Sang Yoon unveils Lukshon in Culver City
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Sang Yoon, the don of Father’s Office, is gearing up to open Lukshon next week in the Helms Bakery complex in Culver City. The same complex is home to the second Father’s Office (the first being on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica) and Yoon’s separate ‘test kitchen,’ equipped with toys such as his blast freezer and rotary evaporator and a pantry full of ingredients such as the Indonesian sauce kecap manis, Malay spices and Vietnamese herbs.
Sichuan peppercorns, pandan leaves, candlenut, hoisin chile sauce, Punjab spices, curries, house-made X.O. sauce -- these are the stuff of a menu that spans southeast Asia and southern China with a mix of small and big plates and noodle, soup and rice dishes (priced at $6 to $36). There is lamb sausage roti canai with pickled cauliflower; kurobuta pork ribs with spicy chicory coffee BBQ sauce; short rib rendang with red chile lemongrass rempah; dandan noodles; and bamboo leaf kimchi sticky rice. One can assume the wine list features plenty of Rieslings.
The restaurant was designed by Ana Henton with MASS Architecture & Design, the highlights of which might be the open kitchen, teak paneled dining room, white enamel ceiling panels and a bar that features a wine cabinet and wine-on-tap system set into a concrete wall.
The cocktails? The quirkiest is the Shrimp Cocktail....
It’s a mix of vodka (from the man who wouldn’t serve vodka at F.O.?), smoked sriracha, lime, Thai basil and kecap manis, with a prawn salt rim. A Lukshon Sour combines Michter’s rye with lemon, tamarind and palm sugar. The Hot & Sour Gimlet has gin, dragon chile, lime, Thai basil and kinh gioi (a Vietnamese mint). And if Chinese white lightning is your thing, the spirits list includes baijiu. By the way, there are chicken wings (see photos below). Shelton Farms’ drumettes that have been frenched, the meat collected into a ball at the end of the bone -- hence they’re called chicken pops -- spicy with ‘Sichuan salt.’ Will Lukshon do for chicken wings what Father’s Office did for the burger?
3239 Helms Ave., Culver City, Lukshon.com.
-- Betty Hallock
