Bucato Restaurant

Set under the iconic Helms Bakery marquee, Bucato was a rustic Italian eatery led by Chef Evan Funke and focused on handmade pastas and simple ingredients.

The intervention inserted a mezzanine for private dining, a back-of-house area that includes a walk-in freezer, and a dramatic glass-enclosed pasta lab conceptualized as a box-within-a-box to remain structurally independent from the historic building and avoid seismic retrofit triggers. NOUS delivered this isolation strategy, integrating new beams and timber shear walls while coordinating the open kitchen design within architectural constraints.

Location
Culver City, CA USA

Client
Bucato, LLC

Architect
Undisclosable

Staff Lead
Matthew Melnyk, SE

Completed
2013

Size
3,400 SF

Photography
Khaite

Recognition

LA Times, “3,400‑SF restaurant with glass‑enclosed pasta lab” (Feature about restaurant design)
Eater LA, “3,400‑SF former Beacon laundry space, includes two patios & pasta laboratorio”
LA Weekly, Opening coverage describing dramatic open kitchen with pasta lab and butcher room

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Matt