SETH: Darnell.

DARNELL: Hello.

SETH: Nice to see you.

DARNELL: Nice to see you.

SETH: Rose.

ROSE: Hi, nice to see you.

Welcome.

SETH: My pleasure.

This hearth and this hood, what a dramatic centerpiece.

ROSE: Yes, welcome to our little fire.

It is our pride and joy.

It is the most Instagram thing in this place.

It was built with the intention of paying tribute to a very ancient style of cooking from an ancient part of the world.

So, we don't have a lot of appliances around here.

All your food is coming from right here.

SETH: I can't wait to see that happen.

Darnell, you're the man who's going to get this fire going?

DARNELL: Yes, sir.

ROSE: Yes.

Darnell is our executive chef.

He is the best with the fire.

Definitely not my department.

No one trusts me with the fire.

So, I will turn it over to him.

Just be careful guys, okay.

DARNELL: Yes, absolutely.

SETH: So Darnell, I have enough trouble getting a fire started in my fireplace.

So, something of this magnitude, I can't even imagine.

So yeah, what are the first steps?

DARNELL: When we first get in everyday, we take our recycled embers from the night before.

We like to put in a perforated pan so that we can get some airflow going throughout.

We take our nice fans here, and once you start fanning and that airflow gets through, it'll star to catch all the embers that are in there as well.

It gets pretty hot from the start, yeah.

Sometimes, we take the top off and it just ignites.

It just lights up just from the air.

SETH: Wow.

DARNELL: We call these our starter logs, which are really small.

We just start with a couple pieces of wood here.

I have another fan here for you, if you want to go ahead and start getting that done as well.

SETH: All right, I'll get the fire going there.

DARNELL: Yes, sir.

Once these burn down, I'm just going to pour these embers right in the middle to create my ember bed.

We'll dump the rest of these embers here as well.

You can grab one of those smaller pieces.

In Lincoln Log style, we can just put that one right on top of that.

SETH: Hey Darnell, you have a fun job, man.

DARNELL: Yeah, honestly, this is the best part of my day.

It wakes me up a little bit in the morning.

SETH: This is work.

You can't flip a switch here.

This isn't a gas oven.

DARNELL: We joke about that all the time, it's like "Who turned it on?"

It took a good 45 minutes to get this going, you know, and to keep it going throughout service, that's part of the cook's situation, it's part of their job.

Now that the fire's doing its thing, this is our signature dish here at Maydan.

It is our lamb shoulder.

We cure it overnight in brown sugar and salt.

Then you rub it with the Syrian Seven spice.

We put it in a vacuum seal bag, cook it into a sous vide, keep it at 200 degrees for about 18 hours.

We take that out, cool it down, we tie them up and we hang it up over our fire to get some of that smoke and nice crispiness coming from the heat.

SETH: My God, my mouth is watering just looking at this thing.

So what are your last steps here?

DARNELL: Pretty much adding one more layer of the log wood to get us some more embers burned down.

SETH: The embers are going to give it that more nice consistent heat, but not as hot.

DARNELL: Yes, yes.

Then we'll start to put the grates on top, let the grates get hot so we're ready to go by 5:00.

Coming into Maydan, jumping on the hearth, jumping right in, it really made me love cooking all over again.

It's not just cooking.

It's managing fire.

It's teamwork.

It's just pretty much using all the things you've learned in any other cuisine, but you still got to make sure that you're not burning your food, it's not getting too charred, you have that indirect heat when you need it, you have the smoke when you need it.

ROSE: I find around a table where you're sharing the food and breaking bread together, you're doing this thing that people have done for generations to survive.

We have to do it to survive.

So, we automatically are a little bit more human and a little more vulnerable.

I think in Washington sometimes especially, it's really important to let your defenses down, maybe not talk politics, and eat together.

SETH: Rose, Darnell, this has to be one of the most colorful tables I've ever seen.

ROSE: Well, we tried to set out our favorites for you.

We set the table with our Tela presentation.

Tela means table in Arabic, and that is because literally, if you will allow us, we will fill your table with food for the entire meal.

We also have our tone bread, which here is really meant to be the utensil for all of this.

So we're going to challenge you to not use your fork, or use it as little as possible.

Just tear the bread, rip into the lamb, and see what happens.

SETH: Challenge accepted.

All right, let me give this a shot.

ROSE: You worked for it.

Feel free.

Yeah, you're doing great.

There you go.

SETH: There it is.

ROSE: Yeah, you approve of your hard work?

DARNELL: I hope you're really getting the smokiness and that caramelization coming from the sugar.

It's that crust on the outside.

By hanging, that indirect heat definitely perfectly crusted it on the outside for us.

SETH: That is an amazing cut of lamb right there.

So flavorful.

So intense.

And you're right, the caramelization on the outside to get that crust, but still have it be so juicy and tender inside, that is amazing.

ROSE: We're really glad you liked it.

DARNELL: Thanks.

SETH: And now I got to go in for another bite here.

ROSE: Well, you should, but you're still missing something.

The idea here is, we actually want you to figure out your favorite bite, and that requires dipping into one of the sauces.

So, take your pick.

The red one closest to you is muhammara, roasted red peppers and walnuts.

Then right in front of me is the zucchini baba ganoush, and I'm going to dip in that.

DARNELL: My favorite bite is definitely the labneh, the lemon with the mint goes really well with the lamb shoulder.

SETH: I am just learning here, so I'm going to start with this roasted red pepper.

ROSE: You're a quick learner.

You're doing great.

SETH: Oh my God, that is so good.

The Syrian Seven spice, that's a flavor I don't think I've ever even had before.

ROSE: Yes, and don't make me tell you all seven of them right now, because I always forget under pressure.

But it is a really special combination of flavors.

You know, my poor mom, please don't let her watch this, but Lebanese grandmothers like mine always have a little bit of a competition with the Syrian grandmas about whose food is better, because so many things are similar.

But after traveling, and eating a lot of the food in the region, I have to say some of the Syrian flavors are a little bit more dynamic than the Lebanese flavors.

But again, please mom, don't watch, don't get mad at me.

SETH: Sorry, mom.

ROSE: It's all right.

It's definitely behind some of the amazing bursts of flavor you have with the lamb shoulder.

SETH: That is just dynamite, all these spreads, all the color, all the flavors, just even being able to be part of building the fire with you Darnell, and having this as the payoff, wow.

Thank you guys so much for having me.

This was really a treat.

ROSE: We were so happy to have you.

You worked for it, so thank you.

SETH: Cheers.

ROSE: Cheers to you.

DARNELL: Cheers.

ROSE: Thanks.