[PULSING MUSIC] VO: This program is brought to you by the members of WCNY - thank you!

VO: The William G Pomeroy Foundation helps people celebrate their communitys history by providing grants for historic markers and plaques nationwide.

Information about Pomeroy Foundation grants and partnership opportunities is available at WGPFoundation.org Bear Creek: gourmet burgers, craft beers, custom twists on classics and desserts.

More on Facebook and Instagram at BearCreekRestaurantInc Feed the bear!

[BEAR ROARING] MATT: Spatchcock Funk 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 are the people that you love, and we'll take care of the rest.

Spatchcock Funk.

Dope food, strong drinks, great stories.

MATT: If you want to get ahead in life, you gotta take some chances.

Part of growing up and being confident in who you are means you gotta be willing to bet on yourself.

Put it all on the table - the felt table that is.

So it's time to throw some cards around.

You have to push all your chips in, and some friendly competition can help bring out the best of us, y'all.

So sometimes a great cocktail, great food, and the right scoundrels around the right table might sound like whiskey business - oops, I mean risky business - but it can turn us into kings, queens, or aces.

So tonight, shuffle things up and start wheeling and dealing.

Get the right people in the right game and you got the right ingredients for a great party.

So up the stakes and get your game face on, because tonight we're playing poker, and we ain't bluffing.

This is the Executive Game.

[instrumental music] MATT: We want to go all in on a badass cocktail with bourbon as the star.

So we're going to visit a star, a friend of mine, my mentor, the great bad Laura Serway.

LAURA: Wow, I don't want to be introduced like that, there's just gonna be expectations then.

Bourbon it is, baby!

MATT: What's up, baby?

LAURA: Come on, let's do this.

MATT: Let's have some drinks.

LAURA: What a great day to drink.

MATT: Sure is.

We are making a Bourbon Boulevardier for poker night, it's going to have fig and vanilla, start me up.

LAURA: First of all, what's the date so I can get my invite?

Hello!

MATT: You're too good.

LAURA: If I were you, I'd do something with a little smoke.

That's going to help build out that fig flavor and bring it to the top, right?

So I mean there's so many incredible bourbons out there that have that little bit of subtle smoke or that toasted barrel char flavor.

Elijah Craig is one of my favorites with toasted barrel, you got Michter's, you've got Smoke Wagon, you've got Basil Hayden.

All of those have a great smoke underlying flavor to it, just a matter of what you like.

MATT: I love it, let's try it.

LAURA: Let's do it, I'm in.

Salute.

MATT: Pour it up.

[INSTRUMENTAL JAZZY HIP HOP MUSIC] MATT: If you want to win big, you got to make a big cocktail.

And when we're playing poker, sometimes we enjoy a fine cigar, but if we're playing indoors, that might not be doable.

So we're making a cocktail that mimics the finer points and the finer things in life.

This is the Bourbon Boulevardier.

Now the original Boulevardier is made with whiskey, but we're turning this thing all the way up.

It was made by this guy Harry who opened the famous Harry's New York Bar in Paris where they live a high life, he even had a magazine talking about celebrating the high life, so when we're riding a hot hand, we want to have a high bet and we want to make a drink that's going to get us a little high.

Plus people will bet more on strong drinks.

So we've got our awesome, awesome bourbon from our homegirl Laura, and we want to infuse it and make it a little bit funky in a way that's going to give us smooth flavor.

So we've got about eight dried figs.

So we're going to put those in like a mason jar.

Then we're going to add in our bourbon.

Now we've got our dried figs, we're going to take an old school muddler, and we're going to break them apart.

And what's going to happen is the essence of these figs, a little bit of sweetness, is going to go into all that smoky good bourbon, so we're really getting the cigar effect in here.

So break them up good, so keep twisting it and break them apart a little bit, you'll see some seeds start to flow and that's totally cool.

Now you're going to seal it on up.

You know, shake it up.

So you're going to let this sit for three to five days, we usually go three, and every day or so, shake it up a little bit.

After three days, it's going to seem a little cloudy, we've strained it, but now it's got that beautiful smell.

