RSVP Reopens in West Cornwall Under Chef Bolivar Hilario

Hilario and his team will be cooking literally right in front of you in this open kitchen in RSVP’s tiny, intimate dining room.

For many chefs, there’s a moment where they face a fork in the road on their culinary journey.

For Bolivar Hilario, who gained lots of notoriety as the executive chef of Community Table the past three years, he was due to choose a path.

Coming off of two Connecticut Restaurant & Hospitality Association CRAZIES wins for Best Restaurant in Litchfield County and for overall Connecticut Restaurant of the Year while he led Community Table’s kitchen, plus a nomination for Chef of the Year, Hilario, in the back of his mind knew he had to do something for himself, something he could put his stamp on.

Later, Hilario saw his name listed as a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast.

After all of that validation, it was his time. But he wasn’t sure what to do next.

Does he stay at Community Table? Does he decide to go elsewhere? Or is it time to enter into the realm of being a chef-owner?

It ended up being the latter, once Hilario heard whispers that the legendary, intimate confines of West Cornwall’s RSVP was for sale.

But leaving Community Table wasn’t easy.

Intricate plating is something Hilario has become known for over the years, like with these tomatoes from Earth’s Palate Farm.

Said tomatoes, steeped in tosazu—a seasoned Japanese rice vinegar infused with katsuobushi (smoked bonito flakes, kombu dashi, soy sauce, and mirin)—laid on buttermilk and basil oil, topped with blackberries and fried shallots.

“It was a full circle moment for me, being a cook there years ago, then me being the chef there,” Hilario says. “Before I became the chef there, I was on and off in the city, but I wanted to put Community Table back to where I remember it—farm-to-table and those prior Beard nominations. My first year as the chef there, I figured out what I could do and what we could do as a team. I signed on for three years and thought we’d renegotiate after that.”

Having fulfilled what he set out to do for that restaurant, Hilario’s next steps were uncertain.

Pressing handmade blue corn for…

This blue corn infladita—a puffed up fried tortilla and popular Mexican street food with origins in Veracruz—that’s stuffed with spicy avocado, and topped with tuna that’s glazed with egg yolk and soy sauce.

“It’s a puff like pommes soufflés, a French technique and where my Mexican heritage meets my Japanese training,” Hilario explains. “The tuna meat is from near the spine, so it’s a little bloody. Usually, lean fish gets a soy sauce marinade, but my take is soy and egg yolk for depth and it gives it that glow. Everything is a specific choice for balance since the avocado filling is acidic and salty.”

“I thought maybe they’d (Community Table) would invest in me and let me do my thing in the other building we have in the parking lot since they’re renovating it,” he continues. “Once we won the CRAZIES, I proposed an idea for the new space, like a supper club with members who would get priority seating and I’d run both that and Community Table’s kitchen.”

Simultaneously, while trying to renegotiate, Hilario said that dining at RSVP in the past had sparked an idea of operating a small, intimate spot, something he could control, a place where he could create and experiment.

“I heard from someone that RSVP’s owners, Charles Cilona and Guy Birster, were looking to move on and retire, but I figured someone was probably more interested that I was because I wasn’t sure I could even afford it,” Hilario says. “I thought the price was steep, plus work needed to be done. I had to think about it a lot. My fiancé, Briana, and I are getting married on September 26, so it’d be crazy to do this now, so we paused talks. With the renegotiation with Community Table, I guess someone caught wind of everything, even though I was planning on being upfront and honest about it. It just didn’t match up. I still felt like I did what I promised and I thought we did a great job and the cooks in the kitchen understood the vision.”

There’s a saying, when one chapter closes, another opens, and that’s exactly what happened for Hilario.

“I told Briana that I was thinking about making an offer on RSVP and that if she believes in me, that I would go for it and she said that it’s now or never and that I have momentum,” he says. “I had to dig deep and face my fears. If it doesn’t work out, I guess I’ll be walking dogs with Briana!”

Hilario’s interpretation of a Japanese chawanmushi (aka, steamed egg custard) with wild foraged black trumpet mushrooms and potatoes.

