- [Narrator] Protein-rich and sustainably raised, American Lamb is a versatile ingredient in any dish.

For recipes, nutrition information, and to learn more about our commitment to sustainability, visit AmericanLamb.com.

- Acropolis Realty Group, providing real estate services across the industry, including commercial development, residential sales, and residential and commercial leasing.

Learn more at acropolisrealtygroup.com.

- [Narrator] Gateway to the Finger Lakes Region, Syracuse is centrally located in New York State.

Syracuse has a variety of outdoor parks, year-round activities, dining options, and seasonal festivals.

More information at VisitSyracuse.com.

- Spatchcock Funk is in the house.

Our house and your house too.

You know where the party's at?

Wherever you're at.

We're gonna teach you how to throw the best parties, the best dinners, the best get togethers.

All you need is the people you love.

And we'll take care of the rest.

Spatchcock Funk, dope food, strong drinks, great stories.

(drumsticks clicking) (upbeat music) At the funk, dark necessities are part of our design.

As we grew this thing, man, we've been inspired by a lot of things.

And a lot of them are from the mecca of food, partying, arts and culture.

The city of New Orleans, our style, like that city, is a super mashup, mixtape of different styles.

A cultural collision course that made us swell, us.

We to dress up or dress down, get deep and spiritual, or keep it light.

The jokes that is not the booze.

So tonight we're having a seance and bringing out the ghosts, throwing on some style and topping it with some mystery and intrigue.

We've got a sea of sexy people that are more than interesting and we're going way down the rabbit hole.

So Alice, buckle up.

You're about to see how far that hole really goes.

You've experienced the weird, the macabre and seen the sunrise popping bottles or popping aspirin it.

Tonight we're just popping off.

And here's a spooky pop.

(bright ambiance) You want something existential and a party that truly transcends the day to day.

So get you some masks, some fire libations, and bring the old school and new school together and turn on your will to be weird.

We're conjuring up some magic tonight.

This is the voodoo masquerade.

(upbeat music continues) (jazz music) This is an honorific to the mighty French Quarter of New Orleans when more popular drinks started at Pat O'Brien's, but served everywhere is the hurricane.

Our version, the Crossfire hurricane, because we use a couple different juices in it, but get yourself an iced up shaker and we're gonna start out by putting two ounces of light rum in it.

We got this little elixir type thing like we're making a magic potion 'cause it's getting real in the French Quarter.

Then two ounces of dark rum.

We're gonna add in two ounces of passion fruit juice, the type you get out of a juice box, maybe we're also gonna put in one ounce of orange juice, no pulp, and then an ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice.

We always want to use fresh stuff when we can.

That's when it comes to lemons and limes.

Then we got half an ounce of simple syrup, get a little sweetness to it, and then half an ounce about a teaspoon, a little bit more of Grenadine.

And then we shake it up.

(ice cubes shaking) The traditional hurricane glass, like almost an hourglass shape.

You know what I mean?

Like that's a good looking glass, y'all.

But it's perfect for what we're doing 'cause it looks cool.

So we're gonna pour this beautiful concoction over the top.

And how we garnish it is with one bright red cherry and an orange.

Watch out voodoo masquerade party.

There's a storm coming, y'all.

The crossfire.

Ah, hurricane, hmm That's good.

(groovy music) Yeah, we got one of my favorite things in the world.

Oysters, y'all.

The mighty, mighty char grilled oyster.

Now there are legends about this stuff.

There's a restaurant owner in New Orleans Who during the parade when people were throwing out beads, my man is grilling char grilled oysters and throwing 'em in the crowd.

That's the type of reaction this dish gets and that's what we're making today.

The first thing we're gonna need though, are some oysters.

So we've got some beautiful Wellfleets here and we're gonna talk about how to open them.

What you want is an oyster knife, right?

This is one of my favorite ones.

It's been through the mix a little bit.

We're gonna take an oyster and you can take any type of cloth, like a towel I typically use, but some people will use napkins and roll it so it's pretty tight because you want to be able to get your hand pretty firmly around the oyster itself so it doesn't slip away on ya.

Get it pressed on the ground and take the end of your knife.

And then the back is a hinge.

So you wanna drive it in and pop it like that, and then bang, you've got it all set up.

So we're just gonna move it around the top of the edge.

And there we go.

Shucking crazy y'all.

When we're gonna charcoal these, we're not gonna unhook the oyster itself from its little crevice.

