36 Hours in Koreatown, Los Angeles (The New York Times)
The antidote to Hollywood’s seasonal Academy Awards fever is just a few blocks away, in Koreatown. It’s hard to imagine that two decades ago, K-Town, as it is known in local parlance, was a flash point for the Los Angeles riots: a low-rent district engulfed in flames. Today this sprawling, three-square-mile community just west of downtown has become one of the city’s hippest areas thanks to the continuing renovation of its rich architectural heritage, a new subway traversing its Wilshire Boulevard hub and recently opened boutique hotels like the Line and Normandie. Moreover, K-Town never sleeps, given its strong Asian and Latin work ethic and its clubs, bars and restaurants that have become urban night-life hubs. As the most densely packed part of Los Angeles, it’s also one of the city’s most strollable, with Art Deco buildings and palm-lined boulevards. With the influence of three generations of Korean and Latino immigrants, these once-mean streets have become a picturesque and prosperous “Blade Runner”-ish warren of ethnic culinary hot spots imbued with an East-meets-West sense of fun.
Friday
1. 5 p.m Coffee and Culture Clash | 5 p.m
Old Los Angeles and new Korea collide in Chapman Plaza, a riot of Asian coffee shops, boutiques, cafes, discos and karaoke joints, all within a 1929 complex of Spanish-revival towers, stained glass, Moorish grillwork and one of the funkiest courtyards in town. Take it all in on the terrace of the Lighthouse Waffles & Cake cafe with rose petal tea to match a slice of velvet cake ($12). Cross the courtyard for a stylish Korean gray skirt with leggings ($49) or a white sweater with animal print ($68) at Collette, or watch the Plaza’s fabulously incongruous Korean water wheel while you indulge in a Korean-style egg roll ($7.99) and kimchi egg omelet ($8.99) at Toe Bang.
2. Korean Feast | 7 p.m.
Angelenos debate endlessly about where to find the best Korean barbecue, but judging from the celebrity photos on the wall and the crowds of Asian cognoscenti who crush into this strip mall restaurant, Park’s is a winner. Join the perpetual party of local families, salarymen and the city’s hipsters as they talk over the open grills centered on each table where hyperkinetic waiters cook, for example, bulgogi beef, shrimp and octopus accompanied by a dozen side dishes of kimchi, chile paste, pickled roots and other tasty additions. Dinner for two is around $110. The blissful spirit is aided by an impressive wine list and ice buckets of Hite beer and soju. Geonbae!
3. Karaoke Confidential | 11 p.m.
Enter through the parking-lot side of a darkened office building on Wilshire, pass the security guard at the steel desk, and take the elevator to the Palm Tree Cafe on the fourth floor, home to dimly lit bars and a restaurant where smoking laws are sometimes ignored (cocktails start at $10; beer at $5). You know you’ve done something right if your drinks are suddenly accompanied by heaping plates of freshly cut fruit. But perhaps the best part of the Palm Tree is wandering its corridors lined with 20 private karaoke rooms where serious-looking businessmen turn into screaming divas over bottle service and videos featuring everything from Philippine love ballads to Korean gangsta hip-hop to Coldplay. Private karaoke rooms start at $20 an hour.
Saturday
4. Neon Wake-Up Call | 11 a.m.
Even along Western Avenue, one of the most colorful sections of K-Town, Iota Brew Cafe sticks out like a Rubik’s Cube, with Pop Art on the walls, K-Pop videos projected in the corners and colorfully dressed youths obsessing over their smartphones — or the flat-screen computer chess board that hangs above a cluster of tables. The rainbow of crepes, mocha waffles, mung-bean croissants and pastries is inspiring, but the greatest thing about Iota is the coffee. The baristas put a lot of effort into wake-the-dead Americanos and sweet potato lattes, signing them with Instagram-worthy foam art. Breakfast for two, about $24.
5. Surreal Golf | 2 p.m.
Summon your urban Arnold Palmer by shooting golf balls through a block of skyscrapers at Aroma Spa & Sports, a 150-yard driving range surrounded by acres of green netting. You can spend a couple of hypnotic hours with a basket of 180 balls ($18) and clubs ($4 rental fee). Those less interested in swinging for the flags and bull’s-eye target can escape into the adjoining spa ($15 entry if you have a massage appointment) for hot baths, saunas and a rigorous Korean body scrub ($35). The golf range’s third floor has a scenic juice bar offering another local specialty — shaved ice lemonade ($5).
