{"id":300719,"date":"2026-05-05T11:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/300719\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T11:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:53:09","slug":"how-a-historic-la-dining-district-changed-its-luck-overnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/300719\/","title":{"rendered":"How a historic LA dining district changed its luck overnight"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, the Helms Design District in Culver City<\/a> felt like a ghost town. Not only had the ambitious reboot of Helms Bakery closed after only a year in operation<\/a>, but several of the furniture stores, like the massive HD Buttercup, had shuttered, too. Although plenty of larger brands like Room & Board and longstanding restaurants like Pasta Sisters<\/a> and Father\u2019s Office held their respective ground at the historic retail district in the middle of Los Angeles, at one point late last year, the status of the 95-year-old complex seemed so bleak that it wouldn\u2019t have felt surprising to see a tumbleweed roll through.<\/p>\n

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Suffice it to say, the rebirth has been remarkable. Most changes like this don\u2019t happen overnight, but in this particular case, a slew of openings this past weekend have helped to turn the district \u2014 which once housed the original Helms Bakery and its fleet of delivery trucks \u2014 into a thriving destination once again.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A sign for the new Ikea at the Helms Design District in Culver City, Calif.<\/p>\n

Karen Palmer\/SFGATE\"An<\/p>\n

An interior view of the new \u201ccity center\u201d Ikea in Culver City, Calif.<\/p>\n

Karen Palmer\/SFGATE\"The<\/p>\n

The historic Helms Bakery Olympic rings shield logo is displayed outside the Ikea small-format store in the Helms Design District in Culver City, Calif., on April 29, 2026.<\/p>\n

Patrick T. Fallon\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a boon for the safe, suburban-style stand-alone city in the middle of LA that briefly made national headlines<\/a> and has been in the midst of a yearslong transit and workforce rebirth, shedding its past as a movie studio town to add offices from Apple, Amazon, Sweetgreen and more \u2014 all within easy walking distance of the Helms district.<\/p>\n

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Ikea<\/a> officially opened its first \u201ccity center\u201d store in the former HD Buttercup space on Friday, May 1, and by Sunday evening, customers could be seen waiting patiently in a line that stretched from the store\u2019s entrance to the corner of Venice Boulevard. Once inside, they scoured a scaled-down version of the store stocked with furniture, kitchen wares, storage solutions and even plants. (Not on offer yet: the company\u2019s famous Swedish meatballs and soft serve ice cream.)<\/p>\n

At the opposite end of the complex, Costa Mesa\u2019s Folks Pizzeria opened its second location on Friday as well. Over the weekend, diners waited outside the indoor-outdoor, 120-seat space for the restaurant\u2019s signature puffy-crusted sourdough pizza<\/a>, towering little gem Caesar salads and \u201cItalian fish sauce\u201d-slicked wings.<\/p>\n

\"Beer<\/p>\n

Beer taps at Father\u2019s Office, which has been open in Culver City, Calif., since 2008.<\/p>\n

Karen Palmer\/SFGATE\"The<\/p>\n

The dining room at the new Folks Pizzeria in the Helms Design District in\u00a0Culver City, Calif.<\/p>\n

Karen Palmer\/SFGATE\"A<\/p>\n

A Margherita pizza from Folks Pizzeria in Culver City, Calif.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Folks Pizzeria<\/p>\n

Folks owner Joey\u00a0Booterbaugh notes that the Helms landlord gave him an \u201camazing business deal\u201d to open within the district. But he also saw the opportunity to give the neighborhood something new.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was inspired by the community,\u201d Booterbaugh tells SFGATE. \u201cI felt like that area needed a good neighborhood pizzeria.\u201d<\/p>\n

The area has responded in turn: According to Booterbaugh, on Sunday night, some 40 people were lined up for the restaurant before it opened at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re in Orange County. You never know if you\u2019ve built a community outside of where you\u2019re based, but this weekend has proven that we have,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Next door to Folks, modern Japanese restaurant Hayama by Watami\u00a0also debuted on Friday, marking the first U.S. location<\/a> for the Watami\u00a0Group, which operates more than 500 restaurants across Asia. The restaurant, which serves sushi, karaage-style wings, yakitori and more, is helmed by executive chef Frank \u201cToshi\u201d Sugiura and his daughter Ichigo; for several years, including the past two consecutive World Series-winning seasons, the elder Sugiura has also been the caterer for Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> players at home games (a fact denoted by two shelves of Dodgers bobbleheads above the bar).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The exterior of Hayama by Watami in the Helms Design District in Culver City, Calif.<\/p>\n

Brooke Olsen\"A<\/p>\n

A variety of Japanese dishes from Hayama by Watami in Culver City, Calif.<\/p>\n

Brooke Olsen<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Helms Design Center in Culver City felt like a natural next step for us. It\u2019s a true community hub, and that spirit of gathering around food is at the heart of everything we do,\u201d Toshi Sugiura tells SFGATE via email. \u201cWith this location being a partnership with my daughter, it was also important to choose a place that resonates with her generation, somewhere they\u2019d want to spend time and make part of their weekend routine.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For operators like Booterbaugh, the district\u2019s recent troubles weren\u2019t a deterrent \u2014 and the coordination of openings on a single weekend was a happy coincidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not planned at all,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cThis was a date I threw out a few months ago, with no idea the other places were opening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few months ago, the Helms Design District in Culver City felt like a ghost town. Not only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,2008,106625],"class_list":["post-300719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-sfgla","tag-sfglafood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}