Eli’s Launches New Eatery In Hamden

HAMDEN, CT — The Eli’s Restaurant Group is celebrating the official launch of its latest eatery — Roost — with a grand celebration party next month. The event will take place on Jan. 17 at Roost, located at 2308 Whitney Avenue in Hamden. In honor of National Break Your Resolutions Day, Roost will be offering free small milkshakes on that day (limit one per customer until 4 p.m.).

Roost, which had a soft opening in August, is on a mission to “build a better chicken sandwich” but is not just a “chicken place,” according to its owners. Roost is the latest brainchild of the Eli's Restaurant Group, which also owns and operates the original Eli’s On Whitney in Hamden, Eli’s Brick Oven Pizza and Market, Eli’s Branford, CT Eli’s Tavern in Milford, and Eli’s Orange.

“All of us grew up in Hamden and we wanted to bring something new to the community that brought us up,” Roost co-founder Ellis Reilly said. “So we decided to create an everyday kind of restaurant where high quality and low price meets quick and delicious. And we're not just a chicken place - we designed bowls, snacks, shakes, beer, and wine, so that we could provide something for everyone: a gathering place where everyone could come to roost."

As part of its mission to build a better chicken sandwich, Roost’s chicken is cooked “sous vide, which is a French term which translates to under vacuum – describing part of the cooking process,” according to a press release. “The chicken comes in fresh and is then vacuum sealed and cooked in a water bath. The bath keeps the chicken cooking at a precise temperature so that we consistently produce a perfectly tender and juicy piece of chicken. From there the chicken is breaded in our gluten free Roost chicken rub and fried in soy bean oil yielding us a beautifully crafted, monumentally delicious fried chicken sandwich.”

Roost locally sources its ingredients and another local partnership is reflected in the beer menu, featuring a rotating seasonal selection from favorites such as Two Roads Brewing, according to the release.

For more information, visit the Roost website here and on Facebook here.

Photos courtesy of Allegra Anderson / via Roost

To sign up for Hamden breaking news alerts and more, click here.