How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Travis Bennett
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
It’s hard to imagine what Travis Bennett’s life — on-screen or off — would look like without Los Angeles in the background.
He’s spent most of his 29 years here, first in the Mid-City neighborhood where he grew up and later on the eastern edge of Beverly Hills where he now lives. In addition, the high-profile roles he’s landed since pivoting from music (as a member of L.A. rap collective Odd Future) to acting seem to have the city as a supporting character.
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First, there’s the L.A.-set FX series “Dave†(in which he plays the long-suffering friend of Dave Burd, a.k.a. Lil Dicky) and, more recently, the Jonah Hill and Kenya Barris penned film “You People.†Bennett says even a Coca-Cola Zero Sugar commercial featuring him alongside Burd in a diner hasn’t taken him far from the City of Angels because it was filmed at the Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank. (Ironically, the next film he’s set to appear in, “California King,†was shot in and around Provo, Utah.)
That super-L.A.-centric convergence of personal and professional lives means that when it comes to crafting the perfect Southland Sunday, Bennett shows up to his interview (which took place before the SAG-AFTRA strike) with a plan. He describes the epic 22-plus-hour day would go something like this.
5:30 a.m.: Arise early for the Rose Bowl
If the Rose Bowl [Flea Market] is happening, that changes everything. I wake up at 5:30 in the morning. I shower and I’m out of the house by 5:45, 6 a.m. and get to the Rose Bowl by 6:30, shop there until 9:30, 10 a.m. As soon as people start really getting in and crowding and the sun really starts to come out and get hot, I head back and get breakfast at Bodega Park in Silver Lake. That’s my favorite spot right now.
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[At the Rose Bowl,] there’s a guy named Artem at World Vintage who I shop with a bunch. He’s my main source of vintage right now in L.A., so I’ll go to him and then just bounce around to a few other people. ... I’m always looking for Lakers stuff and vintage LAFD stuff. On my first trip to the Rose Bowl years ago, I was there at 6 in the morning and found this random LAFD T-shirt with a bulldog on the back of it. It’s torn to shreds, and the collar is flipped open and just dangling in the wind. And I just love it. It’s one of those things you’d never find unless you went.
11:30 a.m.: Lemonade and a Lakers game
From Bodega Park, I’d go to Community Goods for a yuzu sparkling lemonade and see my boy Pedro who bought [the space] and opened it up a few months ago. It’s a place where I run into a bunch of my homies all the time. I’d probably hang out there for about an hour. Then, if the graces of God are on my side, there would be a Lakers game, so I’d watch a game.
12:30 p.m.: Chill and chuckle
In the afternoon I’d hang out at my house — or one of my friends’ houses — for a few hours. We’d just sit around making jokes. It’s a pretty tight circle of friends that’s been the same since [we were] 15 or 16 [years old]. I see them relatively often, sometimes on a daily basis, whether or not it’s planned. Tyler, Lionel, Jasper, they’re my crew. And so we’d make some jokes and then probably go eat again.
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1:30 p.m.: Jon & Vinny’s & lunch
Maybe we’d go to Escuela Taqueria or My 2 Cents or Jon & Vinny’s on Fairfax. If we went to Jon & Vinny’s, I’d go with some heirloom tomato pasta, no Parmesan and I’d start with the gem lettuce salad. If I was going to throw a meat in there, I’d probably get a chicken cutlet. And then I’d also have the broccolini and maybe the corn agnolotti. After that, we’ll usually stand outside of wherever we ate and make jokes about each other for an hour — just making jokes and showing each other random things on our phones.
3:30 p.m.: Card games with the crew
From there, we’d probably go to my house. My house has become the place recently because I’m so central to everything. Everybody else is either in West L.A., Bel-Air, Beverly Hills proper or West Hollywood, so my place is center stage. I usually just invite people over and see what happens. Sometimes we’ll break out the Uno cards. I kind of wish casinos had Uno because I would bet a lot of money — and I don’t think I’d lose money. I’m good at it. We played Sorry! recently. That is a very intense game to play with three other adult men.
7 to 9 p.m.: Have a Postmates potluck
For the ideal Sunday night dinner, we’d all go over to one of my friends’ houses and all eat food together — six to eight of us usually but no more than 10. We do this fun thing where we all order something from someplace different, so it’s a surprise — kind of like ordering a Postmates potluck. My thing is always Din Tai Fung because who is going to say no to those rice cakes with chicken?
9 p.m.: Spark up to “Successionâ€
The most peaceful ending to a Sunday is watching “Succession†or any “Game of Thrones†[show], and I’m at peace, smoking a joint at home.
10:30 p.m.: Video games and space weed
At about 10:30, I start playing video games and smoking a certain amount of marijuana. Well, sometimes a combination of video games — I’m playing a lot of “NBA 2K†right now as well as “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order†— and watching YouTube videos. [Weed-wise] Luigi is my jam. He doesn’t sell in dispensaries, though. Rappers know Luigi. I have friends who call it space weed. They come over and they’re like, “Hell no! I’m not smoking that ...â€
Jedi Cal Kestis is no Luke Skywalker in “Fallen Order.†But he doesn’t have to destroy the Empire; he just needs to lead a convincing story. A little choppy, a little silly, the game’s charms win out. It’s also the first proper action-adventure game in close to a decade and the first full narrative-focused “Star Wars†game to arrive under Electronic Arts’ stewardship of the storied Lucasfilm brand.
3:45 a.m.: Crash on the couch
When the night ends depends on what I have to do the next day. Even then, there are always moments when I’ll check my phone, and it’ll be 1 in the morning. And I’ll be like, “I’ve got another 20 [minutes] in me,†and then I check again and it’s 3:45 a.m. Sometimes I’ll fall asleep on my couch. I sleep on my couch more than I sleep in my bed, which is weird.
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