East Rock Market Opens in New Haven With 5 Exciting Food Concepts

Sometimes where you live is just where you sleep. Maybe the area has a bit of feel, or maybe some real estate conglomerate slapped it together like processed-cheese-food, named it The Crossing At The Shops At The Superfund Site, and well, at least the commute is short and everyone can understand the urge to show I-95 your personal taillights.

In Connecticut’s old – let's be kind and call them historic – cities, there are still to be found that most nostalgic living situation: The Actual Neighborhood. New Haven’s East Rock is one of the latter, and lately, what’s old is new again.

East Rock Market opened this November in a space which rubs shoulders with East Rock Brewing Company, and close enough to the in-building gym to borrow a neighborly cup of protein powder. By Thanksgiving of 2021, the Market’s large, bright space housed five concepts: RAW Bowls & Juice, Panciale pasta and pizza, Nicoll Street Gelato, Rick’s Bar, and Rockfish sushi. Developer Rishi Narang has named the former WWI-era Marlin Arms factory East Rock Center, and market, brewery, and gym are all contained within the massive footprint in a sort of indulgence/repentance love triangle.

Future plans for the space involve ramen, an Italian deli/charcuterie (The Grazing Goat, after the neighborhood’s other nickname, Goatville) from the owners of Branford’s G Café Bakery, and possibly a taqueria.

“We’re open from breakfast through dinner here, and we felt with this town, all the food available, we really had to offer top-end everything,” said Narang. “We also wanted a lower price option so people could come in and eat lunch for seven or eight bucks. This needs to be for everyone.”

At the center of the market, in a literal sense, is Rockfish, by award-winning sushi chef Jason Tay, formerly of the Ninth Square’s Miso Restaurant. A destination within a destination, this is where I began my culinary tour.

Vanes of blonde wood stretch vertically overhead as I join Rishi and a few other diners at an immaculate white bar, chef Tay already joking and clearly enjoying himself as he prepares “a few things,” he says.

The first is a magnificent bento box in slate blue, designed specifically for Rockfish’s delivery and to-go orders. The box, about the size of a laptop, held six pieces of nigiri, as many delicate steaks of Bluefin sashimi, 4 (x2) cut norimaki rolls, a box full of edamame, and servings of soy, ponzu, wasabe, and ginger. A guide (they call it the “Fish Finder”) is printed underneath the lid to help identify each artful bite. The boxes can land in your hands at home, the office, or the Market from anywhere between $30 to $55, depending on what you choose.

At the bar, bluefin sashimi is delivered in a small bowl, resting in ponzu sauce and sprinkled with sharp little rounds of scallions. Acid and herbs highlight but don’t overpower the maguro, as they shouldn’t, with what is possibly nature’s perfect protein.

Chef Tay’s preparations are notable for his skill with both rice and knife, but I was particularly impressed with the subtlety with which he imparts barely a touch of his personal soy sauce blend on baby Albacore nigiri, with a similarly light hint of wasabi underneath. A pinch of sesame seeds dust and crunch atop seasonal Faroe Island salmon. Sea urchins from Monterrey Bay are globally renowned, but out of season in mid-November. Chef Tay chooses sweet, deliciously creamy Maine uni this time of year, and shows a generous hand with the orange sea-butter. 

“That comes out of my paycheck,” he laughs. 

I stand up and walk with Rishi, who tells me Rick’s Bar in the Market is named his father, who worked in wire and cable business and bought the factory in 1991. 

“He left such a mark here, I wanted to make sure we acknowledged that.” 

He introduces me to Stanton Lesser who, with his partner, Marty Levine (Martell’s, Fairfield), opened Panciale Pasta in the Market.

“Marty’s concept was an all chef-driven place with made-in-house pasta, but served quickly, and at a lower price point,” said Lesser. “He was looking for a home for the concept, Rishi was best man at my son’s wedding, things just came together.” 

Chef Carlos Rojas is on hand daily to oversee a surprisingly abundant menu. Chef Rojas has spent time in dozens of kitchens, Gramercy Tavern and L’Artusi in New York among them.

Full dinners are available at Panciale, starting with antipasti like arugula salad, eggplant ricotta, or the chef’s roasted cauliflower, which is my suggestion to you. The cruciform veg is topped with a multi-herb salmorejo blend and crunchy breadcrumbs before being plated with pesto aioli and Purple Haze chevre, and the combination - plus lemon juice - absolutely zings. I personally like cauliflower, but it’s not always easy to make interesting without heavy handed saucing which quickly loses its novelty. The blend of flavors and textures here was compelling enough I had to remind myself not to fill up: pizza was coming.                                 

The Zucca al Taleggio pizza arrives steaming from the oven with squares of butternut squash, sage, sausage spread throughout in the correct crumbles, and lumps of while taleggio cheese crisped to the appearance of perfectly roasted marshmallows against a field of red sauce.  

Opening a new pizza spot in New Haven is... fraught, especially one close enough to Modern that people eat their apizza as take-out at the brewery next door. From my first bite at Panciale, I knew it didn’t matter: this creative combination worked at every level.  The sweet squash was balanced by the spicy sweet umami of the sausage and tomato, bumped up by the herbal sage, and further complimented by the cream and hint of smoke in the cheese.                        

Everything from squid ink spaghetti with rock shrimp and hot peppers, to Verde pizza with pesto and broccolini are available, as well as Italian sodas, and a tiny menu for kids.

The earliest spot to open at the Market every day is RAW Bowls & Juice, an all-natural smoothie, bowl, and juice company which began when founder Amy Allen came to Connecticut from Jupiter, Florida and noticed we weren’t a very juice-centric culture. 

“The business all started from just juice, renting space from la Cucina in Branford, and I started moving on to other healthy options,” she said, while making a few options to show us. “I moved to making these bowls, and they started selling like crazy at grocery stores and delis.” She says customers from the gym two doors down come in regularly before and after workouts for plant-powered fuel.

Stopping just short of growing it themselves, RAW makes a great deal of everything they sell. The juice, the salad dressings, hummus and tabouleh (from which Allen draws on her own Armenian heritage), just about the only exception I saw were bagels from New Haven’s Olmo. These, listed as “toast” on the menu, were abundantly topped, more traditionally (sourdough bagel, lox, avocado, cucumber, red onion, capers, and crème fraiche), and as blackberry brie, with sourdough bagel, avocado, brie, whole blackberries, dill, lemon zest, and honey. Both were outstanding.

Juice stand-outs for me were the Pineapple Express (pineapple, apple, cucumber, lime, mint), the Spicy Lemonade (lemon, apple, ginger, cayenne), and the Immunity shot, a timely 2oz. Serving of lemon, honey, ginger, and black pepper.

Salads with names like Superfood, Santa Fe, Newport, Palm Beach, and East Rock (mixed greens, plant-based tuna salad, bell peppers, cucumbers, craisins, sunflower seeds, and green goddess dressing) make an expansive menu, but the real stars for me were the bowls.

“We started with one juice and one bowl, and now we have eight bowls and nine juices, everything is 90% plant-based,” said Amy.

If you try just one, my grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-straight-into-your-eyes suggestion is the “Oh So Good.” The banana/almond milk/date/protein base is cooled and thickened, then topped with granola, strawberries and blueberries, then drizzled with almond butter honey. I ate the entire bowl and felt like a missile afterward. I recommend the experience.

Where you sleep is important, but where you live is, too. 

East Rock Market, open Wed. – Sun., 11:30am – 9pm, 10pm Fri. - Sat.

285 Nicoll St., New Haven

203 823 9148; eastrockmarket.com