Yoichi LOOP

Yoichi, a coastal town on Hokkaido's Sea of Japan coast, has developed its own distinctive wine culture thanks to cool summers and volcanic ash-rich soil. Facing the rotary in front of Yoichi Station, Yoichi LOOP is a small hotel and restaurant built on a single idea: that wine and cuisine born of the same land should be enjoyed side by side, dish by dish. The dining room is quiet, left largely in its raw state of wood, iron, and concrete. Soft light unique to Yoichi filters in through large windows, and because dinner runs on a single, simultaneous start, the entire room settles into one unhurried flow of time — quiet enough that even the small sound of wine being poured into a glass can be heard. At the helm of the kitchen is Sekiya Narita, who honed his craft in the kitchens of Niseko, Tokyo, and Sapporo before becoming head chef of Yoichi LOOP in 2025. He builds each menu almost entirely around what comes from the Yoichi valley that week — seafood caught nearby, vegetables picked that morning, and herbs gathered from a garden just a short walk away. Wine selection is handled by sommelier Takashi Kuratomi, who returned to Japan after eleven years in France and has overseen Yoichi LOOP's wine program since 2020. Rather than following a fixed list, he chooses a single glass to accompany each individual dish. One course might begin with a citrus-scented seafood dish, move through a vegetable course accented with smoke and sauce, and continue on to a dish built around poultry or game raised inland. Rather than competing for theatrical grandeur, each plate is quietly paired with a glass centered on Yoichi wine. By the time dessert is served, time has slowed even further. Guests linger over their glasses, in no hurry to leave their seats. What Yoichi LOOP hopes to offer is simply an evening in which food, wine, and space feel — if only briefly — like one and the same thing, here in the land of Yoichi.