It's got like a little neck that connects to it.

'cause we wanted to stay firm on the grill, but if we're making it raw, we would do that and then we eat it like this.

The best thing ever.

Raw oysters.

We're gonna shuck the rest of these and get everything else going.

We've got some melted butter mixed with some extra virgin olive oil, some fresh oregano, garlic and black pepper.

And we're gonna stir it up and get some of that beautiful goodness and drizzle it onto each one of our beautiful stirs babe, oys, not 'lobs.

You can put a couple slices of shaved Parmesan on top.

Then we have a little bit of parsley now a little bit after.

So you'll have the darker green from it being grilled up and then a brighter green afterwards.

Really make the color pop.

Now to throw 'em on the grill, babe.

Let's do it.

Yes, we got 'em off the grill.

All charred up.

Nice.

Got that cheese melted.

We're gonna garnish it with a little bit more of the fresh parsley.

Like the cheesy good part on there too, mm.

Char-grilled oyster baby.

That's what's up.

(upbeat music) Yo.

If you wanna make history at a party, we need a historic location.

So we're checking one out, part of my history.

I got married here.

Let's see if it fits the vibe.

(gentle music) Joe, what's up man?

- Hey, welcome guys.

- What's up dude?

- Hey, thanks for coming down.

Happy to have you here.

- Dude, we're glad to be here.

So listen, we're throwing a voodoo masquerades.

We look at the New Orleans like cool vibe.

- Yeah, I mean this is one of the coolest places we have available.

You know, it's one of the most historic buildings right here in downtown.

- We need it to be a little elegant though.

People are gonna be dressed up full suits, masks, and a little mysterious.

- Is pre-prohibition era elegant enough for you?

- Oh, I think so.

I don't know if you can handle that though.

- Prohibition's not for me, but you know what I mean.

I'm here to drink and party.

- We stopped smuggling barrels decades ago.

- Oh, that part, I'm down with the barrels.

I'm down with that.

- Well, I mean if you're interested in a little mystery too, we have that covered as well.

- Whoa, whoa, are we talking like ghosts?

- We're talking about multiple ghosts.

- What?

- Are we okay?

- Ehhh - We wanna go say hey, they're waiting for you.

- Yes.

- No.

- Let's go guys.

- Dude, you got married here.

You didn't know there was ghosts?

- I did, but I pretended they weren't there.

You know what I mean?

- Yeah, they said they sent a card.

- You're about to see a part of the landmark.

A lot of people don't get to see.

And this is where all the mystery begins.

- Oh man - I think this is a closet.

He's tricking us.

- Back in the day, in order to keep this building operating and maintained, we actually had to have somebody live here.

And the guy that lived here, his name was Charles, known to many as Chuck.

And he had a little dog that roamed around with him as well.

And this is actually the apartment he lived in.

- Oh wow.

- You know what?

- Looks like you're college dorm.

- I mean, a little cleaner.

- It smells a little better.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Now we may not use the original generator to power the building, but we do still use our two original boilers to heat the building.

These two big girls were installed first and then the construction was built around it.

Now, I told you boys earlier about how we would participate in some illegal activities, smuggling barrels through the prohibition era.

- Sure.

- Well, with an illegal business, sometimes you have to take illegal actions to those that don't follow suit.

So reported but never really documented.

This was the disposal.

And some would call it the judge jury.

And this is our executioner right here.

- Yeah, that's terrifying.

- That's super terrifying.

- That's theater.

- How far like are we from the street right now?

- What street?

- We're like way down there, man.

- Yeah, but I will say got a lot more of the theater to show you guys if in case you wanted check it out, that makes sure it works for your event.

- Yo hold on guys.

Guys?

- Don't worry about it, man, I'm sure he'll find us.

- I'm not worried, he's a big boy.

- Yeah, there's only two of us here.

- Yeah, we'll see him at the party.

- But anyways, I wanna just end the tour right here with one of our most famous areas of the theater.

And that is where our famous ghost Clarissa passed away.

There's a lot of written document about her and a lot of reported sightings of her.

And it all started with her husband, who was an electrician at the end of the evening, was removing some cabling and doing some lighting.

And unfortunately became exposed to the cabling underneath and started to be electrocuted right here on this stage.

- Right here.

- Now what they didn't know is that her wife, his wife, who was a contracted performer and dancer, was waiting up in the balcony right where he is.

