Connecticut’s First Georgian Restaurant, Cheese & Bread, Opens in Norwalk

As a Norwalk lifer, I’ve seen the restaurant scene grow (and take some dips) tenfold. But one fact I’ll always tell people who aren’t familiar with Norwalk or to those who are visiting, is that we have a lot of cultures represented in our restaurants.

One you haven’t seen in Connecticut as a whole is a Georgian restaurant. And that’s because there’s only one in the entire state—the next closest one that’s not in New York City is in Mount Kisco.

To the right of the bar, you’ll find a stage where live music will be a big part of the Cheese & Bread experience featuring some popular Georgian musicians.

New in Norwalk is Cheese & Bread—named after two staples in Georgian cuisine—and it’s here because of Andrea Archvadze and Akaki Andguladze.

“I came here 12 years ago as an asylum seeker and I started working in Brooklyn in a Georgian restaurant as a dishwasher,” Archvadze says. “I did that for three years, then I started helping the chef, then I became a chef after six years.”

Andrea’s Cheese & Bread location in Bay Ridge is a popular spot, especially for his fellow Georgians.

After paying his dues on the line, the couple opened two successful places of their own, Royal Garden Tbilisi in 2017 and Royal Palace Tbilisi in 2021 before selling both restaurants in 2023 to open the first Cheese & Bread location in December of that year in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood.

Helping them to expand and bring them to that corner space of Washington Street and South Main where Rattlesnake Bar and Grill, Local Kitchen & Beer Bar (and Nola Oyster Bar), and the short lived Ciao once stood, is a friendship with Alex Weiss of AMG Partners.

If you’re new to Georgian food, Archvadze will tell you that it’s popular in Eastern Europe (the country is also partially in Asia if you’re geographically impaired) and it’s slowly but surely catching on, especially in the New York Metropolitan area.

“Bread and wine are very important things to Georgians,” he says. “Georgia was the first country of wines, so we’ll certainly have super high-quality Georgian wines. On the Eastern side, we’re the number one gastro country. In the U.S., it is coming up. New York City only had three or four (Georgian restaurants), now it’s more like 30 to 40.”

Homemade Georgian bread, an assortment of cheeses, and spreads that include green beans and walnuts, beets, and leeks with walnuts, plus, walnut stuffed eggplant. Andrea says the cheeses range from mozzarella-like to dry, saltier ones. The salty, crumbly cheese is his personal favorite when paired with sweeter red wine.

If you’re looking for a signature dish, think plural, as in, there are several. Meat and fish kebabs, meat or soup filled dumplings called khinkali, veal stew, and different pkhali—different spreads with fresh baked bread and imported Georgian cheeses are some of what you can expect.

The most recognizable, however, even if you never knew what it was before, is the khachapuri—a leavened bread, baked in a brick oven, then filled with a mixture of cheeses, egg, and butter. This popular street food is served piping hot and the cheese-egg-butter center is to be immediately mixed, tossed, and pulled before you start ripping it apart and indulging.

Cheese & Bread has many different styles of khachapuri, according to Archvadze, including one that looks like a white, cheese only, Neapolitan pizza, as Georgian cuisine does have some Mediterranean roots.

“We took a lot of that,” he says. “Sometimes it’s a different bread and cheese. It’s all home cooked, homemade, family style, authentic Georgian food. Almost all of our ingredients are imported from Georgia.”

Already in effect at Cheese & Bread is live music, which is a non-food focal point for the restaurant. They’ve already had a grand opening performance by Georgian jazz diva, Maia Baratashvili, and pop star Nina Shermadini, who won X-Factor Greece.

By the time you read this, Cheese & Bread will have a cocktail program of classic drinks—some made with Georgian spirits. And by the end of summer, they’ll roll out breakfast service, too.

68 Washington Street, Norwalk
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203.883.8000