Sometime in November, fake snow shows up on the trees at Riva. The tiki bar and the weekend DJ stage give way to a fireplace. The place that the Hartford Courant described in September as the center of the Beach Street revival becomes the Lodge at Riva, and it stops daily service until April.
This winter, most of the other quiet buildings along Beach Street and Rock Street are projects in progress. A café is going up on an old tackle-shop lot. A cleared motel site is waiting on a condo approval. A former city conference center is being turned into a rooftop restaurant. And the building that held a 100-year-old restaurant has just been listed for sale. Walk the waterfront between now and spring and you're looking at what it will be in 2027.
The two lights that stay on
Two shoreline food spots are worth knowing about before the cold sets in.
Lodge at Riva. According to Riva's Lodge page, the space is available for private events from November through March, with packages you can customize. Co-owner Michael Del Vecchio told the Courant that Riva closes for daily business until April but still holds special events. If you're picturing a holiday party with a fireplace and a view of the Sound, this is the season for it. Just plan on booking an event, since you can't walk in for a lobster quesadilla.
Stowe's Seafood. Stowe's own site says it's open year-round, right across from the West Haven beaches. CTvisit lists it at 347 Beach St., open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week, with no separate winter schedule. Call ahead on a stormy day, but it's the steady stop on a January walk.
Riva's big summer draws close with the season too. Sandy Point Creamery, which the Courant called Connecticut's only ice cream shop with rooftop seating over Long Island Sound, sits at 183 Beach St. and switched to daily hours from noon to 10 p.m. on May 1 this year. Riva's walk-up counter, Chick's, named for the founder of the old Chick's Drive-In, falls under the same November-to-April break.
Beach Street, one site at a time
Past the lit windows, the street reads like a list of works in progress. Here's what each site is turning into, based on the most recent reporting.
- Riva and The Tides. After Beach Street was raised, Del Vecchio and his partners started with 12 luxury townhomes called The Tides, then built Riva next door. Both are finished. They're the part of the stretch that shows where the rest is heading.
- The old bait-and-tackle lot, 267 Beach St. A December 2025 Connecticut Scoop report described plans here for a community café with rooftop dining. By September 2026, the Courant reported the project had been delayed but was under construction as a high-end coffee shop with rooftop seating. No name or opening date has been announced.
- The former Debonair Motel site. The motel has been torn down and the lot cleared. The September Courant story said about 20 luxury condos with a pool would go up here if the project is approved. In January, NBC Connecticut described 30 luxury apartments. So the plan is still being worked out, and it still needs approval.
- Stowe's Seafood, 347 Beach St. The year-round regular, already covered above, holding steady while the lots around it change.
City Council member Meli Garthwait, who lives nearby, told the Courant she's been waiting on the coffee shop: "I'm going to be one of the first over there to get my coffee."
Why all of this landed in the same few blocks
The projects aren't scattered across the city's waterfront. They're bunched along a stretch of road that was rebuilt for a specific reason. The Courant's September story describes Beach Street before the change as a stretch of rundown buildings that flooded regularly, where locals said it was nearly impossible to live comfortably or run a business.
About six years ago, the road was raised to stop the flooding. Mayor Dorinda Borer secured the funding while she was a state representative, after naming it the city's number one priority in 2019. "It's night and day on our shoreline," she told the Courant. "It's a trickle up effect."
The order of events matches that. The road went up first. Then came The Tides, then Riva, then the demolitions at the Debonair and the tackle shop. Del Vecchio's version: once the road was raised, "People started believing in West Haven." Garthwait pointed to everyday changes too, telling the Courant the rebuilt road brought less noise from speeding drivers, safer crosswalks and no more floods.
The nearby softball fields belong to the same story. Borer told the Courant they were rebuilt through a deal with The Grind Baseball & Softball Training Facility in Orange. The Grind redid the fields in exchange for using them around West Haven's own schedule. Del Vecchio said the fields are now good enough that traveling teams play there, and that Riva sees "tons" of families coming over from the games.
Rock Street is where the next chapter gets decided
Beach Street's changes are already underway. The bigger open question this winter is on Rock Street, where two neighboring waterfront buildings are headed in different directions.
The first is the former Savin Rock Community Center. Under a city lease, it's being turned into The Kelsey, a high-end steak and seafood restaurant with rooftop dining that will also host weddings and other events. The Kelsey's website puts the opening in early 2027, and the Courant's October report also says 2027. Borer told the Courant in September that from the roof, "It's a million dollar view."
Right next door is Jimmies of Savin Rock at 5 Rock St. Five generations of one family ran it for a century, and it closed on December 7, 2025, when the owners retired. In early October, the Courant reported the property was listed for sale. City records show a 5-acre site assessed at $2,003,050, with a 12,923-square-foot building. No asking price was published.
The mayor connected the two sites directly in her comments to the Courant:
"We were recently made aware that Jimmie's has gone to market and while it's still premature to speculate about the property's future, this is a welcome step as we are seeing a revival and new chapter along our coastline and would rather not see a closed restaurant sitting next door to 'The Kelsey' which is starting shape up as one of the hottest developments on the Connecticut coastline."
Nobody has said what comes next at 5 Rock St. What is known is that the site already has waterfront, parking and a long history with diners. The Courant also noted that tens of thousands of people walk, run and skate past it on the city's shoreline path. Whatever goes there will sit beside one of the busiest stretches of the walk.
What the winter walk looks like, and what to expect by spring
- November through March: Lodge at Riva hosts private events by the fireplace. Stowe's keeps its year-round counter open at 347 Beach St.
- Still to come: The rooftop coffee shop at 267 Beach St., under construction as of September. Watch for a name and an opening date.
- Pending: The condo plan for the old Debonair Motel site still needs approval.
- April: Riva plans to reopen for daily business after the Lodge season ends.
- 2027: The Kelsey is expected to open on Rock Street next to the Jimmies site, which is now for sale.
If you own a home near Beach Street or Savin Rock and you're wondering how this wave of new projects might affect your plans, iVision Real Estate is happy to talk it through with you, whether that means selling in the spring, refinancing or just keeping an eye on the waterfront. Get Your Free Consultation.
