Helms Bakery is now open in Culver City

I've driven past the Helms Bakery complex in Culver City hundreds of times. The sign bearing the official bread of the 1932 Olympics still towers high above the building. But for the first time since the bakery closed in 1969, loaves of bread are rising again at Helms.

Sang Yoon, the chef behind Father's Office, opened a revamped version of the bakery in the Helms complex, directly across from his gastropub and on the way to his now-closed modern Southeast Asian restaurant Lukshon, which ranked No. 3 on the 101 Best Restaurants list in the Times' LA in 2016. The bakery project, which Yoon said he has been dreaming about for over a decade, finally came to fruition on Friday morning.

“Intellectually, the development took 12 years,” says Yoon as he walks through the bakery. “The construction took about two years. It's kind of cool that there's a Helms Bakery now. For another generation.”

If you're in a certain age group, you may remember seeing the vans driving around Los Angeles. Although Yoon has no plans to open a wholesale store or bring back the yellow-and-blue trucks, he did build a 13,200-square-foot space that includes separate areas for a coffee bar, a kitchen, a downstairs bakery, an upstairs dough room and a Large central market area with cold and hot prepared food and a first class selection of snacks.

Every few minutes, the entire room turns its attention to a flipboard on the back wall. It comes to life and then shows the daily specials, fun facts about Helms and what's coming up next at the bakery.

Attached to the market is Dinette, a restaurant and bar that Yoon plans to open next year. But there is a lot to be happy about now. Here is a very specific overview of 13 of my favorites:

1. The bread and everything that goes with it

Baker Jacob Fraijo, who previously worked for Bouchon and Robuchon restaurants and chef Dominque Crenn, makes 10 to 12 types of bread daily, including loaves of pain de mie, country bread baked as a Pullman loaf, soft pretzels and baguettes.

“I really like the pain de mie loaf bread we make,” says Fraijo. “I feel like people don't associate these breads with high quality or artisanal focus, but they actually are. “We approach it with the same intensity and concentration as we approach our croissants.”

“It has to do with the history of Helms, the idea of ​​making very high quality soft bread,” Yoon adds. “I love the idea of ​​having a loaf of bread at home.”

Below the bread selection of the day is an area of ​​the store that Yoon calls “Things that Go with Bread,” where you’ll find everything you need to put together a cheese and charcuterie board. There is also an area where there are tubs of garlic butter. The butter is almost black and full of roasted garlic bits and something that tastes like sweet black garlic. It's just the thing to spread on Fraijo's toma cheese-filled demi baguette.

2. Deli sandwiches made from bread baked 20 steps away

The prepared food section is filled with cold sandwiches, wraps and kimbap. Chef Nanor Harboyan, who used to cook at Destroyer, loves that the bread for the sandwiches is made just a few feet away in the large open bakery at the back of the building. Throughout the day, guests can stop by to see what's coming out of the oven.

The egg salad is served with pain de mie. Turkey goes on the sliced ​​country bread. I like the shaved mortadella on a halved baguette with lots of crushed pistachios.

3. Breakfast

In the morning hours, the Hot Bar is stocked with breakfast burritos, sandwiches and plates. If you have time to linger, grab the plate and eat it on the sunny front terrace. The biscuit is warm and flaky, the scrambled eggs are fluffy, and there's a cup of syrup for dipping into the sausage and bacon.

4. Donuts

It's impossible to know what donuts will be available when you visit. All areas of the bakery will evolve throughout the day. What's available in the morning may not be there in the afternoon, and many of the items are seasonal. But if you see a passion fruit cruller in the dough box, grab it. As far as Crullers go, it's a picture-perfect donut, with a crispy twisted crust and a soft and chewy center. It's covered in a sweet passion fruit glaze and topped with toasted shredded coconut.

5. Carrot salad

Is it strange to recommend a carrot salad? Maybe, but it's my favorite salad in the cooler, which is full of big white bowls full of corn and poblano lettuce, gochujang cauliflower, and potatoes with dill. Harboyan wanted to incorporate dishes inspired by her Middle Eastern heritage, and the carrot salad is one of them. She mixes carrot strips in a tahini dressing with crunchy cashews and sesame seeds and daikon squares.

6. The whole cake and pie

When Harboyan joined the team six months ago, the first thing she worked on was the cake. To create the special, straight, deep cherry cake Yoon had in mind, Harboyan worked with Lloyd Pans in Washington state to create a custom cake pan. The pan is made of aluminum with a special non-stick coating and conducts heat so that the baker gets a perfect golden crust. The shape of the can also allows for plenty of filling. Each of the slices is full of sweet cherries.

Corn Honey Cake is similar to your favorite cornbread, dense, gritty and full of corn flavor, drenched in honey. It could be breakfast. It could be dessert.

Sheet cakes are cut into neat triangles that you can eat in the car (à la car cake). The yuzu ginger slice layers a fluffy, pure white cake with tangy lemon curd and candy ginger.

7. This melts

I'm not sure if you can accurately classify the pastrami sandwich as processed cheese, but it's close. Harboyan and Yoon created a Korean-Russian dressing that offers a spicy mustard kick; It's spread on chopped pastrami, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese. The sandwich is heated on the flat surface until the bread is shiny and toasted.

The Patty Melt is a real melt with a fluffy patty made from ground beef and chopped onions, American cheese and extra dill pickles. It's on par with the burger Yoon makes across the street in his dad's office.

8. Chicken wings

The Hot Bar offers a selection of vegetable sides and Costco-style whole fried chicken in paper bags, fried chicken, meatloaf and salmon fillets. The chicken wings might be the best of all, with crispy skin covered in a sweet and tangy brown sugar glaze.

9. Hot dogs, so to speak

Fraijo's Viennoiserie includes all types of laminated dough, with a variety of croissants and hand pies. His greatest achievement may be the hot dog, a thick sausage encased in flaky croissant dough and covered in bagel seasoning. It breaks apart like a good croissant. It's better than a pretzel dog. It's better than a hot dog. It's better than you imagine.

10. Dole whip

There are certain food rules that I believe every Angeleno should follow. One of those is eating Dole Whip, the whipped pineapple soft serve that was invented at Disney World in the mid-1980s. For years it couldn't be found outside the gates of Disneyland. Although it's now available in a few locations outside of theme parks, it's still a rare sight.

Yoon serves Dole Whip in the coffee bar.

11. Economical ice cream

Pints ​​of Thrifty ice cream are available in the frozen section of the market. There are a variety of flavors available, including the hands-down best flavor: Chocolate Malted Krunch.

12. Pet toys

The market has an impressive selection of plush toys filled with baguettes, fries, and hot dogs for your pets to gnaw on to their heart's content. If you need a bag of duck heart treats you can find those too.

13. Food candles

I don't know that I've seen a better selection of candles that look like food at any other supermarket in town. Blush-colored heirloom tomatoes, pebble-skinned avocados, jars of bear honey, garlic bulbs, artichokes, corn on the cob, precisely sized raspberries, and pasta shapes are all recreated in wax but look like the real thing.

Although the number of items in the bakery and market is already close to 1,000, Yoon is just getting started. And I didn't even mention the Sprite Tic Tacs and the peach-flavored Oreos.

He plans to eventually introduce a Helms Heritage line with items recreated from the original bakery.

“It won't be a continuation of what they had, but I hope that the people who had it remember the joy they had and not necessarily the product,” he says. “Even though it is a very different experience, I hope the kids walk in here and have just as great an experience that they will remember for the rest of their lives.”