Month: March 2024

Best Koreatown restaurants, bars and clubs that stay open late

Best Koreatown restaurants, bars and clubs that stay open late

Published by Sam Flores

As the sun sets and the curtain goes down on Los Angeles, Koreatown comes alive. Neon-lighted signs, a soundtrack of honking cars and the aromas of grilled meat and fried foods all vie for attention, an almost psychedelic assault on the senses. Once your eyes adjust, you’ll find a dense urban playground that invites you to choose your own adventure. Looking for late-night eats? Take your pick between Chicago-style deep dish, Thai noodles, Hawaiian-hued bar snacks or a World Series-worthy baseball steak. Tippling the night away? You can keep it classy at a velvet-walled haunt, pair natural wines with Cal-Korean cuisine or knock back beers at a treasured dive. Regardless of where you end up, there’s nearly always a stage with a microphone for crooning your heart out with karaoke. And you don’t have to limit yourself to just one of these experiences. The neighborhood is so glutted with options, you can easily crawl from one spot to the next, perhaps capping the night with a flaming plate of galbi jjim from 24-hour-restaurant Sun Nong …

A guide to L.A.’s historic streetlights

A guide to L.A.’s historic streetlights

Published by Sam Flores

Did you know that there are more than 223,000 streetlights in Los Angeles? And that those 223,000 lamps come in more than 400 designs? And that some of those designs are over 100 years old? You might not have noticed them. And yet, believe it or not, Los Angeles has the most diverse streetlight ecosystem in the entire United States. We’ve got lamps that look like ancient temple columns. We’ve got Gothic-inspired lanterns hidden in the hills. We’ve got lamps with dragons on them. We’ve even got street lamps decorated with topless women. Ever since a group of businessmen banded together in 1905 to install our first ornamental lampposts along Broadway, eye-catching streetlights have been part of L.A.’s urban identity. This isn’t just because our balmy weather allowed them to last longer than their eastern counterparts. In 1909, urban planner Charles Mulford Robinson famously called our lamps “the handsomest in the United States.” An exaggeration? I think not. In a relatively young city defined by its free-wheeling spirit of “anything goes,” streetlamps embodied bold, progressive …

25 best Korean BBQ restaurants in L.A.: AYCE, galbi, Wagyu and more

25 best Korean BBQ restaurants in L.A.: AYCE, galbi, Wagyu and more

Published by Sam Flores

L.A.’s Korean barbecue landscape is vast and varied. Dozens of Koreatown restaurants specialize in meats for personal grilling, with a cooktop built into the center of each table for platters of (mostly) beef and pork in all their various cuts, providing theater and functionalism at once. It’s an essential, thrilling Los Angeles dining experience. Each K-barbecue restaurant has its own take on what must be one of the best full-tilt ways to share a meal — primal and modern, elemental and lavish, continually changing. New restaurants serving Korean barbecue open apace in always-transmuting Koreatown, and the latest include K-Team BBQ, the new Park’s BBQ sibling on Vermont Avenue, and Origin, which has taken over the Chapman Plaza location of Baekjeong (expected to resurface in a palatial L.A. flagship later this year). But long-standing icons keep diners coming back for their charcoal-fueled grills, attentive service, signature cuts or AYCE combos. “Korean barbecue is becoming more like just regular barbecue” in its prevalence, said Jenee Kim of Park’s BBQ. “It’s not a Korean[-only] restaurant anymore. There’s other …

14 glorious things to do in Vancouver

14 glorious things to do in Vancouver

Published by Sam Flores

It was a sunny day in Vancouver, Canada. From the beach at English Bay (like Santa Monica, but cleaner), you could see snow atop the mountains and hear kids laughing. After a bike ride in Stanley Park (like Griffith Park, but with beaches), I had just bought a hot dog from a cart and taken two bites when a voice rang out. “No,” it shouted, startled and helpless. That’s when everyone by the beach turned my way, with faces showing great concern. Because it was my voice. A sea gull had swooped, grabbed my hot dog and carried it away. The shout had left my body before I could think. Immediately, the Vancouverites understood this. Then, with the same equanimity that allows so many Canadians to commit violence in ice rinks while displaying civility at all other times, they turned away and resumed their day. Let this be a lesson, all you who daydream of escaping to this place that people call the California of Canada. Amid the seaside parks, forest paths, stylish skyscrapers, good …

Best Korean-style fried chicken in Los Angeles

Best Korean-style fried chicken in Los Angeles

Published by Sam Flores

I can distinctly remember stumbling into the Kyochon in Koreatown in 2008, a little drunk and very hungry. I was with friends from graduate school and we’d just finished losing our voices at a nearby karaoke lounge. When I placed an order for 35 wings, our group of six guffawed loudly. Who was going to finish all that chicken? It was the first time I’d dined at a restaurant specializing in Korean chicken wings. We were instantly addicted to the delicate, ultra-crunchy coating and the sweet and salty soy glaze. We finished the 35 chicken wings with speed and fervor. Then we ordered 16 more. It was around this time that the fried chicken craze in Koreatown started. The boom was partially fueled by chains like the new Kyochon, which had arrived a year prior from Gumi, Korea. I like to think that depictions of chimeak (the specific pairing of fried chicken and beer) in Korean TV shows, like the soap opera “My Love From the Star,” also had something to do with the collective …

