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Inside the New Helms Bakery in Culver City, Chef Sang Yoon’s Daytime Magnum Opus

Named after the historic LA brand, Helms Bakery has finally opened after first being announced in 2012

by Matthew Kang
Photography by Wonho Frank Lee

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Matthew Kang is the Lead Editor of Eater LA. He has covered dining, restaurants, food culture, and nightlife in Los Angeles since 2008. He's the host of K-Town, a YouTube series covering Korean food in America, and has been featured in Netflix's Street Food show.

Helms Bakery, one of the most anticipated bakery cafes in Los Angeles history, has opened. First announced in 2012, the Sang Yoon operation opened to the public in the Culver City Helms Bakery complex on November 1, 2024. Though restaurant construction delays are nothing new in Los Angeles (and its sub-cities like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Culver City), a process mired in red tape, permitting, and regulatory issues, a 12-year delay might be a record in Southern California. History is no stranger to Helms Bakery, once a mighty wholesale baking operation that spanned tens of thousands of square feet in two production facilities from 1931, the year it opened, to 1969, when the inexorable pull of supermarkets finally led the bakery to closure.

Helms Bakery, a direct-to-consumer distributor that delivered from iconic yellow-and-blue trucks all across the region, served American-style bread, doughnuts, cakes, pies, and cookies, dishes that will continue to be served at the new Sang Yoon version. However, while the names and branding are similar, Yoon, a fine dining chef, was always going to put his more detail-oriented approach to the bakery-cafe model. Previously the executive chef of Michael’s, Yoon made a name selling craft beer and burgers at Father’s Office, eventually landing a top spot on the Los Angeles Times 101 with his Southeast Asian restaurant Lukshon (which has remained dormant since the pandemic).

Part of the reason for the decade-plus of delays was the initial partnership with former Spago chef Sherry Yard. Yard was no longer involved with the project by the time heavy construction began around the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which created further delays and added substantial costs. By early 2024, most of the major construction was completed, but the 14,000-square-foot bakery still needed to staff up, train, and break in the brand-new ovens. Most of the dough is made on a second-floor mezzanine with windows that look out onto the main floor. The cooking spaces are all somewhat exposed so that visitors can see the action. The exposure creates a compelling environment in which everything is made by hand. Prolific design firm Studio UNLTD created a cohesive look meant to blend the history of the building with natural light.

The center of the space showcases various nostalgic and small-batch products, knick-knacks, and souvenirs, as well as specialty foods meant to be taken out. To the left of the entrance, a large refrigerated case has hundreds of bottles and cans of soft drinks (with beer and wine to come). Ice cream pints from Thrifty to McConnell’s to Craig’s Vegan contain a range of pre-packed flavors. Just beyond the refrigerators, heated shelves offer breakfast sandwiches and burritos.

To the right of the room sits a coffee bar with house-roasted beans, croissants, muffins, and other pastries. To the far left, there is a savory station with pre-made salads like Whole Foods or Erewhon, offering almost two dozen ready-to-take dishes. Lunch service starts at 11 a.m., with things like meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables, rotisserie chicken, fried chicken, pastrami sandwiches, and more available to order. At the other corner, diners can find a wide selection of pies by the slice, cakes, cookies, sourdough country loaves, baguettes, cheese, charcuterie, and rolls. There are too many things to try on one visit, let alone a week. Yoon and the team’s engines will churn new items every day throughout service, so that diners may never get bored. That team, led by executive chef Nanor Harboyan and head baker Jacob Fraijo, is one of the best Yoon says he’s assembled.

Eventually, when things settle down at the bakery, Yoon will open a standalone restaurant called Dinette in the adjacent space with a full bar and a mid-century-inspired menu. Expect classic American dinners like steak Diane served with one’s choice of side dishes. Yoon says he was inspired by luxury cruise liners and first-class airplane seating where finished dishes are served tableside from carts.

For now, Angelenos can descend into Helms Bakery for all manner of baked sweets and savories, as well as premade and prepared-to-order dishes, and caffeinated, bottled, and canned drinks. It’s all ready to enjoy out in the world or on the patio under the radiant Southern California sun. The decade might not be the 1930s or the 1960s or the 2010s, but Helms Bakery is finally, actually, open.

Helms Bakery is open at 3220 Helms Avenue, Culver City, 90034, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday. Service will eventually be extended to 8 p.m. daily.

