My Favorite Weekend: Frank and Jamie McCourt

PLAY ball! With the 2006 season underway, the next six-plus months promise to be action-packed for Dodger owners Frank and Jamie McCourt. But if their 26 years of marriage has taught them anything, it’s that people need a life outside baseball too.

Parents of four sons, the formerly East Coast McCourts are still learning West Coast ways. But judging from their weekends, they’re a quick study.

Prime pasta

Frank McCourt: On Fridays we love going out to one of our favorite places, Porta Via in Beverly Hills. It’s a very neighborly Italian trattoria, lots of regulars, a great place to get a bottle of wine and some great food.

Jamie McCourt: And we always get the same thing. As soon as the waiter sees me, he says, “OK, Jamie, I know what you’re having -- the pasta alla checca.” Then we usually have dessert at home. I’m a dessert-a-holic. My favorite is probably lemon custard souffle.

FM: And my favorite is a bite of whatever she’s having.

In the swim

FM: On Saturday we’ll grab a cup of coffee and the papers and then catch up with each other. Most people think that because we work together we get to talk all day long, but we actually spend very little time together, so this is a nice time to catch up. Then, since my wife is an avid swimmer, she’ll go off and do her Esther Williams thing and I’ll get a workout in too. The son who still lives with us is a devoted tennis player, so we might go watch him play, then we all meet back at the refrigerator and Jamie will whip up some omelets.

JM: I love to cook and they love to eat, so it works out great.

FM: In the afternoon we’ll go visit one of our other sons who lives in Santa Monica, and we’d go for a walk on the beach. Not that he’d go with us. Then we’d go to dinner nearby.

JM: Probably to Capo. The duck’s great, the steak’s great --

FM: And so is the rigatoni with porcini meat sauce. But I’d start with the heirloom tomato salad with burrata cheese.

JM: Then, if the weather’s nice, we’d go to the Hollywood Bowl. If not, then the theater, maybe to see Billy Crystal’s “700 Sundays” again.

FM: Or we might just have friends over, or maybe be privileged to be invited to their house. There’s something very special about that kind of night.

Sunday brunch

FM: On Sunday morning our sons may have spent the night and brought along friends.

JM: So we’ll do a body count and find out how many people are staying around for brunch. The menu for a bunch of boys would be heavy-duty pancakes, eggs, steak, roast-beef hash and chocolate-chip cookies. Three meals rolled into one.

FM: It’s really fun just watching the kids eat.

JM: In the afternoon, we take bridge lessons with friends. I don’t know how much learning we’re doing between all the talking and eating, but we’re having a great time doing it.

FM: Then at night it’s Toscana in Brentwood for a big family dinner. It’s a great way for all of us to regroup, mark the end of a great weekend and get the new week off to a good start. It’s a ritual that we love.

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-- Mark Sachs