My Favorite Weekend: Dylan McDermott

Dylan McDermott was a born-and-bred East Coast dude before heading west to chase his fledgling acting career back in the late ‘80s. Then he got a real taste of SoCal and nothing would ever be quite the same.

“L.A. is still such a fascinating place to me, so big and diverse,” said the Westside resident (OK, so he does still have an apartment in New York City). “It’s so spread out that you can go from Zuma to downtown and there’s really like 10 different towns in between. I’m still learning about it — it takes that long.”

McDermott’s got a lot more on his plate than sussing out the Southland. His TNT series “Dark Blue” just kicked off its second season this week with a two-hour double episode, and it’s already apparent that changes are afoot.

“I think the biggest change is that the shows will be a little lighter in tone, with more humor, and my character is going to have a love interest (“ Battlestar Galactica’s” Tricia Helfer),” McDermott said. “So I think the combination of those things will open the show up to a bigger audience.”

Now, back to his L.A. learning curve....

A matter of trust

My favorite sushi restaurant is Sushi Nozawa in Studio City, which is really just a hole-in-the-wall, and all over the place the chef has these signs that say, “Trust Me.” So you don’t order, he gives you what he thinks is appropriate. You eat it and you’re happy.

For some nightlife, my friend Brent Bolthouse has a place called Trousdale that I like. It’s dark, it’s interesting, it has good music, a really fun place.

Best of both worlds

On a Saturday, I take my kids to a place called Back on the Beach Cafe in Santa Monica, and like it says, it’s right on the beach. It’s a good place for breakfast, there’s a playground, and the ocean is right there. It has everything I think of when I think of California. For me, it’s always about the ocean, and I want my kids to enjoy that.

Then you can go hiking in Los Liones Canyon or maybe take a bike up Mandeville Canyon. You can’t do things like that in most big cities, but that’s what is great about L.A., you have nature and the city.

Fire up the grill

I really love the small ethnic places in L.A., and in Koreatown there’s a great place called Soot Bull Jeep. It’s Korean barbecue, so they actually bring the meat over and grill it right there at the table. It’s another hole-in-the-wall type of place and you could pass by it and not think twice, but it’s one of those four-star places if you ask me.

The future of food

Another of the great restaurants in Los Angeles is Axe on Abbot Kinney in Venice. The style inside is sort of clean-modern, and the food is what Alice Waters always talked about — local farmers, organic, just the best and freshest ingredients. They have a chicken rice bowl that’s amazing, and an incredible chicken soup too. Axe is ahead of its time.

mark.sachs@latimes.com