So we're going to take a shaker filled with ice and put about an ounce and a half of this bourbon in there - I'll give you two ounces if we're feeling frisky, which we always are.

Then 1 ounce of Campari, 1 ounce of sweet vermouth, and then to get more of that cool cigar effect, we're going to put a splash of pure vanilla extract.

And then like a Polaroid, like Tay Tay, give it a good shake.

[rattle of shaker] When enjoying a great bourbon or something you want to really savor and enjoy, use a big ice cube, They come in squares or circles, we like the square one.

And put that in your glass.

What it's going to do is it's going to melt much slower, there's more surface area, and keep the drink chilled.

Plus it looks pretty dope.

Finally, the last touch, we garnish this with a little orange twist.

And now, time to place some bets, baby.

Mm, feelin' good at the table!

[instrumental jazzy music] MATT: Yo, let's get to the nuts and bolts of things now.

When you're playing cards, you're drinking, you want to have something salty on the table so people can have a couple bites of this and that, and all of a sudden, they want another drink - they're drinking more, they're betting more, you're taking more control.

So we're going to take control of these awesome nuts here.

These are Nuts and Bolts, they're sweet and salty, and they won't be sticky on your hands.

You can have them on the felt table and not get stuck all around.

So time to get nuts.

We want 1 cup of shelled pecans.

And you might think I'm being fancy, but here's the deal: this is a puh-cahn, not a pee-can, and I learned this - I was in New Orleans taking a cooking class from this woman, Dina, and she's teaching me some stuff.

And I'm like, is it pronounced puh-cahns, or pee-cans?

And she goes, boy, it's a puh-cahn, because a pee-can is what you keep under your bed at night.

So, puh-cahns it is.

We have a cup of walnuts that we just picked off of the wall.

1 cup of raw cashews because we like it in the raw, plus, cashews when they roast get this awesome smell in your house.

1 cup of raw almonds.

Now we're going to mix this with our dry spices and ingredients right off the bat and you might think, why not put some liquid in there?

The reason why is nuts are naturally a little oily, so they're going to adhere a little bit as we stir them up.

So first, we have 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of granulated garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, and 1/2 tablespoon of salt.

We want this to be sweet and salty, so you're going to see a lot of salt in here because the sweet's going to be pretty overpowering.

So stir that up and mix it evenly.

You know we're mixing things up, so after we've mixed it right, we're going to go to the stove, add half a cup of melted butter, half a cup of water, and half a cup of sugar over medium heat and keep stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Once that sugar's dissolved, we're going to take our mixture, we're going to pour it all over the nuts, get them nice and coated, and then stir them.

And this is going to get all that flavor together, all the spices, the sweetie saltiness, because you know what, we like a sweetie who's a little salty sometimes.

Now that they're mixed, we're going to take a cookie sheet, line it with foil, then hit it hard with some cooking spray.

Preheat your oven at 350 degrees.

Spread them all, get all the stuff you can out of the bowl, and then spread them evenly across, and we're going to start for 10 minutes, and halfway through, we're going to go in and flip them around a little bit, and if it's not crispy enough to your liking, put it back in for two minutes at a time and see how you do.

Ooh, jackpot.

Look at these nuts.

They've been in there for about 15 minutes, we put in an extra two minutes to let them crisp up and they are ready to go.

You can bet on this.

[instrumental funk music] MATT: For the executive game, we want to pull out all the stops and make something that makes people feel like they're being treated like royalty.

Particularly, if you're going to spend some money and maybe lose some, you want to make sure that the experience was worth that price of admission.

So one of our things we're serving today is one of my favorite things in the world.

These are Speakeasy Duck Wings.

Speakeasy because they're named after a place of ill repute, and we're playing cards in a speakeasy itself, so we kind of get down like that, the House of the Rising Sun, where we're getting down, you're going to get down with this because duck wings are fantastic to work with.

They are a little bit bigger and longer than chicken wings and that's because ducks actually use their wings to fly.