6. Gangnam Style | 4 p.m.
Glam neon-colored glasses? Retro sun hats? Hello Kitty everything? These and other treasures can be uncovered at the Koreatown Plaza, a 1980s mall of upscale brands, exotic supermarkets and juice stores that would be at home in South Seoul’s upscale neighborhoods. Adding to the exotic allure is the downstairs food court crammed with Korean noodle shops and bakeries selling cream-filled pastries ($3) and sweet potato lattes ($5) for Gangnam-worthy snacks.
7. Grasshoppers and Mezcal | 7 p.m.
It may come as a surprise that K-Town’s largest population is Latino, but nowhere is that fact more evident than in Guelaguetza, an orange-painted concrete-floored shrine to Oaxacan cuisine in all its mole-covered glory — including grilled goat, grilled cactus and sautéed grasshoppers. This southern Mexican cooking is accompanied by a prodigious list of Oaxaca’s agave liquor, mezcal — one of the more ethereal versions being a fruity yet smoky concoction distilled by friends of the owner called El Silencio, an ironic accompaniment to the salsa band playing full throttle. Dinner for two, $65.
8. Art Deco Splendor | 9 p.m.
Few places embody Los Angeles’s Art Deco golden era better than the 1930s emerald green Pellissier Building towering above the Wiltern theater, whose terrazzo-tiled lobby and starburst-ceilinged auditorium were destined for the wrecking ball before public outrage intervened. Now it’s one of the city’s pre-eminent performance spaces. If you’re in luck, Bob Dylan, Ellen DeGeneres or the annual “Big Lebowski” festival will be on the schedule, though the architectural splendor of the theater itself is worth the ticket price.
9. Unsinkable | 11 p.m.
K-Town’s landmark, the Ambassador Hotel, where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, was demolished nearly a decade ago to make way for a high school and a memorial plaza for the slain senator. But HMS Bounty directly across Wilshire has floated on for over half a century. This nautical-themed tavern is a cozy vessel, devoid of sunlight, serving grog out of the shipshape bar where once, according to nameplates on the walls, the likes of Winston Churchill, William Randolph Hearst and Jack Webb feasted. At night, the place is packed with a mix of the young and beautiful, ancient locals and suits lining the red leather booths downing — what else? — Guinness ($6 a bottle). For another striking K-Town contrast, walk 15 minutes northeast to an unmarked door below a red neon keyhole sign on Vermont Avenue. Inside, a Daliesque entryway confronts you with myriad doorknobs. Choose the right one to let yourself into the Lock & Key saloon with its hip new-school mixologists expertly concocting old-school classics like Negronis and whiskey sours ($12) at the white marble bar.
Sunday
10. Lobby Cafe | 11 a.m.
The Seoul-born taco truck impresario Roy Choi has gotten a new act at the recently opened Line Hotel with his lobby cafe, called simply Cafe. Sprawl out in the Brutalist-style lobby or watch the street theater that is Wilshire Boulevard from the cafe’s sidewalk terrace while dining on congee porridge — livened up by peanuts, fried garlic and an egg — or baked croissant and red bean buns, washed down with fresh melon juice and a horchata espresso. It’s a meal that, like the neighborhood, spans several continents. Brunch for two, $28.
11. Spa Extravaganza | 1 p.m.
Follow local Korean families and price-savvy Hollywood and Malibu fashionistas to the vast 24-hour temple of relaxation, Wi Spa, a multistoried labyrinth of salt, clay, jade and ice saunas ($25 entrance). If you really want to sweat it out, try the traditional domed bulgama. The spa’s social center is an expansive lounge with several generations reclining while eating specialties like udon soup with pickled vegetables ($9) and misutgaru — an addictive, delicious multigrain shake ($7). Head downstairs for a massage that involves being kneaded with a masseuse’s feet while she grips a bar suspended above the massage table. Or head up to the well-appointed, scenic roof deck in your robe and join the locals for a smoke — this is K-town, after all.
Lodging
The former Wilshire Plaza with its 1960 stacked TV-set architectural style has been stripped down to its concrete bones and brightened with Day-Glo furniture; it reopened last year as the Line Hotel (3515 Wilshire Boulevard; 213-381-7411; thelinehotel.com) by the same stylish partnership behind the NoMad Hotel in New York. For the best views, get a room on a high floor facing the Hollywood sign. Doubles from $269.
Another stylishly renovated newcomer is the Hotel Normandie (605 South Normandie Avenue; 213-388-8138; hotelnormandiela.com), a 94-room boutique hotel in a 1920s Renaissance-revival building whose neo-Moorish interiors were restored last summer. Doubles from $164.
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