Watch out Silverlake, heads up Highland Park: “HelMel” is Los Angeles’ newest super-cool neighborhood du jour. Near but not quite S’lake, not exactly Hollywood proper either, on the edge of Koreatown, HelMel – named after the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Heliotrope Drive – is located in what was formerly a blah, grimy L.A. neighborhood of no particular renown, lying in the shadow of Los Angeles City College. However, in the past couple years, it’s become a center for cutting-edge art, design, sport, and, er, ice cream….

HelMel has more of the funky boho-rebel vibe of, say, San Francisco’s Mission or New York’s East Village in its hipster heyday than anywhere else in the City of Angels. As such, the first thing you notice about HelMel is that it’s become the center for L.A.’s edgy bicycle culture. At any time of day, you’ll find numerous grungy multiculti cyclists peddling about here, due to the presence of the very cool Orange 20 bike shop and Bicycle Kitchen, which a sign on the front door defiantly proclaims is “NOT a bike store”; instead, it’s a non-profit, donation-only, all-volunteer educational collective passionately devoted to the art of working on bikes. That’s not the only draw for those craving the latest in cool urbanity, though. Eyetailor stocks hard-to-find couture eyeglasses from cult brands like the made-in-Japan Bevel, Berlin-based Mykita, Belgium’s Theo, and Switzerland’s Gotti + Niederer; galleries like Synchronicity Space and National Mule feature shows and artists that don’t play by the art world’s rules. There’s also a number of notable theater/performance spaces like Sacred Fools and Johnson’s Turnip Town and the Against The Stream Buddhist Meditation Society - home to Noah Levine and his Dharma Punx movement – amidst the art studios and architecture firms sprouting up in this ethnically varied enclave.

Meanwhile, one also notices HelMel’s local denizens have a lot of skin ink, probably due to Under The Gun, an impressively large, clean, elaborate tattoo studio on the corner. That HelMel is the new center of indie culture is even made clear in the food offerings on hand: Pure Luck draws even non-vegetarians to their inexpensive yet delicious vegan delights, which run the gamut from Asian to pub fare. But the neighborhood’s flagship has to be Scoops, the independent ice cream shop that is drawing foodies for iconoclastic homespun flavor inventions like Balsamic Strawberry and Mascarpone Oreo that change every day. “This neighborhood was nothing when I came here, but Scoops really made it someplace to go,” explains Sung Kim, Eyetailor’s dapper proprietor. Pinkberry Schminkberry indeed – Scoops is so punk rock, it doesn’t even have a website, and even punk legend Ian Mackaye has been spotted there licking a cone. Then again, it’s no surprise Mackaye knows the scoop when it comes to the best place to find indie integrity…