A New Chef is Taking Over The Kitchen at Sister Helen, Serving the Flavors of Arizona

A new Southwest-inspired breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu will soon arrive at Sister Helen, a bright restaurant with an expansive patio located in the southwest corner of Phoenix's Sunnyslope neighborhood.


Sister Helen occupies a space at 19th and Northern Avenues that once contained The Good Shepherd Home for Girls, a Catholic school. The mission-style structure was built in 1942 and the school and accompanying chapel, where Sister Helen now reigns, closed in 1981.

The building housed a Starbucks at one point, then remained vacant for a while when the coffee shop relocated, Krystin Yee, the owner of Sister Helen says. Eager to make something out of the beautiful yet empty space in her neighborhood, Yee, who is also an eighth grade teacher, decided to open a restaurant there.

Yee named the restaurant in reference to the school, which was run by nuns, and her mother Helen, who was also a school teacher in the area. Sister Helen debuted in October 2020, bringing simple yet local cuisine, beer, wine, and cocktails to the neighborhood.

"The Sunnyslope area is largely a food desert," Yee says. "We have plenty of fast food options but not much local food, and I wanted to change that. Plus, I needed a watering hole within walking distance."

After Sister Helen opened, Yee began hosting Sunday Supper Clubs at the restaurant, bringing in different Valley chefs to showcase their skills and bring some new flavor to the place.

Little Spring Provisions cooked at one of the events in November of 2021, garnering positive feedback from the community and sparking a relationship between the two businesses. Yee hopes that the concept's unique take on Southwestern cuisine will continue to satisfy Sister Helen's customers.

"I'm so excited for what they're bringing to the table. It's a level up from what we were doing," she says. "Sunnyslope is a diverse area that I think will really enjoy the hyper-local menu that Little Spring Provisions has put together."

Byrd, the chef behind Little Spring Provisions, is just as optimistic about the partnership. She is originally from Rhode Island but moved to Arizona in 1996 before leaving for Chicago in 2008. Byrd thought she'd had her fill of the desert at the time, but became nostalgic for the Sonoran landscape years later, prompting her and Phillips to head back to the Grand Canyon state in March 2021.

"Arizona is home to some of the oldest civilizations in the United States," Byrd says, "and we want to highlight that in our menu. We're doing something a little different, but it's still accessible to the community."

Arizona inspired the name of the business. Some scholars believe that the state's name comes from the word "Al Shon" in Tohono O'odham. Al Shon means "Place of Little Spring,” according to the Arizona State Library.

The connection to Arizona and its history is front and center in Little Spring's varied and unique menu, which Byrd and Phillips are still perfecting. They are workshopping goodies including an AZ Pinole Date Shake made with locally-sourced dates, and pani puri, an Indian flatbread dish served with fragrant herbal sauces made with cilantro and lemongrass.

Brunch also promises to be interesting, with classic breakfast dishes plus kickers like Okinawan pork belly and Taiwanese fried chicken, plus a breakfast pasta topped with charred corn kernels.

"We want to show Arizona some of the flavors that have been out there for a long time, just waiting for people to savor," Byrd says.

Byrd and Phillips plan to serve their Little Spring Provisions menu at Sister Helen for three to six months, with a more permanent takeover if all goes well.

"We don't have to do a lot in terms of altering the space as Krystin and her staff have already created a beautiful and welcoming restaurant," Byrd says. "But we plan to utilize art from Cahokia PHX, an indigenous art collective based out of Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix."
Other decor in the eatery will include "Arizona everything," Byrd says, from tumbleweeds to dried citrus. The decorations hint at the flavors found on the menu.

"What I love about this menu is that it's approachable while incorporating lesser-known flavors," Yee says. "People here are hungry for new spots to pop up. I'm confident that Little Springs will elevate the food culture in Sunnyslope."

Little Spring Provisions and Farm Bodega at Sister Helen

1820 West Northern Avenue, #140

602-870-0313

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