Chef Jeff Taibe Moves Taproot from Bethel to South Norwalk

Hay smoked Hamachi, strawberry basil ponzu, aji amarillo, shiso. Welcome to Norwalk, Taproot.

South Norwalk, not counting its mainstay restaurants, tends to be a revolving door. One business goes out, some months pass, and another concept magically appears in its place.

For Bruxelles Brasserie, known for its French – Belgian fare, this all happened a bit differently.

Wait. Did I say Bruxelles? I surely meant Taproot. Or maybe I meant both…

Let me explain.

Jeff Taibe and Steph Sweeny kept a lot of the charm of Bruxelles, and what was there before it, Barcelona. Wait until you hear what’s in store for the other room…not counting Taibe growing his own herbs and even yuzu back there.

Turn back the clock to early November of 2022, when Roland Olah, the then chef and partner at Bruxelles announced on social media that by mid-month, he would be leaving the restaurant he helped create.

Not long after Olah’s departure, the Bruxelles folks brought in a heavy hitter chef in Jeffrey Taibe for a consultation gig to ensure that Bruxelles would continue on in SoNo.

For Taibe and his Bethel originated Taproot—a popular, acclaimed restaurant that sees local farm fresh ingredients intertwined with Southeast Asian flavors and cooking techniques—this short term revamp that he was hired for at Bruxelles ended up being serendipitous.

“Bruxelles was looking for a consultant for three months after Roland’s departure,” Taibe explains. “They wanted me to stay on and run Bruxelles as a partner, but I said, ‘Hey, that’s not me. I don’t want to run someone else’s brand.’ I was happy to set them up with a new menu, but I’m not a French chef and I don’t pretend to be. My contract was at its end and the partners came to me and Steph asking if we’d stay on. I said, ‘If you want me that bad, just make Bruxelles into Taproot.’ I threw it out there thinking it was never gonna happen. They called the next day and asked me if I was serious. I had looked at other spaces in Norwalk previously, but this time it made sense. This space fits my personality. It’s down and dirty, perfectly imperfect, so much character with the old stuff. Before this, we agreed to do a café in Bethel, a daytime thing that didn’t work out. We ran it as Bruxelles at the same time we were trying to transform it into Taproot.”

Around the same time as Taibe’s consultancy at Bruxelles kicked off, his lease was up in Bethel after six years, and he decided to shut down his food truck, On The Fly, that was frequently parked at Nod Hill Brewery in Ridgefield. He also mentioned that putting the food truck down was a personal choice, as he made brewery friendly pub food, that was fun, but ultimately wasn’t his style.

And so, a new chapter for Taibe, his wife Steph Sweeny, and Taproot was born in South Norwalk in mid-April despite the move being a bit bittersweet.

Pork collar skewer, burnt herb sambal, fish sauce caramel onions

One of the snacks is a shallow bowl of house marinated olives

“I love Bethel,” Taibe says. “It was a great town to start out in. I live a half mile from the original Taproot, so it was great to get to be home more with my kids. When I opened it, there was nowhere for people to go. It was the kind of place where if you worked all day and just got off, and didn’t want to spend a shitload of money, you could go to Taproot for a beer and a burger. And if you wanted to come in for an anniversary, you could still get a killer meal. That’s what Taproot was always meant to be.”

But what Taproot SoNo is, according to Taibe, is “the Asian and all of that jammed up together.”

Left: Tequila Highball (blanco, guava, mint, agave) and on the right, “Billy’s Milk Punch Chuhai” with shōchū, midori, sakura sencha, and lactose. Expect plenty of Japanese and overall, Asian flavor infusions to show up in Taproot’s cocktail program.

Spread it, dunk it, just get it. Taproot’s fans will recognize this cheesy, porky, sweet spreadable pimento cheese app.

What that means for those unfamiliar is some of the O.G. Taproot fare, the burger, the habit-forming pimento cheese with Benton’s ham jam served with Wave Hill sourdough, and Taibe brought back a customer favorite in the lamb patty melt.

And while that’s a little southern mixed with American or New American, Taibe isn’t shying away from the Asian flair he has become known for over the years, and a style he flexed often at Bethel’s Taproot with Japanese izakaya style pub grub, skewers, vibrantly creative raw fish dishes, and plenty of Southeast Asian influences appear smattered about the menu.