So they're fatty and they've got a little bit more muscle content, but the skin crisps up beautifully.

So we've got our duck wings, we're going to take a bowl and we're going to just put them in.

And then take a little bit of granulated garlic, toss them in it so they get coated, and we're going to set them aside and let them get to room temperature because we're going to fry them up, but first we're going to make our sauce.

We've melted 1/4 cup of butter and what we're going to make is a garlic Cajun wing sauce.

So we're going to put in 2 cloves of crushed fresh garlic and we're going to heat that in the melted butter until it gets fragrant and you can smell it.

So we're going to add in a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 cup of a good hot sauce, 1/4 cup of honey - that's what's up, honey.

Now over medium heat we're going to add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, give it a little tang and a little bite, and then 1 tablespoon of Cajun seasoning.

And we're going to keep stirring this so it bubbles on the side but we don't want to bring it to a boil so keep stirring it until it starts to thicken up.

Now we've got our sauce smelling right but we've got to make it look tight.

So it's thickening up but we want to make it thicker, so here's a trick to make any good sauce thicker, we make a slurry.

So a slurry is equal part cornstarch - we've got 2 tablespoons, about, of cornstarch here - and 2 tablespoons of water, so we're going to mix that evenly.

We're going to add that slowly into our sauce and stir it and it should thicken things up just how we want it.

This prevents clumpage and starts to thicken up without distracting from the flavor.

You can tell I've been thickened up with a few slurries in my life, so let's slurry it in here.

Stir it in over the heat and thicken up, perfect.

We've got this oil hot - 350.

We're going to drop in our wings for five to seven minutes till they're golden brown.

We're going to stir them around a little bit so they don't stick together.

Look at these golden brown beauties, we're going to put them in a big mixing bowl.

I'm going to take some of the sauce, we don't want to over-sauce it, so we're going to do about a scoop, maybe two scoops at a time and just wring them up.

Get them all coated in this goodness and keep adding sauce until they're all covered but you don't want to have them too saucy.

Crispy, crunchy, fatty, garlicky, Cajun-y.

We top them with a little green onion because we love the color, adds a little cool flavor to it too when you get one of those in the bites.

And we serve these beauties just like regular chicken wings with blue cheese, never ranch, and some celery too.

We dealt ourselves a good hand right here, so just to make sure everything's good and safe, we're going to take one of these guys and we like using the celery as a brush, get a little blue cheese on this thing.

Mm-hmm, that's a duck wing right there.

[instrumental jazzy music] MATT: Want more pointers to make the Executive Game great?

We are making 10 Pointer Cigars.

Now we named them because they look like cigars but these are actually braised venison taquitos and they are fantastic.

Sometimes in life, you're dealt a tough hand but if you play it right, it can work out beautifully.

The same thing with venison, it's a beautiful lean meat but if you don't cook it right, it toughens up on you.

So we're going to make sure it's beautiful and tender by braising it.

And venison's one of those things that good old boys, good old girls out hunting, shooting it, or in France, fancy people are cooking it, it's a great way to go.

So we're going to braise it.

First, we've got a cup of flour mixed with a tablespoon of black pepper and salt mixed together and just kind of stirred up with some garlic powder and we're just going to cover this so when we braise it first, we're going to brown each edge.

So we're just going to take 1 pound of a venison roast, chop it up into five or six pieces and bread it up like this, flour it up.

So what you want to do too is if you can't get venison, don't have any friends that shot one like our buddy Rick that shot this deer, you can just use beef chuck roast works just as well.

Now it's time to braise things up, braise the roof.

So we're going to start by making our braising liquid.

We're going to add in 1 1/2 cups of a good red wine, we're using Cabernet here, and always cook with what you drink, always use good stuff.

Next, we're going to add in 4 cloves of crushed fresh garlic and we're going to add in 1 tablespoon of chopped oregano and 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme.

Stir it up over medium heat and let it cook for about ten minutes until it reduces in half.

We're going to take half of our olive oil, which is about a tablespoon, into a cast iron skillet and heat it up over medium heat - it's time to brown the meat.

