Venice rambles and vrooms

The TV show “Men in Trees” had a brief but memorable run on ABC in 2006-08, and it led to some good things in star James Tupper’s life. First, there’s his relationship with “Trees” costar Anne Heche, with whom he shares a home in Venice with kids Homer, 7, and Atlas, 7 months. The show also led to his new series on NBC, the medical drama “Mercy” (Wednesdays at 8 p.m.). Check out what the “Trees” alums do with a weekend off, and they don’t even have to leave the neighborhood.

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Walking the town

We love walking down to 3 Square Cafe & Bakery on Abbot Kinney for breakfast or lunch. It’s absolutely fantastic, a really fun, friendly place with a German menu. It’s like a diner for people who love quality food. They have great caramelized apple pancakes.

We also like Gjelina. I don’t think it’s a Scandinavian place; I think they’re just hip. It’s a new restaurant, but because people have already found out about it, it’s already impossible to get a reservation. They’ve taken cuisine to the next level -- market-fresh, a new menu every day. I just had poached eggs on lentils there -- fantastic.

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Stars on wheels

We don’t really have date nights, but Anne bought me a Vespa for Father’s Day and we like driving it down to one of the terrazas, the little sitting areas down at the end of Washington Boulevard, and we’ll just chat. I might have one margarita over three hours. Then we’ll zoom back up to one of the canals or go for a walk on the beach or the pier.

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OK, they do get out

If we do leave Venice, a nice romantic place in West Hollywood is Madeo. Very Italian -- it’s like the owner just got off the plane from Italy and said to himself, “Hey, I’d like to start a restaurant.” I like the fish there, but I grew up in Nova Scotia, so I order fish a lot. Anne will order a salad and some tiny pasta and then say to me, “Remember, TV bodies!”

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Keeping fit

For exercise, we have a couple of bikes that we use to cycle around the neighborhood, and we just joined a little gym, Personally Fit on Lincoln. And sometimes Anne will drag me to YAS Yoga. They have a Yoga for Athletes program and a good power-cycling class.

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Arts and commerce

We like to go down to Abbot Kinney once a month for the art walk. People open up their shops at night and you can browse around and see all the art.

Even regular stores will have art on display. It’s really wonderful.

We always do some shopping at the A+R boutique. They import stuff from all over the world. It’s mostly home furnishings, but they also have bicycles, piggy banks, all kinds of stuff. The owner really has an eye for good things.

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mark.sachs@latimes.com