323 Main Beefs Up Dining On Westport's Main Street

WESTPORT, Conn. – Cozy up next to a wall-mounted gas fireplace, enjoy a specialty cocktail at the bar — carved from African Moabi wood — or enjoy an aged prime steak in the rustic dining room at 323 Main, one of the newest additions to the Westport dining scene.

The bar at 323 Main in Westport was carved from African Moabi wood.
Photo Credit: *Vanessa Inzitari*

Exposed wood beams decorate the dining room at 323 Main, a new restaurant in Westport.
Photo Credit: *Vanessa Inzitari*

The bar area at 323 Main in Westport boasts a wall-mounted gas fireplace.
Photo Credit: *Vanessa Inzitari*

The dining room at 323 Main in Westport includes a mix of booth and table seats.
Photo Credit: *Vanessa Inzitari*

One of the corner booths in the bar area at 323 Main.
Photo Credit: *Vanessa Inzitari*

Booth seating lines a wall in the dining room at 323 Main.
Photo Credit: *Vanessa Inzitari*

323 Main, a new restaurant in Westport, is located at 323 Main St.
Photo Credit: *Vanessa Inzitari*

by Vanessa Inzitari

03/26/2013 2:00 a.m.

Located at 323 Main St., the former longtime home of Bogey's Grille & Tap Room, the restaurant specializes in aged prime cuts of beef. But the modern American menu offers something for everyone, Chef Peter Crawford said, including seafood, pork, pasta and vegetarian dishes.

“We were looking for hearty American food people can sink their teeth into and crave,” Crawford said. “Some of the stuff is out of the box, like the seared octopus, so we’re trying to expose people to new things. But everything we’ve got, we’ve got because we think it’s delicious.”

Crawford, who worked in Manhattan for many years and also as a chef on private yachts, said there are two different menus: the dinner menu and the bar menu.

The dinner menu — which includes raw bar options, soups and salads, appetizers, entrees, pastas and grains, aged prime beef and desserts — is focused on traditional, larger portions, Crawford said.

Menu items range from New York strip steak and filet mignon, to roasted salmon, chicken under-a-brick, sesame crusted tuna, duck confit risotto and eggplant parmesan.

Outside of the beef, Crawford says chicken under-a-brick — a boneless half-chicken stuffed with lemon and thyme and served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and gravy — will be a crowd favorite. Seared sea scallops, carbonara pasta and the pork porterhouse, which is served with grits, cheddar cheese, shrimp, capers and onion rings, are a few other dishes Crawford believes will be hits.

The bar menu, Crawford said, is more eclectic.

“The bar menu is meant to be more accessible, whimsical and fun,” Crawford said. “It’s focused on global street foods like Peking duck bao, which is a Chinese-type of sandwich, tacos and things like that.”

As a family-friendly restaurant, 323 Main also offers a children’s menu, manager Jay Stasko said. The restaurant, which opened March 12, is open for dinner and Sunday brunch, Stasko said. It will soon be open for lunch as well.

323 Main is open seven days a week. To see a full menu, visit the restaurant website. To make reservations, call 203-222-0323.

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