An upscale Greek restaurant chain with roots on Long Island and outposts in Manhattan and West Palm Beach is finally headed to downtown Greenwich, with a 2027 opening now in sight after a yearslong legal fight over parking and seating limits. Kyma will occupy 8-10 Lewis St. and part of 6 Liberty Way, taking over the footprint of a former New York Sports Club and the spot once home to Sophia's Costume Rentals.
The Greenwich Planning and Zoning Commission first approved Kyma's proposed restaurant, market and bakery back in 2022, but the project then stalled amid a legal dispute, according to CT Insider, which cited Tracy Kulikowski in its reporting. Property owner MH Cohen Realty LLC and CT River LLC, which does business as Kyma Greenwich, filed suit challenging the commission's decision over parking issues and restaurant seat limits. A separate challenge to the zoning board's decision came from 55 Lewis St. Associates LLC.
All parties eventually negotiated an agreement outside of court in 2025, and the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Department signed off on revised plans for the restaurant in late September. Those revised plans set a tighter, day-specific seating structure than what the commission originally approved.
New Seating Caps Replace the Original 247-Seat Plan
Under the newly approved terms, Kyma can seat up to 225 diners for dinner Thursday through Sunday, and up to 200 for dinner on Monday and Tuesday. Lunch service is capped at 100 seats Monday through Friday and 150 seats on Saturday and Sunday. Special events are limited to 75 attendees and cannot begin before 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays during the town's annual Sidewalk Sales Days, which are typically held Thursday through Sunday around the second week of July.
Those limits mark a notable scale-back from the commission's original 2022 approval, which envisioned a nearly 300-capacity concept with 247 restaurant seats, 12 bakery seats, 12 market seats and outdoor dining, according to Greenwich Free Press. Downtown business owners had warned at the time that a venue of that size would crowd public parking lots in the central commercial district. Per the same outlet, Kyma has not submitted plans for the Greenwich bakery and food market that were part of the original approval, according to Kulikowski.
Why the Parking Fight Dragged On for Years
The dispute traces back to parking issues raised by Kyma's proposed restaurant, market and bakery in Greenwich's central business district.
A parking equivalency study submitted during town reviews found that without the historical exemption, Kyma's proposed restaurant, market and bakery layout would have legally required 169 off-street parking spaces under standard town zoning codes, versus the 130 spaces required under the property's former retail and health club uses, the outlet's reporting shows. The former New York Sports Club was to be replaced with retail and dining space.
A 40-Year Local Shop Made Way for the Redevelopment
The redevelopment also displaced a longtime neighborhood fixture. Sophia's Costumes & Gifts, a shop that had been in central Greenwich for 40 years, was forced to vacate 1 Liberty Way in 2021 to clear the site and relocated to Cos Cob in spring 2022.
The project's roots go back further still. Property owner MH Cohen Realty LLC and prospective tenant Kyma Greenwich first submitted their building conversion proposal as a pre-application to town planners in February 2021, meaning the site will have taken roughly six years to move from initial application to its planned 2027 opening.
A Brand Built on Suburban and Resort Expansion
Kyma is a Greek restaurant brand with locations on Long Island, in Manhattan and in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Christou has kept building out the brand even as the Greenwich project inched through the approval process. In May, he opened Selene by Kyma, a 10,000-square-foot Greek restaurant in Manhattan's Soho district featuring multi-floor dining and a courtyard atrium, per Newsday. Kyma's expansion into Greenwich and West Palm Beach fits a broader post-pandemic pattern of high-end New York City dining brands moving into wealthy suburban towns and South Florida relocation markets, as the Commercial Observer has noted.
No menu has been posted yet for the Greenwich location, and Kyma's website currently describes the brand overall as a “contemporary Greek dining destination” with a menu and atmosphere grounded in Greek traditions while embracing lively social energy. With the legal fight settled and revised seating terms locked in, the next milestone for downtown Greenwich diners is the restaurant's actual doors opening in 2027.