Wide view of a room with shopping counters and shelves in the center and customers queueing up to a cafe counter behind them.
The bustling scene inside Helms Bakery.
View of a tri-level standing wooden shelf stocked with curated food products with customers milling behind it.
The bakery offers both a restaurant and shoppy-shop experience.
A black message board affixed to a wall that reads “HELMS BAKERY REIMAGINED BY @CHEFSANGYOON 2024” hangs above a group of customers shopping for food items.
A black message board will eventually let customers know what new pastries are available throughout the day.
Customers in the foreground of a gold-trimmed, mid-century-style cafe counter.
The cafe counter at the reimagined Helms Bakery.
Close-up of a small black message board positioned on a shelf that reads “DOUGH NUT FORGET TO GRAB A DOZEN.”
Halloween decor featured for the bakery’s late October opening.
View of a glass pastry case holding croissants, doughnuts, sugary twists, fruit loaves, and other pastries.
The pastry case at Helms Bakery.
View of a glass case holding lines of different crinkly, freshly baked cookies, including chocolate chip.
The cookie lineup.
Bird’s-eye-view of cafe team members working behind the counter to organize pastries and other items.
Staff at the recently reopened Helms Bakery.
Rows of refrigerated grab-and-go desserts, including flan and jasmine rice pudding, at a bakery.
Grab-and-go desserts.
Cream-colored facade of a large building with tall glass entry doors, one partially open with customers walking inside.
Outside of Helms Bakery.
Portrait view of the exterior of a bakery and cafe with the sign “Helms Bakery” hanging on the side.
The new bakery has retained much of its original character.
A worker in a T-shirt and light-colored pants preps a drink behind a marble counter.
Behind the coffee counter at Helms Bakery.
Three woman workers decorate pastries on a wooden slab counter in a cafe food prep area.
How the pastry magic happens at Helms.
Two woman workers decorate cakes on a wooden slab counter in a cafe food prep area.
Cakes are made fresh daily.
An autumnal cake with maple frosting and orange and yellow edible flowers sits on a white cardboard circle ready to be transferred for slicing.
An autumnal cake.
A woman worker slices fruit pies to place on a pastry stand.
The pie game.
Bread in the oven at Helms Bakery.
Ready for the oven.
Bread in the oven at Helms Bakery on a wooden plank.
Bread coming hot out of the oven.
Bread in the oven at Helms Bakery.
Bread in the oven.
Freshly baked bread at Helms Bakery.
Freshly baked bread.
A woman frosting a chocolate cake at Helms Bakery.
New pastries come out of the oven throughout the day.
Fruit tarts for sale at Helms Bakery set on a wooden board.
Fruit tarts.
Individual slices of pies for sale at Helms Bakery.
Chocolate cream pies.
Individual slices of cake for sale at Helms Bakery.
Cakes.
A cook mixing a huge metal bowl of lentil salad at Helms Bakery.
Quinoa salad.
Cross section of a cherry pie with a red filling at Helms Bakery.
Cherry pie.
Sang Yoon holding a cake stand with slices of pies on top at Helms Bakery.
Sang Yoon.
Rotisserie chickens prepared in a special spinning oven at Helms Bakery.
Rotisserie chickens.
A cook wearing black plastic gloves assembling sandwiches with tomatoes and lettuce at Helms Bakery.
Sandwich artist.
A pair of hands holding a pastrami sandwich with red meat and coleslaw at Helms Bakery.
Pastrami sandwich.
Portrait of Sang Yoon (center) wearing a blue t-shirt with a man wearing a brown apron and a woman wearing a blue apron.
Head baker Jacob Fraijo, chef Sang Yoon, and executive chef Nanor Harboyan.
Gimbap in plastic containers stacked in the refrigerators at Helms Bakery.
Gimbap.
A black menu with white letters showing the hot foods available at Helms Bakery.
Hot foods menu.
Freezer and refrigerated foods section at Helms Bakery.
Freezer and refrigerated section.
A circular table with wax-based goods like candles, as well as chocolate at Helms Bakery.
Home goods.
The new logo for Helms Bakery outside its entrance.
Signage outside Helms Bakery complex reading “Helms Olympic Bread.”

Helms Bakery

3220 Helms Avenue, Culver City, CA 90034 Visit Website
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