How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Kiernan Shipka

Digital painting of Kiernan Shipka with iced coffee, pastries, Jitlada, a farmers market, meditation and an avocado

Senior Features Writer

May 26, 2023 5 AM PT

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration for where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

AMC’s “Mad Men” didn’t just introduce the world to Kiernan Shipka, who played Don and Betty Draper’s daughter, Sally, throughout the series’ seven-season run; it also introduced the Chicago-born actor — at age 6 — to Los Angeles. She’s lived here ever since.

“We were out here for pilot season because, somehow, I convinced my mother to take me to L.A. for pilot season,” Shipka said over a matcha latte recently. “It was really just supposed to be three months, but then I got ‘Mad Men,’ and that turned out to be from [age] 6 to 15. A lot of now-adults that I know who grew up in the acting business didn’t even really grow up in L.A. because they were shooting all sorts of stuff everywhere [else]. I’m so lucky. I feel like ‘Mad Men’ shooting here for all that time gave me a really good grip on [the city].”

Shipka has remained rooted in L.A. as her career has continued to branch out. Post-Draper credits include landing lead roles in the Netflix series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” (2018-20) as well as the TV series adaptation of the film “Swimming With Sharks” (opposite Diane Kruger) and the film “Wildflower,” which both came out in 2022. In February, she wrapped shooting a supporting role in the Christmas movie “Red One” (due to hit Prime Video in advance of the year-end holidays), and she has two more big-screen appearances in the pipeline.

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“I shot two movies last year that I think will probably come out this year,” Shipka said. “‘Totally Killer,’ which is a movie for Amazon, and ‘Sweethearts’ [for New Line], which is also slated to come out this year.”

At the moment, you can catch her on “White House Plumbers,” the five-part limited HBO series that focuses on the behind-the-scenes story of Watergate operatives G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) and E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson). Shipka plays the latter’s daughter Kevan Hunt, president of the Smith College Republicans and, in Shipka’s words, “the golden child.” It was a role she finished shooting in 2021.

“We actually started shooting that two years ago,” said Shipka about “White House Plumbers,” which premieres its finale on Monday. “A bunch of us stayed buddies from that shoot, and we had this really amazing time. It’s wild — and funny — that it’s coming out now. I kind of get to relive the experience.”

As for her ideal Sunday, Shipka came to her interview — at the same cafe where she first started drinking coffee in 2013, she mentioned — with her homework done: a list of places top of mind and supporting documentation in hand (a photo of a cream-topped coffee drink on her phone).

“Sunday is definitely a ‘me’ day,” she said. “Sometimes that means I want to see people, and sometimes that means I don’t. Occasionally I’ll meet up with people on Sundays, but I try to just kind of play that by ear and try to figure out what my social battery’s looking like and then go from there. Kind of like: ‘This needs to be a day where I don’t see that many people and recharge for the week ahead.’ It’s sort of a case-by-case situation.”

10:30 a.m.: Head over to Larchmont Village for a latte
I’m gonna say it’s like a nice, lazy 10:30 a.m. roll out of bed. And it’s Sunday, so I’m coming up to Larchmont to get coffee. I love Go Get Em Tiger. I just tried their matcha for the first time because I’m having a little bit of a matcha era right now where I’m trying all the different ones around town to rank them and make a list.

It’s good, because I feel like I get so much decision anxiety when I’m choosing a drink, that if I can just sort of organize myself and narrow down my options to one thing per place — because I’m pursuing this greater matcha ranking — it makes my morning a bit easier. I usually get an iced latte here. And whether it’s an iced matcha or iced latte or with almond milk or regular milk, they always shake it up real nice.

Sometimes, because I don’t like to stick to just one place for coffee, I’ll go to Clark Street [Bakery] across the street. They have great bread, great pastries, and they’re the nicest people. There I’ll get a cappuccino or an iced latte. Both put me in a perfect position to then go straight to the farmers market.

11 a.m.: Stock up on avocados and exciting lettuces at the farmers market(s)
I just love a Sunday farmers market. I love chatting with people. The best is running into people at the farmers market. It feels very ... it kind of puts you into life.

Which one I go to kind of depends on how I’m feeling. If my schedule for Sunday is a bit tighter, I’ll probably go to the Larchmont Village Farmers Market because it’s a smaller market and I get less swept away. But if I have a morning blocked off and I really want to go to a ton of different vendors or if I’m cooking that week or feeling like I want a different lettuce every single day of the week — and get all my steps in — then I go to the Hollywood Farmers Market, where I can get all those very exciting lettuces.

[At Larchmont,] I really like this place called Wava Life. They make kombucha, tepache and jun, which are all fermented drinks that I really love — because I’m never going to ferment my own drinks — and they also make bone broth. I just love that stand. And I think JJ’s Lone Daughter Ranch, which isn’t at Larchmont but is at the Hollywood one, has the best avocados and citrus. Their avocado is the avocado to end all avocados. I don’t want to, you know, make the definitive call, but they’re so, so good. And there’s so much variety.

