Norwalk's Two New Italian Restaurants Run on Different Clocks

The building at 2 Wilton Avenue went up in 1891 as an electric generating station that powered Norwalk's streetlights. Over the following 135 years it has been a paper factory, a Norwalk Hat Co. plant, and a series of restaurants. Since Tuesday, October 20, it has been Falco, where the menu is handmade pizza, fresh pasta and meatballs. The Hour reported both the opening and the building's history.

About eleven weeks earlier, on August 1, Bar TerraMare soft-opened at 122 Washington Street in South Norwalk. It has a crudo bar and what its chef calls Connecticut's first seafood salumeria. Both are Italian, both opened in the past few months, and both come from operators with restaurants already running nearby. They are set up for different parts of the week, though. If you're picking between them, start with the day and the hour.

The week, side by side

These are the hours each restaurant currently lists on OpenTable, for Bar TerraMare and for Falco.

Monday is out for both. On Sunday, only Falco is open. On weekdays, TerraMare has the 3 o'clock hour to itself, and its happy hour runs until 5:30, well after Falco opens its doors. So a Tuesday at 3:30 means Washington Street, and a Sunday at 6 means Wall Street.

Seating follows the same pattern. TerraMare takes walk-ins at its bar and seafood bar, and tables can be booked online. Falco's website says reservations are recommended. One restaurant is set up for dropping in. The other is set up for booking ahead.

Washington Street at 3 p.m.: a counter seat and cured fish

Chef Giuseppe Castellano already owns two restaurants in Ridgefield, Gallo Ristorante and Lantern Bar & Gastropub. TerraMare is his first in Norwalk. The name means "land and sea," and the menu draws on Italy's coastal regions. CT Insider quoted his announcement of the restaurant:

"South Norwalk has incredible energy and an appreciation for great food, so I wanted to create a restaurant unlike anything else in the area."

The part that's new to the area is the salumeria. CT Insider describes it as a kitchen that cures, ages and smokes seafood the way a deli handles salami. Here, house-cured seafood salumi sits next to traditional cured meats, artisan cheeses and a dedicated crudo bar, where raw fish is dressed with lemon and olive oil.

Prices on the restaurant's own menu cover a wide range:

• Parmesan chips, $8
• Tuna tartare, $20
• Seafood scialatielli, $26
• Lobster paccheri, $30
• Branzino, $35
• Seafood tower for two, $80

OpenTable puts TerraMare in its "$30 and under" tier. That fits the walk-in bar and the weekday happy hour. A crudo plate and a drink at the counter before 5:30 is a different evening from the $80 tower at a table you booked. Since the bar and seafood bar take walk-ins, the first kind of evening needs no planning.

Wall Street at 7 p.m.: a booked table in a building with a long history

Falco runs the other way. It's a sit-down room that people plan around, and it sits in a building Norwalk has eaten in for years. Here is the history The Hour pieced together from Preservation Connecticut and earlier reporting:

1. 1891: An electric generating station is built to power local streetlights.
2. Later: The building becomes a paper factory.
3. Mid-1920s: The Norwalk Hat Co. buys the property and expands it for hat manufacturing.
4. Later decades: Restaurants move in, including Ash Creek Saloon and The Lighthouse.
5. Until 2025: 1920 Bar & Bistro operates there, then closes.
6. October 20, 2026: Falco opens.

Falco belongs to restaurateur BJ Lawless and is the fourth Norwalk restaurant from The BJ Ryan's Group, according to Patch. The restaurant's own description places it "in the heart of Norwalk's Wall Street" and calls its approach "modern Italian fare, family-style dining." On OpenTable, the cross streets are Wilton Avenue and Cross Street.

Executive chef Jared Falco co-founded Rosina's Restaurant & Bar in Greenwich with Coby Blount in 2021. Before that, he worked at Fortina and was executive chef at Washington Prime, Amore and Speedy Romeo, The Hour reported, citing CTbites. The core of the menu is handmade pizzas, pastas and meatballs, plus dishes that change with the season and come from local farm partnerships. The drinks list covers craft cocktails, a full range of draft beers, and wine that runs from Italian classics to natural bottles.

The details that matter most for planning are on OpenTable. Falco has its own parking lot, a dining room, a bar, a private dining room and a patio, and its average spend sits in the $31 to $50 tier. When Falco opened, Lawless told Patch that tables would be reservation-only for about the first week so the kitchen could "control the pace." Walk-ins were still welcome at the bar for cocktails and pizza. That first week is over. The site now recommends reservations. Lawless also told Patch that bookings would open a month ahead.

Taken together, those details explain how Falco differs from TerraMare. A lot means you can drive in. A private room fits a group that needs its own space. Family-style plates, a Sunday dinner service and bookings a month out all point to a table chosen well ahead of time.

Matching the evening to the room

The two schedules make the choice fairly simple once you know when you're going:

• A weekday afternoon drink with something light. TerraMare, Tuesday through Friday, between 3 and 5:30, at the walk-in bar or seafood bar.
• Sunday dinner. Falco is the only one of the two open.
• Driving in with a group. Falco has its own lot and a private dining room.
• Something you won't find elsewhere in Norwalk. TerraMare's cured seafood and crudo bar.
• Pizza and pasta for a table that likes to share. Falco's family-style menu, booked ahead.
• Saturday. Both are open, TerraMare from 3 and Falco from 4.

Neither restaurant is open on Mondays, so a Monday plan has to go somewhere else.

Both openings showed up in CT Insider's monthly roundups of new Connecticut restaurants. TerraMare was in the September roundup, and the November roundup covered Falco's October 20 opening. Hours and menu prices can change as a new restaurant settles in, so check the restaurant's own page before a special night out.

Planning a night out on Washington Street or Wall Street, or getting to know Norwalk ahead of a move? Randy Musiker has spent more than 25 years in Fairfield County and is happy to share what she knows about the city's dining districts and the streets around them. Let's talk about your next move. Contact Randy Musiker for a consultation.