‘Empire’ Co-EP & Father’s Office Chef Sell Soapy Restaurant Drama To Fox

Empire co-executive producer Ingrid Escajeda and Sang Yoon, chef of renowned Santa Monica haute burger and beer bar Father’s Office and Culver City’s Lukshon, have sold a soapy restaurant drama pitch to Fox. The studio is 20th Century Fox TV, where former Justified supervising producer Escajeda is under an overall deal.

The one-hour drama, titled On The Line, is inspired by Yoon but centers on a female chef, Juna Kim, a man-izing, motorcycle-riding force of nature who must battle the “banging and brawling” chaos of her restaurant staff, the disdain of her old-school Korean parents, and the return of her estranged ex-husband, all while struggling to push her career beyond the famous burger that made her a star.

Escajeda, who inked her two-year deal with 20th TV in April, when she joined the studio’s soapy music biz smash Empire, will write and executive produce this one. Yoon will be a nonwriting executive producer.

Credited as one of the catalysts of the gastropub boom after he converted his favorite Santa Monica dive bar into Father’s Office in 2000, Yoon’s signature the Office Burger there sounds like a key player in the plot. He would conceivably juggle this project with the opening of a new Napa Valley restaurant slated for next year.

Escajeda is repped by UTA and Echo Lake Entertainment.