
Lachat's listing gives the menu:
- Spiced cider spritz with lemon, mocktail available
- Kale and squash salad with lemon vinaigrette, breadcrumbs, bacon and almonds
- Fennel orange roasted chicken
- Miso roasted eggplant
- Garlic braised greens, trumpet mushrooms and smashed fried potatoes
- Fresh buttermilk biscuits with whipped honey butter
- An assortment of pastries from Hemma Café
- Coffee and tea
The pastries are the course most likely to show up behind the café counter. The rest is a farm-dinner menu served on shared platters at long communal tables, with guests seated in groups of eight. You can bring a full group of eight, or come alone and sit with neighbors you have not met. Seating requests go in when you register. The welcome cocktail is included and guests may bring their own additional drinks. The meal has vegetarian options, and other dietary questions go to [email protected].
The setup suits a café that does not exist yet. A dinner where strangers share tables in groups of eight gives a fair sense of whether Healey's idea of a community meeting place works in Weston.
Why the farm keeps setting the table
The preview is at Lachat because the farm built a space for exactly this kind of evening. The Daniel E. Offutt III Education Center opened in 2023, Weston Today reported. Most of the construction money came from the late Daniel E. Offutt's charitable trust. Friends of Lachat led the project, and federal ARPA funds helped finish the fundraising. Inside are a gathering space with a stone fireplace, an art studio and classroom, a demonstration kitchen, a pantry and public restrooms.
The farm states plainly what the kitchen is meant for. It was designed for classes and the farm's fundraising dinners, and it is not rented out for private catering. That makes it a public kitchen run by a nonprofit, the closest thing Weston has had to a shared dining room since July 2025. Two more November events build on it.
The Kneads Thanksgiving Sale. Lachat is partnering with Kneads Bakery, a small family-run bakery, café and flour mill in Westport and a farmers market favorite. Kneads grinds 100% whole grain organic flour on a New American Stone Mill from ingredients bought from local farmers. The Thanksgiving sale includes pies, cakes, breads, breakfast pastries and side dishes, and Kneads gives part of the proceeds to the farm. Orders close Saturday, November 21, at 10 a.m. Pickup at Lachat is Wednesday, November 25, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Thanksgiving Community Feast. On Thanksgiving Day, November 26, from noon to 3 p.m., Lachat holds a family-style dinner in the Offutt Center by the fire. The farm provides turkey, sides and dessert, and asks guests to bring apple cider or a bottle of wine to share. AMG Catering is preparing the meal, with partial sponsorship from the Family of Brian Gordon and the Howard & Katherine Aibel Foundation. The table seats 75. Registration is $25 per person, children under 12 are free, and the deadline is Friday, November 20, online or at 203-984-8403. The feast is meant for individuals and families who would otherwise spend the holiday alone, so groups are limited to four. If cost or transportation is a problem, the farm suggests contacting Weston Social Services.
So within two weeks, the farm's calendar brings in a Westport bakery, previews a Weston café and seats 75 people for Thanksgiving. A restaurant in the town center would usually be the place for all three.
The rest of the November calendar
Here are the dated events from now through Thanksgiving, in order:
- Sunday, November 8, 4 p.m.: Sunday Soundscapes at Weston Public Library. Pianist Anthony Ratinov opens the 2026–27 series, presented by the Friends of the Weston Public Library. Ratinov graduated from Yale and Juilliard and has won awards at competitions including the National U.S. Chopin Competition. As Weston Today reported, the concert is also the first performance on the library's new Estonia grand piano. Admission is free. Suggested donations are $20 for adults and $10 for students, and with limited seating, reservations are a good idea.
- Saturday, November 14, 7 p.m.: Fall Harvest Dinner with Hemma at Lachat Town Farm. $90 per person, communal seating.
- Friday, November 20: Registration deadline for the Thanksgiving Community Feast.
- Saturday, November 21, 10 a.m.: Ordering closes for the Kneads Thanksgiving Sale.
- Monday, November 23, 7 to 9 p.m.: Wreath Decorating Party at Norfield Grange, 12 Goodhill Road, as listed on the Town of Weston calendar.
- Wednesday, November 25, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Kneads pickup at Lachat.
- Thursday, November 26, noon to 3 p.m.: Thanksgiving Community Feast at the Offutt Center.
The first event of the season could hardly be more on theme. The library's grand piano is brand new, and it debuts in a free concert run by a volunteer Friends group. That is the same arrangement as the Offutt Center, which a private trust and a Friends group paid for and which now hosts the town's Thanksgiving table.
At Boost Real Estate Group, we keep a close eye on what changes in Weston Center and how it shapes daily life in town, from a 48-year-old lunch counter closing to a café planned for 2027. If you have questions about Weston, or about how changes like these show up in the town you call home, Let's Connect.
