La Cañada restaurateur serves up ‘heart and soul’ at newly opened Honeybird
Phil Lee, a Glendale resident and Crescenta Valley high school graduate has opened a restaurant, Honeybird, with a new take on Southern comfort food.
Chef Phil Lee’s first official “culinary memory” came when he was in the second or third grade and his mom made fried chicken at home for the very first time.
“It was so good,” he recalled. “What was mind-blowing to me was that you could cook this kind of food at home, that [my mom] could make fried chicken the same, if not better, than Kentucky Fried Chicken.”
That memory lay dormant as Lee graduated from Crescenta Valley High School in 1999 and left home to study sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. But it began to resurface as the starving student began to plan and cook dinners for his friends and eventually discovered the wonders of barbecue on a shoestring budget.
By the time he was a junior, Lee was ready to leave school and pursue his passion for cooking but was dissuaded by his pragmatic parents, who encouraged him to at least earn his degree. The summer after his college graduation, Lee enrolled in Pasadena’s Le Cordon Bleu culinary school and got to work on his culinary career.
Today, after more than a decade spent working as a cook, corporate chef and executive chef at some of the most notable locations in Los Angeles County (including downtown L.A.’s Water Grill, Bashan in Montrose, BottleRock in Culver City and downtown L.A., Pasadena’s now-closed Vol. 94 and the Counter), the Glendale resident is ready to marry his technical and business expertise with the magic of that long-ago discovery in a new solo venture in La Cañada.
Honeybird will showcase chef Phil Lee’s signature take on fried chicken and Southern favorites such as bacon and cheddar biscuits, collard greens, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese.
The result is Honeybird, an eatery newly opened at 714 Foothill Boulevard — the former site of Anthony’s Fine Food & Wine — that will serve up a mix of Southern comfort foods and lighter seasonal salads and side dishes in a counter-style service.
“It’s good food. It’s not pretentious,” said Lee. “It’s affordable, and it affords you the opportunity to enjoy good food with family and friends.”
Lee and wife Michelle officially welcomed visitors to the new restaurant in a soft opening Wednesday and are planning a two-day grand opening this Friday and Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The restaurant will showcase Lee’s signature take on fried chicken and Southern favorites such as bacon and cheddar biscuits, collard greens, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese.
To balance out the traditionally substantial family-style fare will be lighter offerings and lunchtime standards, including a quinoa and kale or white bean salad, fried green tomato sandwich and a “Phil-Lee-O-Fish” sandwich. Beer and wine will also be available, and plans for brunch menus on Fridays and Saturdays are in the works.
Although both husband and wife grew up in households where occasional fried chicken dinners were a nice family treat, Lee understands people may question his authority, as a second-generation Korean American, to master Southern American cooking. To answer that, he relies on something a Southern friend once told him.
“He said, ‘If you’re cooking from your heart and your soul, it doesn’t matter where you’re from,’” he recalled. “That hit a chord with me and helped me affirm this is what I need to do.”
A longtime La Crescenta resident who’s lived in Glendale since 2001, Lee is well-acquainted with the La Cañada community and says its family feel is a big part of why he chose the Foothill Boulevard space. Both he and Michelle hope as Honeybird gets some air under its wings, people will see it as a place to break bread with friends and family and perhaps make some culinary memories of their own.
“One of the visions we had for this restaurant was (for us) to embrace and be embraced by the community,” Michelle Lee said. “We want to provide this place for families to come together and have a meal.”
For more information, including hours and menu offerings, visit honeybirdla.com.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
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