- What you doing?

- And in a panic, she fell over the railing and unfortunately passed away right here on landing in our main auditorium.

- Where'd you go?

- Well, I feel her pain, 'cause I'm panicking right now, man.

I haven't seen you guys in like a year if you like.

- Be careful up there, buddy.

- Yeah, definitely be careful and do me a favor and take the stairs on the way down and not the fast route.

- Got that.

Well, I guess we better go grab 'em (upbeat music) - Now, Jambalaya.

This has a special place in our heart.

Hopefully it's gonna have a special place in your belly.

One of my favorite dishes ever.

And the first thing that Alex and I ever made when we shot with a camera.

Today, we're cooking six wing jambalaya.

But I learned this dish, man in the mighty city of New Orleans from a couple different people, different chefs, a cooking class.

Actually, I took on it and there's a wild story about jambalaya.

New Orleans is this massive mashup of all these different cultures, right?

You got pirates, you got the French, you got all sorts of Spanish stuff in there.

It's crazy.

So jambalaya, actually, the story that we got was jambo was a phrase meaning rice.

So the slave masters would just make rice and give it to the slaves, and occasionally they would throw their table scraps into the rice, right?

So jambalaya meant rice with a gift, but it was like a divisive name, like a middle finger to the slave masters.

So instead of that, what they happened to do was the slaves made their own version of it and reclaimed it and kind of made it theirs.

So to me, man, this is a rebellious, badass dish that should be eaten at all time.

Six wing jambalaya, y'all, so named because there's three birds and six wings.

Turkey, kielbasa, chicken, andouille.

We also have a roasted duck.

So we took a whole duck, covered it with butter Cajun seasoning, and roasted it and reserved all the fat drippings.

So the rice, the grain part of this, the starch part of the jambalaya is gotta work, man.

We make one that's good enough to eat on its own.

And here's how we do it.

We put in two little bit more than two whole amber beers.

We're gonna put in couple cups, long grain white rice, stirred up a little bit for some color.

We're gonna throw in a bunch of fresh cut parsley and obviously butter because, obvs, duh.

Then a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning heat it up.

We want to get it to a boil.

Then we're gonna lower to a simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, back to the party, get yourself a big frying pan and we're gonna heat a little bit of butter over that.

If you want depth of flavor season as you go, you can see, I see that with the veggies.

But first let's just get some of that little kielbasa/turkey fat up in here.

It's gonna brown this so we crisp up both sides and then we're gonna remove it.

All right, we're sufficiently browned.

I see some fat up in this pan.

So we're gonna have a big mixing bowl.

We're gonna put everything into, when it's ready, each step we're adding into it.

So all the grease and the kielbasa, we're gonna put in there.

[Pan Clink] We're gonna get our stove down a medium.

And here's where things get real, y'all.

What we've got to get the flavor up in this thing is that rendered duck fat.

So the first thing we're gonna do is get some of that fat in the pan.

It's gonna cook all the veggies in this fat, and it's gonna really just transcend this dish into the next level.

So get a good level of that because what we're making now is what's referred to as the holy trinity, the trinity of cooking in New Orleans.

And that is peppers, celery, and onion.

And actually the way we see it and the way we were taught the Pope and the Holy Trinity garlic, we're gonna put a bunch of garlic up in this thing.

Get it fragrant.

Once that's going, we're gonna toss in our onions.

Every time we add in a new veggie, every time we're gonna hit it with some of the duck fat.

And then a little bit of our Cajun seasoning.

Next celery, y'all.

Couple stalks of that baby, duck fat Cajun seasoning.

Stir it.

Okay, one more round and we're going at it now.

Green peppers, for the green bell peppers We got a red bell pepper too.

We like the color, especially with the jambalaya, the way it goes.

So again, one more time, hit that duck fat.

Little more Cajun seasoning.

I'm just gonna cook this until it cooks down and add it in with your other meat that we just cooked.

Got our meat and our big mixing bowl.

Next, the rice, all that beer.

Beautiful goodness.

And this flour, rice we're gonna put in there too.

Then this beautiful big bunch of Cajun duck fat veggies that's gonna go in there too.

Every bite gets a bunch of that.

Chicken and dewy.

We also throw in the shredded duck.

So there's three things in the world you should be shredding.

Duck, guitars, and skateboards.

So we're gonna stir this up.

We're gonna toss in a little bit of hot sauce, see how we do.

