All posts tagged: Koreatown

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 …

Need a soak? Try these spas beyond the known Koreatown spots

Need a soak? Try these spas beyond the known Koreatown spots

Published by Sam Flores

Our friendship blossomed in hot water. We met at a destination wedding, and while everybody else did shots, we nerded out about the art of public bathing. We discussed the sad reality of the spa experience in the U.S., which is more about isolated, expensive treatments than communal rest. We talked about the fact that spas were gate-kept for the rich, but that one of the best things in life was to get way too hot, then too cold, and then gossip as your circulation went wild. Instead of never seeing each other again, we both ended up in Los Angeles for work. The city was an exciting spread of food and culture, but the feast of hot water was the hidden delight of L.A. Over the 15 years since that wedding, we’ve spent hundreds of hours in SoCal spas. Sometimes we talk about job woes, sometimes the frustrations of parenting, and sometimes we don’t talk at all. L.A.’s expansive bathing culture has become the landscape not just of a necessary retreat but also, a …

A guide to Koreatown, Los Angeles: What to do, see and eat

A guide to Koreatown, Los Angeles: What to do, see and eat

Published by Sam Flores

My first impression of Koreatown wasn’t a great one. In 2006, a family friend picked me up at LAX. I was 11, and all I could think about was how I had said goodbye to my relatives in Seoul just hours earlier. As soon as I got in the car, I started crying. As we drove off the 10 Freeway and onto Vermont Boulevard, I looked out the window. Get to know Los Angeles through the places that bring it to life. From restaurants to shops to outdoor spaces, here’s what to discover now. “This place looks like Seoul in the 1970s,” I blurted out. Any illusion I had of the United States — the glitz of Hollywood and the palm tree-lined beaches — vanished in that moment. In Koreatown, high-rise buildings — which defined Seoul — were few and far between. Signs had distinctly outdated and tacky fonts. The jimjilbang (Korean bathhouse) I went to was old and lacked the amenities that seemed standard back in Korea. But over the 17 years I’ve called …