Once a dive-y neighborhood bar with limited pub snacks, Father’s Office is now known as a craft beer gastropub with award winning fare. Chef Sang Yoon purchased the Santa Monica pub in 2000 after working in fine dining as a chef at Michael’s. With the goal of creating a casual restaurant with great beer and superior food, Yoon installed better kitchen facilities and designed a menu focused on high quality ingredients. His Father’s Office Burger became an instant hit and is often credited with kicking off the gourmet burger trend in Los Angeles.
The foundation of the Office Burger is fine dry-aged beef, aged in his own facility. To complement the top-quality burger, Yoon added caramelized onions, gruyere cheese and Maytag blue cheese, as well as an Applewood-smoked bacon compote. The bitterness of arugula adds the perfect contrast to the sweet compote and cheeses. The Office Burger was called one of the best in the world by Esquire magazine.
A superior burger requires just the right accoutrements, and as ketchup does not fit the bill, it is banned in his restaurant—a policy some find irksome. Purists side with Yoon, asserting that the burger’s carefully calibrated flavor balance is obliterated with the addition of ketchup, a condiment better used on the average backyard barbecue burger. French fries and the very popular sweet potato fries are served European style, with aioli. Yoon also politely declines substitutions and alterations.
The pub, originally founded in 1953, has always been cutting edge in the craft beer industry. Yoon continues this tradition with 36 seasonally rotated craft beers on tap, along with small producer wines and micro-distilled spirits.
The success of Father’s Office prompted Yoon to launch new location in 2008 in the Helms Bakery building near Culver City. The satellite location is larger, meaning diners do not need to compete for tables.
The foundation of the Office Burger is fine dry-aged beef, aged in his own facility. To complement the top-quality burger, Yoon added caramelized onions, gruyere cheese and Maytag blue cheese, as well as an Applewood-smoked bacon compote. The bitterness of arugula adds the perfect contrast to the sweet compote and cheeses. The Office Burger was called one of the best in the world by Esquire magazine.
A superior burger requires just the right accoutrements, and as ketchup does not fit the bill, it is banned in his restaurant—a policy some find irksome. Purists side with Yoon, asserting that the burger’s carefully calibrated flavor balance is obliterated with the addition of ketchup, a condiment better used on the average backyard barbecue burger. French fries and the very popular sweet potato fries are served European style, with aioli. Yoon also politely declines substitutions and alterations.
The pub, originally founded in 1953, has always been cutting edge in the craft beer industry. Yoon continues this tradition with 36 seasonally rotated craft beers on tap, along with small producer wines and micro-distilled spirits.
The success of Father’s Office prompted Yoon to launch new location in 2008 in the Helms Bakery building near Culver City. The satellite location is larger, meaning diners do not need to compete for tables.