On Whalley Avenue in Westville, there is a café with a striped awning, potted evergreens out front and a line that, on weekend mornings, can stretch down the sidewalk. Bella’s Cafe says people “swarm” in on Saturdays and Sundays for its Italian-style French toast and its shrimp and grits.
Bella’s, at 896 Whalley Ave., has been feeding Westville since 2000. It is still run by the woman who opened it, owner and chef Rose Foote, who grew up in her family’s diners and named the restaurant after a nickname she was given as a kid.
Here is the story of Bella’s, the family behind it, and what to order when you go.
Three generations of diners
Foote comes from three generations of cooks. She “grew up in diners owned by her parents and grandparents,” WFSB reported when its “Something’s Cooking” crew visited in 2023.
Bella’s own website keeps a small family album. One photo shows her grandmother and family, “Pauline, Marie, Pat, Nick, Nick Jr., and Mikey,” behind the counter at Paula’s Diner in Bridgeport.
Another shows her father, Richie, who the café says was “famous for his old-fashioned donuts.”
A third is a classic menu from Marie’s, her parents’ restaurant, with Foote’s mother pictured on the left.
A business biography of the café says Foote started training at age 9 in her parents’ restaurant, Marie’s Luncheonette, opened her own catering company, Rose’s Distinctive Catering, in 1995, and later traveled to Italy with the Culinary Institute of America on a culinary tour of Tuscany.
Why it’s called Bella’s
Foote opened Bella’s in June 2000. She told WFSB the name comes from her own nickname, Bella, the Italian word for beautiful, which local bakers gave her when she was a child.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 17, so I’ve been cooking for 45 years,” she told the station. “I just think it’s a gift. I just love doing it, I do. I love pleasing people.”
Her approach is simple. “I serve people what I like to eat,” she said. “I make it the way I like it. And if it’s not just right, as you can ask my staff, I’ll make it over again.”
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A Westville room with a Southern streak
Bella’s describes itself as “a stylish and cozy cafe set in the heart of New Haven’s Westville community.” It serves breakfast and lunch on weekdays and brunch on weekends, and it also caters.
Inside, the room is warm wood, framed mirrors and wall clocks, with a big painted rooster standing watch near the counter. It is a neighborhood place about three miles from Yale’s campus, which one food blogger who reviewed it called “a distinctly locals-only sort of place.”
The menu leans Italian and Southern. “We lend ourselves towards a little more Southern, because I find Southern cuisine more homey and comforting,” Foote told WFSB. Her shrimp and grits pairs chorizo pork sausage and wild-caught Gulf jumbo shrimp in a creamy sauce over buttered grits, served with scrambled eggs and a homemade buttermilk biscuit, for $17, according to the menu.
The two-egg breakfast is made with eggs from a local farm, and the omelets run from the Palermo (spicy Italian sausage, peppers, onions, asiago and arrabbiata sauce, $14) to the Bayou (andouille, grilled shrimp, oven-dried tomato and cheddar, $17). There is a Bella’s Benedict, smoked ham steak on an English muffin with poached eggs and hollandaise, and a house-made corned beef hash.
What the regulars say
Lisa Harris told WFSB in 2023 that she was one of Bella’s first customers, 23 years earlier. She still comes for the biscuits and the conversation. “I always go for her biscuits because nobody can make biscuits like Rose,” she said. “She’s always so sweet to me, and she’s such a wonderful cook.”
Food bloggers have noticed the same thing. The blog Food Finds wrote in 2019 that Bella’s opens at 8 a.m. on weekends “and within an hour there is a line down the sidewalk to be seated.” The blog Endo Edibles, writing about a Saturday visit, said that within about 30 minutes of opening, larger parties were already being told there would be a wait, and that a solo diner could get a seat at the bar quickly.
WFSB summed it up in one line, calling Bella’s French toast “one of New Haven’s greatest works of art.”
What to order
Italian-style French toast. The café itself says its Italian-style French toast, made with Italian bread, is one of the reasons “people swarm to Bella’s on Saturday and Sunday mornings.” The menu also lists challah and Oregon cinnamon raisin versions, and you can add fresh seasonal fruit for $3.
A buttermilk biscuit. Order one on the side for $4, or get it with the shrimp and grits. Ask Lisa Harris.
Something from the fall brunch menu. The all-day brunch menu changes with the seasons. Right now it lists a German chocolate pancake (dark chocolate buttermilk pancake with coconut-pecan frosting and bourbon maple syrup) for $16; Baked Harvest French Toast, house-made pumpkin cake soaked in pumpkin custard; Apple Fritter French Toast with roasted apples, brie and vanilla bean crème anglaise; and Bella’s Bourbon Griddle, mini buttermilk pancakes layered with breakfast sausage, eggs, cheddar and bourbon maple syrup.
A brunch cocktail. Bella’s has promoted seasonal martinis and sangrias with weekend brunch, alongside cappuccinos, lattes and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Ask what is on this season.
If you go
Bella’s Cafe is at 896 Whalley Ave. in Westville. Its website lists hours of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, and it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Weekend mornings are the busiest time, so come early. Menus and updates are at bellascafect.com.
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