How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Melissa Fumero

Los Angeles Times

28-02-2025

Melissa Fumero's sons, at 5 and 8 years old, are almost at the age that they can prep breakfast for themselves. When the time comes, it will be a help for the busy mom, who also doubles as the queen of network television.
The actor is perhaps best known for playing the over-eager, by-the-rules Det. Amy Santiago in the police comedy series 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine.'
But she calls her latest role, as a 'wild' suburban socialite on NBC's new series 'Grosse Point Garden Society,' an 'actor dream.'
'The experience of playing a socialite means you are in the hair and makeup chair far longer than you are when you're playing a detective,' said Fumero, laughing.
More seriously, the joy in playing her character, Birdie, comes with digging beneath her plasticky surface.
'When we meet her in the show, she's kind of had everything she's wanted, and she's a little like, 'Now what?' and 'Who even am I?' and 'What do I even want?'' Fumero said.
Introspection is familiar to the actor, who co-hosts a podcast called 'More Better' with fellow 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' alum Stephanie Beatriz. On it, they candidly discuss the tricky balancing act between their careers and personal lives.
But beyond that, really, Fumero assured me, there are few touchstones between her and Birdie. Here's how the family-oriented actor would actually spend her ideal Sunday.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
7:30 a.m.: Sleep in
My ideal, perfect, fantastical Los Angeles morning, is my kids sleep in. And by sleep in, I mean they wake up at like 7:30 a.m., which is sleeping in in our house.
Ninety percent of the time, it's really sweet. They come into the bed, they cuddle, they're all cute. And then, just as you're snuggled up about to fall back asleep because you think, 'Maybe we're all just going to sleep a little longer, they whisper in your ear, 'Can we get up now? I'm really hungry. Can we go have breakfast now?'' It's so cute, but it's also so annoying.
9 a.m.: Tucker out the pup
I will take my French mastiff Rosie for a hike at Fryman Canyon to tucker her out for the day and also just feel like I moved on a Sunday. It's a beautiful hike. It's one of my favorites. It's never super-crowded, and when you get to that back top ridge and it's overlooking all the mountains, and there's eucalyptus trees … it's so L.A.
10:30 a.m.: Surf's up
Let's say this Sunday is in the summertime, so we're also going to go to the beach for the day. Every summer, I say we're gonna go to the beach every Sunday, and then what happens is, like at least five or six happen.
So after the hike, I'm going to stop and grab some sandwiches and lattes from Harvest Moon, which is one of our favorites and we go all the time. I'm gonna get croissants. I'm gonna get their delicious lattes. I'm gonna get a muffin for my son and some sandwiches. We're gonna pack a cooler, and we're gonna drive to Will Rogers [State] Beach, which for us is about a half-hour drive. Some people don't know that the parking lot keeps going north once you enter it, and so that's usually our move.
We're like full-on serious beach people.
I grew up going to the beach in New Jersey and in Miami. Then my husband is also Cuban, and he grew up in Miami, so he also grew up going to the beach. I've been at the beach with my parents for like eight hours, so we kind of do the same thing.
We have the chairs, we have blankets, we have a cooler and umbrellas. We also love to invite friends to the beach because it's always more fun with other families. The adults chill and maybe have a High Noon and some chips while the kids play and look for sand crabs and boogie board and climb the rocks. It's always just the best time.
3:30 p.m.: Keep the kids awake
We probably spend half the drive home trying to keep our kids from falling asleep, because if they do, they'll be up too late, and we hate that. So it's loud music and being like, 'Hey! Don't sleep! We're gonna be home soon. Open your eyes! Look at me!' Basically being the most annoying parents on the drive home.
4 p.m.: Lazy screen time
We get home and depending on how hard the kids played, it's either going to be some lazy screen time for everyone or sometimes they jump in the pool for an hour because they're maniacs and their energy is boundless, especially if they fell asleep in the car. If they fell asleep in the car, their asses are going in the pool when we get home.
5:30 p.m.: Family-friendly Italian dinner
We're going to go to dinner. Our two favorite family spots are Osteria La Buca in Sherman Oaks or Pitfire Pizza in North Hollywood.
Osteria has really fantastic Italian food. We discovered them during the pandemic because they did Buca Out Back, which was they transformed their little parking lot in the back to outdoor dining. They had picnic tables, and they would do a really small menu of some of their pizzas and their spaghetti, and they would have wine and beer. It was the first fun thing we could do in the pandemic, so that's when we fell in love with them.
The pizza at Pitfire is super bomb, and I say that as a former New Yorker. In general, L.A. has bomb pizza now. That used to not be true…
Pitfire Pizza is more like, brick-oven gourmet pizza. It's smaller, and the crust is really fluffy. But it's still crispy, and there are a lot of different combinations. My kids love the pizza and the meatballs there. My husband and I love the pizza, and we love the kale salad, and also they do double pours of wine. So, that's my favorite part. It's a big outdoor seating, so it's really fun to go. We also, a lot of times, run into other families with kids that we know. It's a very family-friendly place.
8 p.m.: Kiddos' bedtime
Then it's head home and chill, do bath time and bed, and hopefully from all the beach and the swimming the kids are out right at 8 o'clock. And then maybe I can have another glass of wine with my husband on the couch and just have an hour to ourselves.
9 p.m.: TV and chill
The kids fall asleep, and we run to start a show before we get too tired. We just started 'Shrinking,' and it's a little easier because it's half-hour episodes.
Anytime we attempt to watch an hourlong show, it's like, really hard. One of us will fall asleep, and it's like we take turns. One night it's him, one night it's me. And then we have to decide if we want to rewatch or did not a lot happen. We love TV so much. We're just so tired. We have little kids.