I want a little bit of each piece of meat on that thing.

Hmm, we're gonna take this, throw some green onions on it and serve it to the people baby.

(upbeat music) The third course today, baby, our dessert course.

But actually it's also a breakfast course too, or a lunch course for that matter.

And I'll tell you about all three in a second.

But we're making beignets, y'all famous in the city of New Orleans, and it's a great little sweet treat, some powdered sugar.

We're gonna put some other little sweet treats on top of that.

It's a great way to start your day to end your dinner.

Late night snack, our boy DJ pastry Paul, may he rest in peace.

Good man, great guy to party with.

And he's actually our boy, Jared's dad.

He would actually make these beignets and then make sandwiches out of 'em with pulled pork apple compote.

I mean, just straight fire, a donut sandwich.

So basically the beignet is a square donut.

And we wanna start first by activating some yeast.

So we're gonna take two thirds of a cup of sugar, a cup and a half of warm water.

The warm water should be 110 degrees or so.

Then a packet of of active yeast, whisk it together and then set it aside for 10 minutes, maybe longer.

It's gotta get foamy and bubbly.

We're gonna get the dough started.

We got two eggs.

We're gonna beat them with our paddle mixer.

(mixer whirring) Next we're gonna add in one cup of evaporated milk and two and a half teaspoons of pure vanilla extract, yall.

Then we're gonna make sure that's evenly mixed.

(mixer whirring) All right, we've got three and a half cups of bread flour.

That particular flour is important.

Now we're gonna mix this again until it's evenly mixed.

(mixer whirring) Our dough's looking pretty strong, our yeast, looking pretty yeasty, yeasty, beastie.

So we're gonna add this in slowly mixing it and be careful it'll splash a little bit.

So do that over low.

By a little bit I mean a lot.

(mixer whirring) Keep going till it's evenly mixed up and you're adequately splashed.

All right, we're pretty smooth in there.

So now, I mean we're smooth everywhere for that matter.

We're gonna add in five tablespoons of room temperature butter.

Then we're gonna keep beating that until that's smooth too.

So this might take a minute or two.

(mixer whirring) Our butter mixed in.

One and a half teaspoons of salt, and then another three and a half cups of that bread flour.

I'm gonna lower my gear here and we're gonna beat this pretty solidly for a few minutes until it really starts to form into a big ball of dough.

(mixer whirring) All right, we got this big mighty ball of dough.

We are gonna get it off of our paddle attachment.

Then we're just gonna tightly cover it with some plastic wrap and throw it in the fridge for at least two hours.

Coming outta the box hot but outta the fridge, cold.

Two hours, our big dough ball's ready.

Get it onto our surface.

Get your dough ready.

We're gonna roll it out to about a quarter inch thick.

They're gonna be kind of thin, but they're gonna puff up when we fry 'em.

Now we're gonna make about two by two and a half inch ish rectangles.

And we're just gonna cut 'em all out into our little squares and get ready to fry 'em.

We get our oil to around 350, 360, somewhere in that neighborhood.

Get ready to dip 'em for three minutes.

Yo, we got these beignets outta here and they are looking right now to decorate these things.

Dress up, we got a dress up party going on.

Y'all take a little bit of powdered sugar and just get a little bit of it on there.

So every part, it's a little bit of that beautiful confectioner's sugar goodness.

Now we're gonna drizzle it too.

We've got some chocolate syrup and we are gonna zigzag some chocolate syrup over the top of it.

Now we're gonna opposite zigzag the peanut butter.

And now we've got something ridiculously beautiful dressed up for the party.

Let's check these pillows out.

Beignet baby.

(groovy music) - Matt, what is the wildest thing you've done in New Orleans?

- I'm actually dying to know this.

- Ahhhhh, It's a great question.

Without any police involved or anything like that, - Because we know you're a troublemaker.

- Yeah.

- Stuff you can tell, Right?

- Good, fun trouble, fun trouble.

Things that are at least like pg, right?

- Yes, always.

- Okay, I have one though.

That gets a little, little, little scary actually.

So I was in New Orleans with Stephanie and she had like a business trip.

So I tagged along just to like do some field research and you know, do what you do.

So I'm bouncing around during the day and having oysters and drinks and you know, living the life.

- As one does.

- So I dip into this voodoo shop, right?

And I'm gonna buy some holy water, see if I can get some of the curses removed off me and kind of like, you know, get back to, - Are you sure you're cursed?