“You’re meant to throw that fried dough inside and eat it while it’s really hot,” Hilario says. “I do it a little differently. Think of it like an egg white omelet with mushrooms and potatoes.”

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A post shared by Bolivar Hilario (@bol1var_)

On April 3, 2026, Hilario announced on social media that he’d be taking over RSVP.

Now it was time to get to work doing all the necessary deep cleaning, minor renovations, and interior design. When you walk into Hilario’s RSVP, expect the same floor from before, only cleaner, and a terracotta, minimalist look that’s enhanced with chef’s own collection of dishware, vintage cocktail glasses, antiques, and knickknacks that’s he’s collected throughout the years. “I want it to feel like you came to a dinner party,” he says about the aesthetic.

As for what dinner guests can anticipate food wise, it certainly won’t be anything like the original RSVP, but to honor Charles and Guy, Hilario obviously kept the name, and he’s keeping it a tasting menu, and the BYOB option.

Chef’s take on an aguachile on the intro menu featured black bass, cucumber aguachile, ground cherries, shallots, serrano chiles, and wood sorrel picked right outside the restaurant.

But the style of cuisine?

With past stints at Chumley’s, the one Michelin starred The Musket Room, Shoji, Ore Hill and Swyft, and South End in New Canaan, where he says he learned a lot, especially to keep working, constantly change, and to never feel comfortable, Hilario will lean on that fine dining background and combine it with his Mexican heritage, French and Japanese flavors and techniques, and use the area’s bounty with local, seasonal ingredients.

“If the produce is great, it tells you what you need to do with it, same with fish,” he says. “I’m tasting the food that everyone eats here. We need to stay healthy as much as we can. I want to serve food that I’m happy to consume.”

Hilario’s also intends on educating those who choose to dine at RSVP about what they’re eating and where it comes from.

Wild king salmon, summer squash, and lemongrass beurre blanc

“I want to build community here and the big one is with farmers,” he says. “Farmers are facing an uphill battle against big corporations who don’t put much integrity into their work. You can’t compare cheap food to organically grown food. I think people are starting to catch onto that—that whole lettuce thing happened and people were coming out saying they buy from farmers, so it’s not an issue for them. I wanna not just feed you, I wanna be able to teach you a little bit about the food and about what you’re eating. It’s a good challenge for chefs to work with the seasons and work with farmers. Farming is a science, and so is cooking, so I’m hoping to teach people about that—different part of produce and what I do to it on my end, how it’s manipulated, preserved, or fermented. Food shouldn’t be complicated.”

What’s specifically on the menu at RSVP would be tough to nail down for you right now since Hilario said that the menu “will change almost weekly,” keeping that part of what made RSVP fun, the mystery of not knowing what would be served on a given night.

Getting one of the 16 seats (that’s increase to a few more when he adds the patio tables) still has a similar feel, too, but instead of calling, just fill out the reservation form online, and they’ll contact you.

What you’re in store for from Tuesday through Saturday is roughly eight courses ($180 per person), two of which are small plates, four mains, a palate cleanser, and a dessert.

“Desserts will be more savory, because to me, salt is everything,” Hilario says on what you might encounter at the end of your meal.

Pictured is a tamalito, a small meatless tamale, with caramel, salted plums, plums steeped in their own liquid with hibiscus, and buttermilk ice cream.

On Tuesdays, however, Hilario wants RSVP to be an industry friendly night with an abbreviated, half price tasting with a more laid-back menu.

“Right now, it’s summer, so it’s seafood heavy and produce heavy, so for BYOB it might lend more to whites or rosés, but if you wanna bring your heavy red, I’m not gonna tell you not to do it,” he says.

In late August, Hilario held some soft openings for friends and family, and the neighbors in town so they could get a sneak peek, and a “thank you,” ahead of its public debut on September 1.

“I want it to be communal,” he says. “The staff is me, maybe a dishwasher when I can afford it, probably one server, but right now, cooking, washing dishes, and serving your food and interacting with you, is me, Hannah Curran, and Michelle Gaibor. I had a lot of help. My fiancé told me it’s a good thing, because if people are helping you, just to help you, that’s telling of you and your work.”

7 Railroad Street, West Cornwall
rsvpdining.com
Instagram @rsvp_restaurant