We’ll say one thing about restaurant delays: They certainly give the kitchen more time to plan and perfect their menus. Father’s Office founder and ketchup provocateur Sang Yoon’s been waiting years to open his latest corner of the Helms Bakery District, a 30-or-so seat restaurant and bakery to supplement his Culver City gastropub, and Lukshon, his modern Southeast Asian concept. The ownership of his latest, called Helms, has shuffled and changed hands multiple times, but it finally looks as though Helms is tracking to open, and we can expect it later this year in the repurposed factory complex.
The years of setbacks have given Yoon and his Helms team—spearheaded by chef Anthony Greco and pastry chef Megan Potthoff—a chance to play with the concept, and launching this Sunday, you can taste the fruits of their labor and get a taste of the Helms restaurant to come. Every Sunday, from May 12 until Helms’s opening, stop by the Culver City outpost of Father’s Office for a limited menu of brunch specials, including savories, pastries and cocktails.
The preview menu is subject to change, but should offer a glimpse of what will most likely be the most casual and cheery Yoon concept yet: an even split between bakery—a nod to its digs in the former Helms factory, which supplied baked goods to Southern California from the ’30s through the ’60s—and the restaurant, at least for now conceptually focused on breakfast and lunch.
Sunday’s opening menu includes globe-trotting dishes such as the Sergio Schwartz, a Mexican-Jewish culinary mashup that tops house-made masa jalapeño bagels with mezcal-cured salmon, pickled onion, radish, micro greens and a cream-cheese–adjacent cotija spread; the Japanese savory oatmeal, sprinkled with nori, mushroom, green onion and a coddled egg; and the That’s So L.A., a vegan dish of whipped coconut yogurt dotted with ancient-grain granola and fresh berries.
There’s a very popcorn-chicken take on chicken and waffles, not to mention a breakfast sandwich that smooshes serrano ham, egg custard, arugula, harissa aioli and house-made gruyere-meets-American cheese between a rye English muffin. And because Helms will be part bakery, after all, you’ll find sweets like banana coffee bundt cake with chicory crumble, or the sizable cinnamon roll with cinnamon toffee sauce.
Wash it all down with kimchi bloody Marias, cold-brew negronis, and a blackberry, malbec and sour-ale sangria on the Father’s Office patio, where you can keep an eye on the forthcoming Helms space as you dine. And should you crave any of the Father’s Office non-brunch regular items, you can order those, too—just remember, no ketchup on that burger.
Take a peek below at a few of the Helms items to come, then stop by on Sunday for a taste.
Father’s Office Culver City is located at 3229 Helms Ave in the Helms Bakery District, in the same complex as Helms restaurant.