- Get back to even, I mean, I don't feel like cursed right now, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

While I'm shopping I hear a voice behind me and it's the woman that runs the shop and she's like, this isn't your first time.

And I'm like, first time what girl?

No, I was just like, "oh no, I've been here like 10 times."

So she's like, all right, well you probably need something different.

And I'm like, okay.

So she slides me a business card and as she looks up at me and she smiles and she's looking great, like super dressed up, has like two fangs.

- Ooh.

- And I'm like.

- What color were they?

- The fangs were like, pearly white.

Like Colgate should make a commercial out of this.

It was awesome, like five out 10 dentists, no, 10 outta 10 dentists, maybe a million dentists love this stuff.

So she's like smiling and sparkling.

And I'm like, okay.

So she's like, go to this bar, and I see it.

I'm like, I've been to that bar.

And she's like, no, it's, it's a vampire speakeasy.

- Ooh.

- And I'm like, okay, right?

And that's what I did.

- A what now?

- but wait there should be more - So she hasn't seen, I haven't mentioned Stephanie at all.

I was still wearing my wedding ring and she's like, bring your wife.

And I'm like, what do I do?

And she's like, just go to the bar and behind the bar you're gonna see like, a broken down door with like, it's gonna look bad, go through that door.

So she gets out, I'm like, listen, we're gonna go to this vampire speakeasy.

And without explanation she's like, let's go.

- Oh, absolutely.

- You know her, she's.

- I do.

Stephanie's always game - Ready to rock.

So we go, we have a couple drinks in the bar and there's the door, the portal, right?

And it looks broken down.

So I'm like, what do you think?

Little nervous.

And she's like, let's go.

So we dip under it, we're walking up the stairs like rats are going by.

There's like a, I don't know man, it was like, it was foul.

- Spooky.

- So we get up there and open the door and there's this marble staircase, - Beautiful.

- Beautiful, sunlight everywhere, a big oak red door.

And we knock on it and the door opens and there's the girl from the voodoo shop.

- Oh my gosh.

- And she's like, we were expecting you Matt and Stephanie and your names right?

She knew we were gonna come, so but.

- How did she know your names - Right?

- What?

- They have two drinks, green absinthe and red absinthe.

So the faeries are flying around.

It's like red 'cause I hadn't had it before and I think it might have like a prick of like vampire blood in it.

But we're hanging out we'r- Virgins Blood by all the vampires, right?

They're dressed to the nines.

Like all of a sudden I'm like, oh no, are we dinner?

I'm like, we should go.

And Stephanies like, this is awesome.

And I'm like, I think we're on the menu.

So we had one more drink because you might as well.

And then we politely left and they're like, hey, you should stay.

We're like, nah, we gotta go.

Had a nice dinner.

And a couple days later we're like, yo, we should go back.

So we go back to the bar, the door, gone.

And we're like, what?

So it led to a great adventure.

- Wait, like completely gone.

Like the door is just gone now it's just a wall?

- Not like it's, oh, the door is closed and clean.

There was no door there.

- It was never there.

- Yeah, yeah, so, here's to weird things and making great times happen.

That never happened again.

- Cheers to weird stuff.

- The weird stuff.

- Weird.

- From vampires to accountants.

We've been blessed to raise 'em up and throw it down with people from all walks of life.

And like Anthony Kiedis said, "they walk it like they talk it" For all y'all, get weird.

Try something new and try something different.

Mask up or finally take that mask off and be you.

Experiment in the kitchen, in the backyard, in the bedroom.

Just stretch yourself.

You know how we get down.

We're about being creative and crashing cultures real proper.

Like get outta your comfort zone.

That's where the real things go down.

If you need some help with that, you know who to call.

(all yelling) Spatchcock Funk See you on the other side.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Protein-rich and sustainably raised, American Lamb is a versatile ingredient in any dish.

For recipes, nutrition information, and to learn more about our commitment to sustainability, visit AmericanLamb.com.

- Acropolis Realty Group, providing real estate services across the industry, including commercial development, residential sales, and residential and commercial leasing.

Learn more at acropolisrealtygroup.com.

- [Narrator] Gateway to the Finger Lakes Region, Syracuse is centrally located in New York State.

Syracuse has a variety of outdoor parks, year-round activities, dining options, and seasonal festivals.

More information at VisitSyracuse.com.