Family, friends, food -- what else?

NEAL McDonough’s East Coast Irish roots run deep, even after 15 years in L.A. But the actor, wife Ruve and 10-month-old son Morgan are flourishing here too, and so is his career. His latest film is “The Guardian,” Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers” opens Friday and he just wrapped “88 Minutes” with Al Pacino. Oh, and a sequel, Baby McDonough 2, arrives soon.

Cue the cook

I’d start my weekend off by inviting a bunch of friends over to the house for dinner. That’s really my favorite thing to do -- just tell them, “Come over, don’t bring anything, we’ve got it all here.” I have a great barbecue setup, and we sit around the backyard and talk while I cook. I have pretty simple tastes, so it would probably be something basic like steak and potatoes, and maybe we’d have a pool tournament later. Just a nice, relaxing Friday evening.

Hopefully there’d be some Boston sporting event on television. But at 8:30 it’s Morgan’s bedtime, so everyone knows that that’s when they have to go home. I tell you, our lifestyle’s just crazy.

Nonstop sports

On Saturday morning, because I usually get up around 5:30, I take the early shift with our son and we’ll go get some pancakes at Bob’s Big Boy. He just loves pancakes.

After breakfast, it’s time for softball with my friends from Cape Cod. We grew up together, went to high school together, and there are 10 of us out here who have been getting together for a game every Saturday for 13 years now.

After that, it’s more sports. We’ll go to Barney’s Beanery for a few beers and maybe some lunch. Later in the evening, my wife and I might get a baby-sitter and go to Village Pizzeria in Larchmont Village, which has incredibly great pizza, the best in L.A. and arguably the best I’ve ever had. We’ve tried just about everything on the pizza, and the last time my wife was pregnant, we tried some really interesting combinations.

But if we wanted to have a little more romantic dinner, we’d go to Madeo’s Italian restaurant, where the veal is fantastic and the atmosphere reminds me of an old-school type of place back in Boston. After dinner, maybe we’d go to the Hollywood Bowl for some music, but I’d go anywhere to hear James Taylor.

Bit of beach time

On Sunday morning, it starts with church, the Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills. Father O’Ryan’s sermons are always so uplifting. Then we’ll stop at the store for croissant and fruit. We’ll play with Morgan, read the paper and then take the family down to Venice and hit the beach and maybe ride bikes.

We’ll break for lunch at On the Waterfront Cafe. Nice spot, very low-key, and they have great Swiss bratwurst. There’s always someone busking on guitar out front, sometimes badly, sometimes fantastically, but there’s always a show.

So we’ll hang out at the beach a little longer and then come home and maybe have an early dinner at Tom Bergin’s, which is where we had our wedding reception. It’s a great Irish place, with Charlie behind the bar and all the same guys working there. There’s always a good game on, and always good chat going on. And the beef stew, they call it Gaelic stew, is just out of this world. It feels like a good old-fashioned Northeastern bar.