Lamb saddle, green curry, asparagus, peas, hakurei turnips, Thai basil

Scallops, capellini and fava beans, dill oil, squid garum

“My brother (Bill Taibe) always said I should stay Southeast Asian since no one is really doing it,” Taibe says. “So what style is it? I fucking hate the term farm-to-table.”

I interrupt: “Isn’t it whatever you want it to be?”

“Yeah. That’s exactly what it is. I started doing tasting dinners at the end of my time in Bethel where I just did whatever 12 things I wanted to cook that day, by myself. I could do that here if this was a 30-seat restaurant like it was there because I know I’m getting those 30 people every night I’m open. We went back to some of the original Taproot menu, added a wing of the month that’s Vietnamese style now, next month, I don’t know, maybe it’ll be fermented buffalo sauce. I have to be able to attract everyone. The pimento, the lamb patty melt is incredible, but I can still do the skewers, fun, funky things that people who want my food will come to eat, but I can still fill the bar if you wanna eat a burger and wings. That’s always been my style.”

An old fashioned riff, the “Nobushiki” consists of Japanese whiskey, kokuto black sugar, tamari, and bitters.

The intro wing of the month showcased Vietnamese culture. Sweet, sour, crispy, habit-forming.

That intro SoNo menu—burgers, skewers, and spreadable cheese aside—is exactly that blend of Taibe’s style. Plenty of carnage, plenty of seafood, 14 gluten-free options (and six more factoring in sides), and as always, he pays attention to local, seasonal vegetables, so some vegetarian and a few vegan offerings are common.

A few “starters” that are as tasty as they are beautiful involve quite a bit of chef mad scientist work.

Perfect mid rare lamb patty melt with gouda and sweet + sour onions on butter toasted rye

Salmon laab (or larb) is Taibe’s take on this classic Laos dish that usually consists of meat or fish with fresh herbs, ground toasted rice, fish sauce, lime juice, and chilis.

The salmon laab (or larb)—Taibe’s take on the national dish of Laos—uses salmon from Ideal Fish with lime-chili dressing, plus mint, cilantro, raw shallots, and ground rice that Taibe cooks low and slow for two hours with lime leaves, lemongrass, and galanga before he grinds it on the dish for texture. The bigger crunchy element are fried summer roll wrappers seasoned with a “black seasoning” that’s actually the dust from 30-day dehydrated limes that develop a citric acid type flavor. Use the large crisp as a chip, a vehicle, or however you see fit.

Another—and we expect these to change, by the way, so don’t hold us or Taibe to these dishes for life—is a hay smoked Hamachi that you’d swear come out of a multi-Michelin star kitchen. “We marinate it with tamari, sake, mirin, then cold smoke the fish on hay,” Taibe reveals. “We make a strawberry boshi ponzu. Umeboshi is a pickled plum. To make a strawberry boshi, we let them sit in salt for six months, so it leeches all its liquid. To make the ponzu, we use strawberry vinegar instead of rice wine and a little tamari (a sauce made from fermented soybeans) because vinegar is so salty. We make the ponzu out of that, yuzu, lime juice, kombu, bonito, olive oil, and shiso to finish.”

Taibe’s twist that pays homage to Bruxelles? A miso - red wine bordelaise.

This could go on for a while, but it’s best to let you explore the rest for yourself—like definitely the lamb saddle with Malaysian green curry. Or the two entrees (steak frites and duck breast à l'orange, each with a Taibe Asian twist), that pay tribute to Bruxelles, the place that Taproot took over.

Alright, seriously this time. We’re done here and the final reveal comes in the form of some Taproot alter ego type stuff. Taibe said that once brunch is settled, he plans to introduce happy hour with various skewers and tiki drinks and on Friday and Saturday a reverse happy hour from 10 – midnight.

“In the summer, maybe we can start doing Sunday night popups like our Bushido (read about what that is HERE), and Southeast Asian nights with James (Lucchesi) making tiki drinks, and some beer and wine dinners,” he says. “Live music. Comedy. This is a cool spot where we can have fun and do a thousand different things.”

63 N Main Street; Norwalk
203.857.1494; taprootct.com