Looped In

Looped In

By day, The Loop by Hachiroku is a small Japanese grocer, lunch counter and coffee bar offering fresh produce, seafood and meats; imported packaged goods from snacks and candy to condiments and frozen foods; prepared foods such as sushi, bento bowls and mochi; made-to-order ramens including a vegan-friendly option; and a simple list of freshly made coffees. But by night (Thursday through Sunday, anyway, from 5 to 10), a passive daytime seating area changes into a full-service wine bar and restaurant with an array of shareable plates.

If “Hachiroku” sounds familiar to you, that’s because this is the third Elm City restaurant to bear that name. The first, Hachiroku Shokudo & Sake Bar, opened on Orange Street in 2022, followed in 2023 by Hachiroku Handroll Sushi Bar on State Street. Both have generated enthusiastic followings among New Haven foodies.

So it was with high hopes that my girlfriend Jay Jay and I met our friends Hirsh and Anjali for dinner and drinks at The Loop, hoping the Hachiroku magic had carried over to the budding empire’s newest outpost.

I like a wine bar to feel cozy and convivial, so, on a cold night with a biting wind, The Loop’s design worked against it. Dominated by cement and corrugated metal, the space has a strong industrial feeling to it, with a wall of large garage doors and weathered stripes of yellow floor paint enhancing that dynamic. When the weather warms up and those doors can be opened, I’m sure the open-air feeling will be welcome, just as some leafy and wooden elements already are. But in the winter, the ambiance of the room was too cold for me.

Eager to warm up, my table ordered drinks from an extensive and unusual wine list spanning more than 60 bottles—85 total if you count the 21 premium sakes—and nearly 20 options by the glass. (The menu also includes half a dozen Japanese whiskeys and as many beers from the Kent Falls Brewing Company.) Of the wines, the ’23 Dr. Burklin-Wolf ‘Blanc’ ($13), a German white, was the biggest hit for its citrus flavor and bold acidity. With help from the bartender, Hirsh selected a sake: Jikon from Japan’s Mie Prefecture. The bartender heated it up for him, explaining that it sweetens as it warms. Hirsh thought it was nicely balanced between sweet and dry, savoring it throughout the meal.

Speaking of which, because The Loop hasn’t posted it online—and neither have any Yelp or Google reviewers—its dinner menu was a mystery to us before we arrived. We soon discovered that it’s implicitly divided into small, medium and large plates, and we opted to concentrate on the small and medium selections, leaving the large options—a striploin steak, an uni carbonara, a lamb chop confit—for another time.

The first item to arrive was the Yuzu Edamame ($7), which started us off nicely. The yuzu juice added a sweet and tangy flavor to complement the heat brought by the rayu, a pungent Japanese chili oil. The edamame was sauteed and served warm, though it could have been more aggressively charred for additional texture and flavor.

Next up were the Teriyaki Brussels ($12), whose sprouts came hidden under a thick comforter of sweet potato and renkon (a.k.a. lotus root) chips—so hidden, in fact, that we thought the “fried” Brussels sprouts were the chips. Only after we dug a bit did we discover the tender morsels we were looking for, sweetened with a combination of soy sauce, mirin and sake. Even so, I found myself concentrating more on the satisfying crunch of the chips.

The first medium dish then arrived: the 86 Liver Paté ($15), starring two generous scoops of chicken liver combined with onion, garlic, Japanese whisky, soy sauce and butter. (Fun fact: “Hachiroku” means “86,” a wry play on restaurant lingo for “out of stock.”) The simple presentation managed to be the most aesthetically pleasing of the night, served with G Cafe sourdough bread and three painter’s palette globs of condiments on a dark plate. Creamy and delicious, the paté spread smoothly onto the bread, though there wasn’t enough of the latter for our liking, so we had to order more ($1.50).

Next came a small plate of Lamb Gyoza ($11), six housemade dumplings with onion, shiso, garlic, ginger and cumin. These were melt-in-your mouth delicious, a perfect balance of crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, with the spices and herbs bringing out the flavor of the lamb without overpowering it. These were so good that we had to get a second helping.

We still had room for a medium plate of Chicken Nanban ($17): several pieces of fried chicken under a throw of egg salad topped in turn with a mound of fine raw onion. It turned out that none of us was really into egg salad and onion, at least not in this presentation. It was the soggy chicken, however, that proved to be the disappointment of the meal, though the flavoring (a combination of soy sauce and rice vinegar) did show umami-infused promise.

Our final dish, the Yaki Kinoko ($16), was a variety of exotic grilled mushrooms in a savory sauce made from garlic, soy, butter, sake and yuzu juice, creating a flavor so rich we had no reason to get dessert.

Hirsh and Anjali soon left to relieve their babysitter, so we said our goodbyes as Jay Jay and I adjourned to the bar for one more round of wine. The Loop’s industrial atmosphere had left me feeling cold, it’s true, but I knew it was far, far colder outside.

Written by Daniel Fleschner. Images 1 and 4-6 photographed by Daniel Fleschner. Images 2-3 photographed by Dan Mims.

More Stories