LA is having a downtown renaissance thanks to the city's Art District

I’m sitting at a wooden bench surrounded by food trucks overlooking a huge, colourful mural. I sip my Jamaica — an icy blend of hibiscus and lime — as the sun beats down on the baked sidewalks of the Los Angeles Arts District.

On the other side of the street, a photographer directs a slim Latina model, and hipster types wander past clutching iced coffees, trying to find shade.

In a city gridlocked with cars, the Arts District stands out as walkable — and also offers a constantly evolving street culture of art galleries, craft coffee, microbreweries and fine dining.

Sandwiched between 28,000 homeless people who sleep on Skid Row every night and the fiercely proud immigrant community of Boyle Heights, the Arts District’s revamp of a former industrial area is, at a glance, typical gentrification.

But as artists moved into its factories, warehouses and abandoned buildings in the Seventies, their creativity spilled out into murals, galleries — and now bars and restaurants.

Today it’s dubbed “LA’s outdoor museum”.

LA in a nutshell

Part of the Arts District’s appeal is that you can still find LA hipster staples: an outpost of Venice Beach’s infamous vegan restaurant Café Gratitude; sausage and beer joint Wurstkűche; gourmet cake store The Pie Hole. They’re tucked inside old industrial buildings that yield up their past in proud, peeling paint signs lovingly preserved from the last century.

Restaurants and coffee shops sit alongside quirky bookstores such as Hennessey + Ingalls, the largest art, architecture and design shop in the western US, and incredible gallery spaces such as the high-ceilinged Hauser & Wirth.

The Box fiercely advocates for its Skid Row neighbours with exhibitions such as the current Zillionaires Against Humanity: Sabotaging the Skid Row Neighborhood Council.

Hipster eats

Art draws people to the area but it’s food that keeps them here.

Long before the Arts District was on the map, Mexican restaurant La Reyna was serving tacos for $2. Forced out by developers, it closed in 2016 after two decades, but the defiant owners bought food trucks instead and can be found rolling all over downtown.

Popular French bistro Church & State occupies the Twenties headquarters of the National Biscuit Company alongside the ivy-covered, exposed-brick Bestia.

The latter’s simple but exceptional fresh pasta and pizza has garnered chef Ori Menashe countless gongs in the four years since it opened. Book well ahead or beg for a seat at the bar when it opens at 5pm.

Another must-eat? The Everson Royce Bar, or ERB, as famous for its organic burgers as its mixology, giving traditional cocktails a unique twist with rare and homemade ingredients. It was named one of the best bars in America in 2017.

Sleek stays

Like every major city, Los Angeles struggles with the balance between development and affordability but the Arts District has always reappropriated spaces with a nod to the original inhabitants, promoting community projects such as Art Share LA, which provides affordable live-work spaces for artists.

Pretty much every location in the Arts District has some obvious history etched into fading signs, rusty pipes and crumbling brick. The details are a whiff of a different, grimier era — anywhere from art deco to punk, whether that’s the laid-back budget American Hotel or one of the oldest artist communities in the world, the Brewery Arts Colony, which is located in a former beer factory.

In a city so sprawling that Angelenos often feel isolated in their Prius bubbles, the Arts District fosters a laid-back, 24-hour, chill-out vibe, plus a real sense of pride and community.

Here, your tourist status won’t be held against you. Instead, you’ll find yourself patted on the back for being smart enough to swap the bars of the Sunset Strip for a freshly pulled pint in the peace of the art deco Angel City Brewery or playing restored vintage pinball at EightyTwo.

Think of it as the Dalston of LA — with better weather, of course.

Details

Air New Zealand flies from Heathrow from £380 return. The Ace DTLA has doubles from £155, room only.