Culver City’s historic Helms Design District will soon be home to two new restaurants and an Ikea. Following the shocking closures of Sang Yoon’s Helms Bakery in December 2025 after only a year in business, furniture store H.D. Buttercup, and schnitzel restaurant Lustig, Costa Mesa’s Folks Pizzeria and a new restaurant from the team behind Bar Hayama will open this spring, along with a 38,000-square-foot Ikea.
Hayama by Watami, a collaboration between Bar Hayama and Japan-based restaurant group Watami, will open in a space diagonal from Pasta Sisters. At the restaurant, chef Frank “Toshi” Sugiura will work with his daughter Ichigo Sugiura to serve a menu of izakaya and sushi staples, including yakitori, bento boxes, and Japanese-style curry. Hayama by Watami is set to open in late April or early May.
Folks Pizzeria joins Hayama by Watami at Helms with a menu of cult-favorite sourdough pizzas. Founded in Costa Mesa by chef-owner Joey Booterbaugh and partner Chloe Tran, Folks serves fluffy, blistered pies topped with pancetta and potato, fennel and sausage, and spring peas, plus Caesar salad, chicken wings, and more sides.
Ikea will open a slimmed-down city-center store in the former H.D. Buttercup. KTLA reports that the famed Swedish meatballs will, of course, be making the trip over at Ikea’s beloved cafeteria, alongside the first Swedish Bite, a new culinary option with sandwiches, snacks, and drinks from the Swedish Market…