Popular Waterfront Westport Restaurant Adds Patio For Summer Dining

A popular Fairfield County waterfront Italian restaurant has added a new patio with a full-service bar just in time for summer dining.

Arezzo Ristorante & Bar in Westport, located along the Saugatuck River, unveiled its new patio bar this week, complete with a full-service bar.

The restaurant, known for its authentic Italian food and drinks, and expansive wine list, said the new patio offers picturesque views of the Post Road Bridge leading into downtown Westport.

The new outdoor bar.

In addition to the patio, the restaurant's main dining room, seating 65, was also refreshed this year and includes a new wood-burning oven. The dining room is framed in rustic wood beams and stone archways, Tuscan orange stucco walls, and brand-new furniture. Eclectic artwork from the Westport River Gallery next door graces the walls.

Owned by Chef Vinicio Llanos, along with his family members Sergio and Patricia, purchased the restaurant in 2014 and reimagined the menu, adopting a more rustic approach to its Italian/Mediterranean influences.

Llanos' culinary vision was to harness the intense heat and smokiness the wood-burning oven could impart on dishes, utilizing the oven for more than the restaurant’s popular Neapolitan-style pizza.

Menu highlights include appetizers such as warm Buffalo mozzarella over braised artichokes with roasted Roma tomatoes and prosciutto di Parma, and grilled octopus with marble potatoes, red onions, capers, green beans, fresh lemon, and extra virgin olive oil.

Some favorite dinner entrees include homemade pasta with pesto and shrimp and pappardelle with braised lamb shank ragout and the wood oven-roasted whole Mediterranean sea bass with sautéed spinach and roasted potatoes.

The restaurant is located at 5 Riverside Ave., Westport. Call  203-557-9375