Last Monday at 3 PM, the phone number (310-736-2224) for the new Father's Office in the Helms Bakery (3229 Helms Ave.) was connected to a fax machine. A call to the bar/restaurant rewarded you with a screech that left you rubbing your ear in pain. A call to the incredibly Byzantine Father's Office business number was good for 20 minutes in an endless loop – until one connection suggested that chef/owner Sang Yoon might be accessed if a certain number was pressed.
A voice answered. I asked if it was chef Yoon. The voice said, "Yeah, what do you want?" I asked if the new Father's Office was opening that night. The answer was, "No." I asked if it was opening the next day. The answer was, "No." I asked if there was an opening date. The voice said, "Don't know when. Too busy now.” CLICK.
Three hours later, at a few minutes after 6 PM, the new Culver City location opened its doors.
And the Helms Bakery Father's Office has been opening around 5 PM every day since. By 4:30 PM, there's a fair-sized line. By 6 PM, the line is worthy of the crowd waiting for a cab at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas – it stretches down the alley.
Father's Office is a phenom that defies conventional wisdom. It's a bar with a spectacular list of oddball beers on tap. Which is nice – I like oddball beers on tap. But we've got lots of places in town with long lists of oddball beers on tap – the list at the many branches of the Yard House is far longer, and possibly far odder.
But then, there's no branch of the Yard House on the westside of LA. And for the Quicksilver and Diesel crowd, this is the place to go to quench a thirst. And to order a burger which is generally, though not universally, thought to be the best in town. It's not the only dish on the menu at Father's Office. Actually, there's an extensive menu of tapas – Spanish chorizo, sobrasada sausage, jamon Serrano, mushrooms with garlic, cured white anchovies, piquillo peppers, olives, cheese, almonds, a beet and cabrales cheese salad, lamb skewers with Japanese eggplant, even steak frites. But what everyone knows is the Office Burger, which our surveyors says is “pure bliss on a bun”. It's a thick critter that arrives gushing juices and topped with caramelized onions, applewood bacon, gruyere, Maytag blue and arugula. It's served without ketchup. Asking for ketchup at Father's Office is a sin not much different from requesting a spicy tuna roll at Sushi Nozawa; it earns you instant and overwhelming contempt.
Where the original Father's Office on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica was (and is) a hole-in-the-wall, this sibling is spacious, decorated and offers a long outdoor patio that's clearly the place to sit. Indeed, about the only way to get a table there is to show up when the doors open; there may be some groups who linger there from early evening till last call (which is 1 AM on weekdays, 2 AM on Fridays and Saturdays, midnight on Sundays). The wait for a table at Father's Office seems permanent, though I haven't shown up at midnight to see what it's like. If there's still a line then, Sang Yoon will have created an LA miracle – a late-night restaurant that's actually busy late at night.
– Merrill Shindler