While our olive oil is heating up, this is looking great, so I'm going to cover it, let it simmer.

Now I'm going to brown up this venison.

These brown on each side.

So we're browned, and the brown just helps it cook a little faster in the braising.

So we're going to protect it, take it off of the heat and set it aside for a second, and we like that we've got all this little brown bits of meat stuck in there, that's dope.

So we're going to add another tablespoon of olive oil.

We're going to throw some veggies in.

So we're going to put in one diced stalk of celery and half of a sweet onion.

Yo, because the kid's game is sweet!

That's how it's going to be at the table, at the game too.

We're going to coat this in the olive oil and get this cooked until the onions are translucent.

Oo, you can smell that.

We take all these veggies and add it to our Cabernet mixture with the garlic that's been cooked down.

We're going to add in 1 cup of beef stock into this and make a little bath, stir that up.

We're going to add in about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper.

Finally, we're going to add in our beautiful chunks of venison into our little Dutch oven.

[instrumental jazzy music] We're going to put this in the oven at 350 for about two hours.

These taquitos are going to be crispy and hot and juicy and flavorful, so we're going to have something cool as a sauce to dip it into.

So we're making an avocado cream sauce.

We've got 2 chopped up fresh avocados - and by the way, avocados, you're afraid they're going to go brown.

When you mix them in with some cream, they'll stay in the fridge for a little bit so you'll be okay, but if you want to keep guacamole or things that are made with avocados from going brown, store it with the nut from the avocado.

So we're going to put our avocados into a blender.

Then we've got 1 cup of sour cream, you can use yogurt too, but we're just getting after it today.

We've got 2 cloves of fresh garlic that's been crushed.

A dash of salt and pepper.

The juice of 2 fresh limes, so about a tablespoon and a half, 2 tablespoons.

A couple dashes of hot sauce, a nice mild green hot sauce.

And now, time to whip things up.

[mixer whirring] We've got our sauce done.

Oh, that's what's up.

Yeah, nice and creamy, fresh, bright, both in color and taste.

A little velvety to go with that crunch.

Oo, yeah.

Oh baby, look at this.

Braised venison, it smells fantastic.

Now it's time to shred.

You can shred on a skateboard, you can shred on skis, you can shred on a bike, but we are shredding with actual shredders.

Now these shredders are useful for a couple reasons.

For shredding up braised beef, pulled pork, all these things, or if some ninja turtles show up in your kitchen, you got them with some shredders.

So let's shred.

Yeah, this might be the most fun part.

[instrumental jazzy music] Oh, look at this, shredded into this awesome goodness like we shreddin' on a guitar.

We're going to take this meat and we're going to put it in with 8 ounces of a sharp yellow cheddar cheese.

Time to start rolling like we're rolling the bones on the table.

We are going to roll up some taquitos.

So we are using corn - we like the yellow color of it, it gets crunchier and these are the ways to go, but the problem when you're rolling it is they can break as you roll it.

So what we've done is you take about four or five at a time, wrap them in a damp paper towel and then microwave them for ten seconds, so you get them hey're more pliable and allow us to get a tighter roll on them.

We've got our oil heating up to 350 and the oven is at 400 degrees.

We're going to take a glass dish, we're going to set it down, you're going to lay it out, get in front of you.

About 1/2 tablespoon to 3/4 tablespoon of our filling in the center of it and then take one edge and then tightly roll it.

Now we've laid them with the seam down so they won't open, because we're going to put them in the oven for five minutes at 400 degrees and then they're going to be ready to fry.

We got that oil at 350, now we're going to drop them in one at a time for three to five minutes until they brown up.

Look at these beautiful Ten Pointer Cigars, taquitos, hit with some cilantro, we got our sauce.

Let's see how we do.

When you dip by dip we dip.

Crunchy, cheesy, braisey, let's have taquitos.

[instrumental hip hop music] MATT: All right, so a buddy of mine was playing at a high stakes tournament at a casino and there was a guy at the table who was kind of cleaning up but he had been getting into the cups a little bit which is known to happen at a casino.

