Sang Yoon, Father's Office
By Leslee Komaiko
For dineLA.com
Want your burger bunless? Ketchup with those fries? At Father’s Office in Santa Monica and Culver City, you’re outta luck. What’s up with that? We ask the man himself: chef-owner Sang Yoon.
How did a fancy chef end up with a beer joint, albeit a very good one? (Yoon’s previous gig was chef at Santa Monica’s Michael’s.)
I kind of became disenchanted with fine dining, and there didn’t seem to be a huge demand for it.
Disenchanted in what way?
I’ve always said I appreciate fine dining, how hard it is to pull off really well. But if there’s no audience—I equate fine dining with theater. Probably the culture of fine dining will exist if there‘s a culture for theater. Eating transcends sustenance. You have to plan in advance. It’s like you have to buy a ticket.
You’re doing more than sustenance.
Yes. But it’s packaged in a very simple, incidental way. What LA is…we text each other at 5 p.m. and say where are you going to eat. Everyone makes last minute plans. The cell phone changed everything. But just because it’s casual doesn’t mean it has to be bad.
For a year or so there, it seemed like every publication in the country either put your burger on some “best of” list or simply crowned it the best. What was that like?
The burger did get a lot of attention. It still does. I was one of the very first people in LA to jump out of fine dining, the first one to create a gourmet ingredient burger.
Do you think you will ever be able to escape this burger?
I don’t associate myself with food that much. But I guess I’ll always be associated with that burger.
Continuing on the subject of burgers, why are you so militant about not allowing modifications? I mean, you can’t even get something left off it.
The substitution thing is really just about the fact that the first Father’s Office is tiny. The kitchen is like a phone booth. The place was never intended to be a restaurant. It’s a bar that happens to have a little food.
In fine dining restaurants we’ll do anything, bend over backwards. I felt in that environment, given that we weren’t attempting to be a be-all and end-all, I just felt like we’ll only offer a few things. It was never meant to accommodate everyone. The menu is so small. It wasn’t an ego thing.
People think it is. They take it personally.
It’s one person’s opinion about how dishes should be served. The policy is polarizing and people are opinionated about it. This just goes to prove that you can’t please everyone no matter what you do. I remember stories back at Michael’s. People would come up with their own dish then you’d put it in front of them and then they’d send it back. It doesn’t even matter what you’re willing to do. My policy is just an admission you’re never going to please everyone. I don’t think people are used to hearing no. There’s a general sense of entitlement that’s very much of a localized thing. I’ve never seen behavior like this anywhere else.
On the other hand, it would take a server a second to write on a ticket “NB” or whatever for no bun and then the kitchen could just leave off the bun.
The other problem with that is everyone would have a different experience. If you make something and if you allow changes to it, every single person who changes it has a different take. Then there’s no single way to have a consensus. This way at least people can agree or disagree and it’s genuine.
Similarly, you can’t get ketchup at Father’s Office.
Fries are Northern European. They typically come with a mayo based sauce and I wanted to serve them that way. I didn’t realize people would go ape because I don’t serve ketchup.
People bring their own right?
We don’t encourage it. But we don’t stop it. We’ve never thrown anyone out. Not for ketchup.
Seems like you were ahead of the game on so many trends: small plates, a great beer list, the whole gastro pub thing.
No one really knows what people are going to like. You follow your heart for one, and secondly, you keep your eyes open. Around that time, clearly there wasn’t enough middle ground in dining options. In order to get a meal cooked by an inspired, real trained chef, it had to be high end. You couldn’t get a well cooked piece of meat unless it was an expensive steak. Other than that it was garbage. There were not any real chefs serving real food. My motive was to replicate the rich European bar culture. That’s what I felt I wanted to do and what people wanted. I didn’t know. As it turned out we were right. It wasn’t so much a business decision.
How does the original Father’s Office differ from the newer Culver City location?
Picking the Helms site, the historic nature of that property was instrumental. I didn’t want to go into a shiny new building.
Why not?
The original one is an old place. I wanted there to be some connection. There’s no way it’s duplicating the original. That would be silly. [Culver City] was inspired by the old one. It’s a forward evolution, version 2.0. I have decided if there are ever more there will always be slight evolutions.
So you are planning on more.
I don’t know. I think it’s very dangerous to plan to have more restaurants.
Why?
It’s high risk. It’s like going to Vegas and winning a few bucks.
How do you divide your time?
I work in the office a lot. I visit both stores at random times.
Do you miss cooking?
Every chef, the further along you go, the less you cook. I’m no exception. I spend less time in the kitchen than I used to. But when I’m in the restaurant I’m always in the kitchen doing something. I never tend bar. I run straight into the kitchen.
You don’t like being in the public eye?
It’s not what I am good at or what I want to be good at. Usually people have to come up to me, but it’s very nice when they do.
Have you felt the effects of this lousy economy?
Subtly.
But surely you’ve heard from your chef friends.
It’s a very troubling thing. You get tons of real estate listings sent to you every day of dead restaurants.
Do you see this as a potential time of opportunity?
I think it’s no more of an opportunity than during good times. Some things are cheaper now. But if you’re not prepared to do it, you’re not prepared to do it.
Are there too many restaurants in Culver City?
No. You can always have more. But a bunch of them opened in a hurry. Culver City could use some good retail, some other reasons to go.
Word is you’re opening a noodle place also in the Helms Bakery complex. Tell me more.
I’m opening another restaurant, but not a noodle restaurant.
When?
Early next year.
I take it it’s not going to be another Father’s Office.
Yep. You can rule out that.
And it’s not going to be fine dining.
That’s right. I don’t even know what it’s going to be.
Yes you do!
You never know how it’s going to end up. You never know how you’ll be perceived. I do know what I’m going to do.
I take it you don’t want to share.
Talking about it is not that exciting. No one cares when we’re six months away at the earliest.
Where do you like to eat out?
My favorite is Monterey Park for spicy Yunnan food and dim sum sometimes. I travel to San Francisco fairly often where I’ve really become enamored with Burmese food.
What is Burmese food?
It’s a cross between Indian and Indonesian. There’s also a great dim sum restaurant up there: Yank Sing. They have the best Shanghai dumplings: the ones with soup inside and a Peking duck cart with freshly made buns.
Any places you’ve had a really good meal lately in LA?
Two places I go to are Mori Sushi and to see Sal [Marino] at Il Grano. Other than that, I know there’s a lot of good stuff happening. I just don’t go out to eat a whole lot. I do go to Mozza every now and then. The funny thing about me is the list of places I’ve never been to is long.
Father’s Office, 1018 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, 310.393.2337
Father’s Office, 3229 Helms Ave, Culver City, 310.736.2224
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