Los Angeles' Koreatown: K is for cool

The Brass Monkey ticks all the dive-bar boxes: red vinyl upholstery, low lighting, cheap drinks and karaoke. It's old school LA and old-school regulars, the types you'd surely cast in a movie about karaoke in LA, are enthusiastically at the mike. And from the tuneless, acid-wash-denim-clad Endless Love duet, to the tipsy Backstreet Boys wannabes, the entertainment level goes up to a Spinal Tap 11. When I've had my fill (as fun as it is, there's only so much bad Sinatra a person can take), I set off solo back to my hotel, a couple of blocks away down Wilshire Boulevard.

That I can go to this bar then walk back to base afterwards and feel safe doing so is remarkable to me. I lived in Los Angeles at the end of the last century and back then, this area was the domain of drug dealers, gangs and the infamous riots that all but ripped Los Angeles apart. But Koreatown, or K-town as it's affectionately called, is in the midst of a remarkable renaissance and those streets, which, back then, sensible people would avoid at any time of day, let alone late at night, are this evening, brimming with life, and of the non-threatening kind. Young couples walk arm-in-arm. Well-dressed people wait at bus stops, perfectly relaxed and seemingly not at all fearing for their safety. A Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, full of chatting customers, glows amiably. And there's me, walking alone, back to the Line Hotel.

In many ways, the Line Hotel itself is emblematic of this change in K-town, and its part-owner, Roy Choi, the personification of it. The intensely cool Line is smack dab in the middle of the once troubled neighbourhood Choi called home as a child. Now in his mid-40s, he is a product of the wave of Korean immigrants who came to inhabit the down-at-heel area in the 1950s. In 1978 it was officially declared Koreatown. Resentments towards Korean business owners were a catalyst for the catastrophic 1992 riots. But the 1990s and early 21st century saw rapid growth in the Latino population, and now Koreatown is one of LA's most ethnically and culturally diverse neighbourhoods.

Choi began a food truck business that became a huge success and on the back of it, the tattooed, hipster chef suddenly was a celebrity. Celebrity or not, he continues to speak passionately in support of the area. He adores it, and it shows in his contributions to it. Not necessarily because of Choi, but certainly with his vocal encouragement, investors and locals looking for inspiring digs noticed K-town's fabulous streetscape full of art deco apartment blocks, frozen-in-time hospitality spaces, significant landmarks and, in a city often accused of lacking in culture, a rich history – even a bustling street life.

All this rundown beauty was the result of the area being the centre of the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the 1920s and '30s, this section of the Mid-Wilshire District was the height of glamour. Movie stars dined at the original Brown Derby and partied at Cocoanut Grove, the nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel, which hosted the Academy Awards in the 1930s and was where Robert F Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.

The Ambassador is long gone, but many beautiful old apartment buildings remain, by such important architects Leland Bryant. They stand stand side-by-side with Korean strip malls and other curiosities of modern life – a gigantic golf-driving range on top of a multi-level car park, for instance. But rather than detract from the area's appeal, it's these layers that make it fascinating.

The best way to explore K-town is to walk its long, lovely boulevards, or cycle; the Line offers bicycle use free to guests. Stay at the hotel, a renovated mid-century office block with its unencumbered views to the Hollywood Hills (and from some rooms, the Hollywood sign) and save some time for basking in its hipness: the lobby's Korean bakery, the Commissary where bright young things take meetings and tap on Macbooks using the free wi-fi, Choi's Korean barbecue restaurant, Pot, and the swingin' lobby bar, to the sexy poolside cocktail scene upstairs.