Where to treat yourself in Los Angeles under 0

Where to treat yourself in Los Angeles under $100

Published by Sam Flores

In order to experience the amenities at many of Los Angeles’ membership-based clubs like Soho House and Heimat, you have to 1) be a paying member 2) be a guest of someone who’s a member or 3) be attending a specific event. But unlike these exclusive spots, none of the above are requirements at Remedy Place, a Sunset Strip club where members can enjoy an array of treatments and services such as ice bath classes, cryotherapy, infrared saunas, acupuncture and cupping at a la carte rates. Created by celebrity wellness guru Jonathan Leary, Remedy Place claims to be the world’s first social wellness club. (There are two locations in the U.S., including West Hollywood and the Flatiron District in New York.) Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Kacey Musgraves and Lana Condor have been said to frequent Remedy Place, where the cheapest membership starts at $300 per month and the highest is $2,000 monthly. But everyday folks can receive the same services and hospitality starting at $50. At Remedy Place, you can book a breathwork ice bath …

The 7 best inland spots to take a walk by the water

The 7 best inland spots to take a walk by the water

Published by Sam Flores

Of all the images L.A. is famous for — the Hollywood sign perched above teetering palm trees, the mansion-lined streets stocked with free-range celebrities — few shine brighter in the public imagination than our coastline, that blue-and-gold border where the city and ocean momentarily blur. So it sometimes comes as a shock to visitors when an L.A. resident like myself will casually say that I — gasp — don’t live near the beach. Of course, “near” is a relative term. Siberia is near the North Pole, but Burbank is nowhere near Santa Monica. (I don’t make the rules, sorry.) And while no one in L.A. is ever more than 20 or so miles from the coast, the reality of city life is that the beach isn’t always the easiest option for those of us who like to get outside without losing hours to bumper-to-bumper traffic. That doesn’t mean that walking by the water is a pastime reserved only for Westsiders. (Unlike, say, rollerblading, which they can keep.) Luckily for the rest of us, it turns …

Do Anti-Snoring Devices Work? I Asked Experts

Do Anti-Snoring Devices Work? I Asked Experts

Published by Sam Flores

Any way you look at it, snoring is disruptive. It can lead to a restless slumber for snorers and anyone who shares a bedroom with them, which causes many people to seek out products to reduce (or prevent) snoring. There are lots of options that claim to help, like wedge pillows (which aren’t just for acid reflux), mouthpieces and nasal strips. But are they effective? I talked to doctors about snoring, including who is prone to it, and they shared what you can do to reduce how much you snore. They also shared different types of over-the-counter anti-snoring devices to consider, whether you’re using them yourself or buying them for someone else. The best anti-snoring devices While our experts say there are no guarantees that anti-snoring devices will work for everyone, they’re worth a try, so long as you consult your doctor beforehand. Here are a few pillows and pillow accessories for snorers that align with our experts’ guidance. I chose a few highly-rated picks, plus products recommended by NBC Select staff. The best pillows …

11 free museum days in L.A. to plan your whole month around

11 free museum days in L.A. to plan your whole month around

Published by Sam Flores

Free days: The third Tuesday of the month with advance reservations, which are available the first of each month. About the museum: Maybe it’s the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden’s early history as an Indigenous Tongva settlement named Aleupkigna on Baldwin Lake and then as the Mexican land grant Rancho Santa Anita, where cattle, grains, vineyards and fruit trees were nurtured, that gives this sprawling 127-acre botanic garden a kind of proletariat feel. There are plenty of beautiful places to wander here, such as the aquatic gardens that include the Meyberg Waterfall, the Meadowbrook Garden (filled with deciduous trees whose colorful blooms and leaves change every season as well as evergreens), the tropical greenhouse with thousands of orchids, and the plantings grouped by geography — South American, Mediterranean, South African, Australian and Asiatic-North American. But the arboretum also has extraordinary demonstration gardens such as the Crescent Farm, a one-time compacted lawn transformed into a lush, drought-resistant garden of California native plants and low-water fruits, vegetables, ground covers and shrubs by using lasagna mulching …

Best Italian restaurants in L.A. from the 101 guide

Best Italian restaurants in L.A. from the 101 guide

Published by Sam Flores

Late last year Chad Colby slid in a new addition to the short list of pastas he serves at his restaurant on the edge of Koreatown. Ten or so ridged tortelli share a plate, some perched on their sides and others looking as if they’ve been playfully tumbling around. Scoop one up and some toasty pine nuts roll onto the fork’s tines. You taste them first, and notice the eggy dough’s silken yield, and then the filling’s dominant flavors pervade: ricotta and lemon, soft and bright. If meals were written in sheet music, these would elicit whole note rests. Appreciating them demands a silent beat. Opened in 2019, Antico Nuovo has steadily found its footing and its audience among the crush of fine-dining Italian restaurants in Los Angeles. It might just be the best of them now. Bold or tenuous, each of the pastas stands out with such distinct personalities; they are the meal’s holy center. Begin by swiping crisp, lofty hunks of focaccia through roughly pureed green chickpeas rich in garlic and olive oil, …