So at one point you can tell that the pit bosses and the powers that be are kind of like interested in this man, which is a shame because usually if you're winning and that might be a problem, if you're drinking the casino loves it.

So they come over and they're like, "Hey, how are you doing?"

and the pit boss is looking at him and he's like, "I'm fine, how are you?

I'll take another drink."

And the pit boss is like, "Well, I'm not going to -" ALEX: He's like, "I'm not a bartender."

MATT: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not a bartender but - ALEX: It's a bad start.

MATT: It's a great way to really, that's like when the cop pulls you over, like asking him for a drink, like, what are you doing?

So he says, "Sir, I'm going to ask you, can you say the alphabet starting with M?"

And he looks him dead in the eye and says, "Malphabet."

NICOLE: He technically answered correctly.

MATT: He did, right?

JORDAN: He was on the money.

MATT: I had a friend of mine actually, we were in a casino and having a good time and my man got on a heater and we're talking about, playing cards, every time he's getting money.

At one point, we're at a blackjack table and this dude is like hitting on 16s, he's jumping into hands he shouldn't be, there are people that are so mad because he's taking all these cards.

And at one point he recognizes it, so he gets two 10s, he's splitting 10s, he's splitting kings, like he's doing all these things and he just can't lose, like he's doubling down.

ALEX: Where do you fit in this mix?

Were you just trying to be like "I don't know this guy."

MATT: I was on both sides.

I was jealous about how much money he winning, but I was like "Hey, good job buddy!"

So at one point he looks up at the camera and he's like, "I have all your money!"

And everybody's like, half of the crowd is watching him and loving him because he's like this wild cowboy, the other half is disgusted and they're there to watch him burn.

ALEX: How'd the table feel about that comment?

NICOLE: Yeah, that was bold.

MATT: It was super bold.

ALEX: Especially when you're losing money.

MATT: I thought it was great, they did not, because it was their money basically too, you know, and he's taking their cards.

So as the night went on, the house always wins, you know what I mean?

You got to know when to hold him and when to bounce.

And my man held him a little bit too long.

But that happens to all of us, you know what I mean?

ALEX: Did he finally have the walk of shame out of that casino, where everybody's like booing him and - MATT: Yeah, kind of, it was kind of a walk of shame, but kind of like, "I don't care if I win or not, I'm here," and I'm like, "You don't care, dude?

Because you just mortgaged your house, you know what I mean?

ILLIANA: How bad did he lose out?

MATT: I don't know, like he didn't have to trade any cars or anything, but he did have to name his second child after the casino, so that's kind of weird.

NICOLE: So what was the kid's name going to be?

MATT: Horseshoe, Ohio Casino.

NICOLE: Perfect.

MATT: Great kid though, great kid, turned out great.

JORDAN: Not made fun of at all.

MATT: No, no, no, totally.

I think they call them horsey or something like that.

All right, you know what?

Let's deal another hand here.

You got to know when to hold him and know when to fold him.

You win some, you lose some, but usually you pick something up along the way.

So maybe you drop a few bucks here and there, but that's the price for some great laughs and a grand old time.

So whether you're playing with a draw or you got a handful of nothing, sometimes it's not what's in your hand, it's how you play if that really matters.

So if you want to win big, you got to take a risk.

Play the odds and bet on yourself.

Grab some cards, deal out some great food and make a stiff drink, then find some stiff competition.

You can be rolling the bones, throwing dominoes or slinging cards, you just got to be in it to win it, y'all.

So up the ante and who knows where the world's going to take you?

Yo, the party's bumping and I'm feeling lucky, so here's to you.

[hip hop music with vocals] VO: The William G Pomeroy Foundation helps people celebrate their communitys history by providing grants for historic markers and plaques nationwide.

Information about Pomeroy Foundation grants and partnership opportunities is available at WGPFoundation.org Bear Creek: gourmet burgers, craft beers, custom twists on classics and desserts.

More on Facebook and Instagram at BearCreekRestaurantInc Feed the bear!

[BEAR ROARING]