Piece of cake, he says.
"This one has been a pleasure from the start," he says. "They're all kind of scary, to be honest with you. Look, at the end of the day, the guy gets what the woman gives him. That might be a corner of the basement, and that corner, nobody might have been in there for a long time, what with all the cobwebs and the water issues. Look, we take what we can get."
Siragusa, whose man cave in the basement of his New Jersey home sounds as if it's about the size of that football field he used to roam, offers his own take on what he and his crew provide for all the crowded-out husbands out there.
"Life goes like this," Siragusa says. "You're a guy, you have a bachelor pad, you have the satin comforter in your little apartment. You have a TV. You really don't have to clean up. You don't have dishes, you have paper plates. And then you go and find the girl, and you entertain her, and you marry her.
"And then that little space becomes pretty much her space," he says, clearly on a roll. "Next thing you know, you have 50 pillows on your bed you can't lay on, that serve no purpose. You have flowers everywhere, you have scented candles, you have all these things that guys can't comprehend or can't associate with. Before you know it, you wake up and you have nowhere to go."
Fair enough, and here's betting roughly half the people reading this can't wait to get started on their own man cave. There's one problem, though: Chef Duff isn't married.
Oh, never mind. He's got a band, he's got a space, he's got a need. And it doubtless doesn't hurt that both the DIY and Food networks are owned by Scripps Networks, meaning "Man Caves" and "Ace of Cakes" share a common boss. It's nice that the shows can help each other out. Goldman's new space, which was revealed to him Wednesday night, will be shown on an episode of "Man Caves" set to air in June, according to a network representative. An "Ace of Cakes" episode on the new digs should air before the end of 2009.
So what does the finished product look like? Without revealing too much, so as not to ruin the surprise for those planning to tune in, let's say the room is a definite improvement, with fancy recording and amplification equipment, two inches of foam soundproofing, a TV and all sorts of things designed to make a guy happy. It's even got - Tony Siragusa be darned - candles and decorative pillows. Although the candles are thick and white and, one supposes, fairly manly, the pillows have logos of Pink Floyd, the Ramones and Led Zeppelin on them.
"This was a dirty, dingy practice space," a wide-eyed Goldman says shortly after seeing his new man cave for the first time. "It was full of stale beers, the floor was all ripped up, it was totally nasty. I thought they were going to come in here and clean up the band room, make it serviceable. This is nicer than any room in my house. This is ridiculous."
Air times
"Man Caves" airs at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on DIY. "Ace of Cakes" airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on the Food Network.
