Chef Evan Funke to Open Bucato in Culver City

Image: StarChefs.com | Antoinette Bruno

Rustic Canyon chef Evan Funke will be opening Bucato restaurant in Culver City mid-December. Located in the Helms Bakery complex, the 100-seat restaurant will offer handmade pastas, fresh sourdough bread and wood-roast fish among other items.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Funke’s new restaurant Bucato will be located in the former Beacon space of the Culver City Helms Bakery complex. After leaving his postion as chef at Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Milo & Olive in February, Funke partnered with restaurant operator Ed Keebler to create Bucato.

Bucato in Italian means “laundry” and Funke told the LA Times, “We wanted to make sure that we paid homage to the history of the building,” referring to the 1931 structure that once housed Beacon commercial laundry.

“Bucato is a very, very old word – to do the laundry by hand,” continued Funke, “It’s the quintessential laundry line you see hanging from building to building in alleyways in Italy, and it mirrors the drying of pasta on the line. A very hands-on way of doing laundry, and we thought a fitting name.”

Bucato will be a 3,400-square-foot restaurant with a “glass-enclosed pasta lab” where Funke and Keebler can practice the art of hand making their pasta. The restaurant will also feature a butchery room, two patios and reclaimed wood in the dining room. The menu will include 8 to 10 handmade pastas, fish, meat, and more.

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