Noon: Make a beeline to brunch at Honey Hi
By about noon, I’m hungry and I want to get a nice little brunch. And a place that’s really close to my heart is Honey Hi in Echo Park. It’s very nourishing brunch food — and lunch and breakfast food too, just not dinner.

I tend to go there solo, but it’s also a great place to bring friends. That would be my choice for a Sunday brunch. I love the miso bowl. The smoothies are really great, and they have great grain bowls — all sorts of delicious bowls — and they do a weekend pancake that I haven’t had yet but I’m dying to try.

I see Kacie [Carter], who’s one of the owners, [shopping] at the Hollywood Farmers Market with this giant cart. It’s just really beautiful food, and a lot of it’s local.

1 p.m. Go on a vintage-shopping adventure
There are a couple of things I do in the afternoon. One, I feel like shopping is always more fun on a Sunday, and there’s a place I try to always hit when I’m in town. I went with friends a couple of Sundays ago, and it was part of one of the greatest Sundays in recent memory. It’s a place called Mothfood, which is a vintage store in Highland Park. I’m actually wearing jeans from there right now. These are vintage little boy’s pants from the ’30s.

Tommy Dorr runs the place, and he just has the coolest selection of vintage T-shirts, fun jackets and incredible denim. I feel like I’ve found the most special stuff there recently. It’s really well-curated and it’s really wearable, which I love. And it’s very modern-feeling. Some days I’ll look at my outfit and go, “Oh, my God, it doesn’t go past the 1950s,” which is wild because it all feels very modern.

2 p.m.: Make a pit stop for pie
If I’m in the Honey Hi/Mothfood part of town, I would probably go to Grand Central Market to stop by Fat + Flour, which is Nicole Rucker’s spot, and just pick up dessert — because I’m planning in advance for the dessert I’m going to have on Sunday night obviously. And picking up dessert in the middle of the day is a good idea because, when you want dessert later, you’ll think, “Damn, I should have gotten an extra pastry or something.” And she makes the best pies and cookies. The chocolate chess pie is pretty next-level.

3:30 p.m.: Swing by the (yoga) studio
So that’s part of my afternoon. And then one thing that I try to do every Sunday is yoga. I see if I can hit a class or go see Joe at Urban 728 Yoga, which is a wonderful, beautiful yoga studio just north of Melrose on La Brea. It’s hot yoga there, so it kind of gets you sweating. Joe is one of my favorite instructors that I’ve ever done yoga with. Every instructor I’ve ever had there has been really lovely too; they’re just really good people. With something like a workout class, you want the vibe to be really nice so you’ll want to go. And I just love it there! It puts me in a good head space for the week ahead.

5 p.m. Time for a coffee adventure
If I’ve planned the day right, then there’s just enough time to get a second coffee, an afternoon coffee. Lately I’ve kind of been fixated on fun, caffeinated beverages — beyond just milk and coffee and into the more foam-and-syrup kind of thing. I can’t quite do it in the morning, but the afternoon is time for a coffee adventure — a playful afternoon coffee.

There’s a place called Damo in Koreatown that makes an einspänner latte, and on Sunday, I had a hojicha einspänner, which is hojicha tea with this very thick, very, very, very luscious cream top, and you just mix it all together. If I’m sipping something fun, I’m more likely to be reading something or working on something while I’m having it. It’s sort of what gets me through the afternoon lull and picks me up.

7:30 p.m. Takeout and TV time
For me, Sundays are usually a takeout day. Because if I’ve already done shopping that day and there are things in the fridge — like from the farmers market — I’m not feeling motivated to make anything. I mean, haven’t I done enough just accumulating everything? Which is why I’m probably going to watch something, order takeout and sort of write out my week ahead and make sure everything is organized. And cooking is one less thing I have to think about.

I’d probably order from Jitlada, which is on Sunset in Thai Town. It’s actually really fun to go to, but they also do incredible takeout. And the crispy morning glory salad is delicious. The crab fried rice is delicious, and the green curry is one of my favorite things. It’s like, how can food this good be literally on my couch?

Watching-wise, I’m a “Succession” girl, but I’m not all caught up because I’ve been trying to finish “Jury Duty,” which is on Freevee. It is genius! James Marsden is so good in it, and it is so fun to watch. It’s my new favorite thing, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Or maybe it’s a movie night. I always feel like there’s a million movies that I still want to see — or see again. I love a good rewatch these days. I really like watching a movie for a second or third time. It’s a completely different experience. I recently rewatched “La La Land” and then I rewatched “Whiplash.” I just was in my little Damien Chazelle mode for two nights there. And I’d definitely seen each of those movies at least twice. I even like rewatching classic movies. I rewatched “Sunset Boulevard” a couple weeks ago, and it was just ... perfect.

10:30 p.m. Bringing the weekend to a close
I would say [that by] 10:30, I’m winding down.