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Bern’s Steak House
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Chef/Culinary Director Jeannie Pierola |
 t’s been ages since we dined at Bern’s Steak House in Tampa, but we go to and love Sidebern’s, its little sister, newer addition, hip, fresh, city and exciting.
Chef Jeannie Pierola (from this area) is at the helm doing a fantastic job with the menu and operations at both.
If you haven’t been to Bern’s for a while, it’s time to return and if you’ve never been it’s well worth the drive to Tampa and staying overnight. With some much needed renovations and great changes on the menu, (under Jeannie’s direction), we were reminded why this place remains such a unique icon of Tampa.
Yes, the entry hall is still the same bizarre flamboyant reds and golds but the more sophisticated and updated dining areas await. The service remains first class as does the food and whole operation.
SOME BERN’S BACKGROUND
Bern’s founder, Bern Laxer, grew up in the Bronx, NY, where he had his own advertising agency. He met and married his wife Gert. Then in 1951 he and Gert came to Tampa to help his aunt operate her small Chinese restaurant.
Inspired by the restaurant business, Bern and Gert opened a sandwich shop in downtown Tampa called The Gator Juice Bar serving only pre-squeezed commercial orange juice, coffee and cold sandwiches! Later the luncheonette was renamed Bern and Gert’s Little Midway. Hot breakfasts and lunches, fresh eggs and homemade doughnuts were added to the menu. Bern and Gert always bought the freshest for their restaurant, never using any left-overs.
Soon the Laxers moved to 1208, South Howard Avenue where they bought the Beer Haven Bar. After meeting with some 10-20 investors at a nearby pharmacy they began their new project in what is now the Bordeaux Room of Bern’s Steak House.
Always equal partners they planned to share the name of their new bar, but to save money at the time only had to buy one letter ’s to make it Bern’s. The phone company eventually forced them to add Steak House as first name listings weren’t allowed!
Over the years they bought the adjoining shops, gradually increasing from one dining room to eight, from 40 seats to 350!
Construction in the legendary Harry Waugh Dessert Room began in 1978 and was completed in 1985. Huge redwood wine casks make up the 48 private rooms where guests can choose from the over 50 desserts and enormous selection of cigars, dessert wines, sherries and ports.
After dinner, before the dessert experience, the Kitchen and Wine Cellar Tour is a must. All the operation’s buzz can be observed but mind out for those servers with laden trays. Nothing/no-one stops the momentum. The show must go on! Bern’s perfectly aged steaks are measured and hand-cut to order over hard-wood charcoal and the fresh fish are held in custom built a 1,200 gallon tanks where they are kept until ordered. The lobster tanks hold between 150-200 live lobsters. Two to four pound lobsters are flown in from New England two to three times every week.
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A behind the scenes tour at Bern's |
At the soup, salad and seafood stations, preparations continue. The two vintage coffee roasters always brewing Bern’s specialty coffees of all kinds. Many of the vegetables used at Bern’s are grown at the restaurant’s private organic farm. All tomatoes are peeled before serving and even the Land Cress sprouts are flown in from England and grown in the kitchen adding yet another amazingly fresh detail. The bakery provides fresh bread, crackers and breadsticks daily.
Bern’s craftsmen built most of the stainless steel equipment inside the kitchen and it maintains its own workshop and staff where customized equipment is designed and built for Bern’s and Sidebern’s as needed. Every home should have one!
The Wine Cellar is awesome. We thoroughly enjoyed the musty smell and the towering racks holding endless bottles ranging from moderate to very rare vintages and prices. The underground caves were constructed for the constant temperature that is difficult to maintain above ground and kept at 50ºF with 75% humidity. This ensures their slow aging and development of true flavours.
The collection is home to 90,000 bottles, one of the largest in the world, representing only 15-20% of Bern’s total stock. Nearly 80% of the restaurants wine is stored in warehouses off-site. Thanks to computers, new wines and bottles are ordered and replaced daily by the Sommeliers there. Many of the more rare bottle are wrapped in plastic bags to also preserve their labels.
Approximately 110 red and 90 white wines can be had by the glass with also Sherries and more than 100 Ports to be enjoyed. No cellar in the U.S. has a better collection of Madeira than Bern’s. Bottles range from 1795 through the mid-20th century, nearly all available by the glass.
We were amazed to be strolling by 200 year old Ports and Madeira wines. The ’rare’ room is secure storage where wines from the 19th and early-to mid-20th century are stored, as well as many vintages from the 1970’s and 80’s along with some limited editions and rare magnums.
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Bern's Steak House owner David Laxer |
Bern’s cellars holds 38 vintages of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, beginning with 1901. The Chateau Latour goes back to 1920 and Chateau Lafite Rothschild to 1881! Currently the oldest wine in the cellar is an 1802 Madeira and the most valuable is an 1851 magnum of Gruaud Larose worth about $10,000. The two full time Sommeliers, Eric Renaud and Brad Dixon are always on hand to offer their expert advice.
Bern has passed on and their low key, friendly son David, heads the legendary establishment, along with Chef/Culinary Director Jeannie Pierola.
DINING AT BERN’S
The weekend, late January, we chose to visit Bern’s, Tampa was hosting the Children’s Gasparilla .....no big deal we thought and a week before the actual Gasparilla. Wrong....everywhere was very busy and so were the hotels. We couldn’t believe it, so time your mini-break weekend carefully!
All meals come with French Onion Soup, Bern’s farm vegetables and a baked potato. Of course you can change this. The choices from the extensive menu are endless.
The pace was just right with suggestions from our able and pleasant server, Jesse. A while was needed to soak in the menu and make our enlightened choices.
Our tastes commenced with the divine Florida Jumbo Shrimp Scampi, with a tropical fruit macadamia fricassee, slightly spicy with a curried butter and the tasty French Onion Soup. This was served with very good garlic toast, which we hadn’t had in ages. The Roast Beet Salad we shared was superb, with goat cheese, herb salad and a black truffle Dijon vinaigrette.We had glasses of white wines to pair; Trimbach Pinot Gris Reserve and the Austrian Hirsch Gruner Veltliner 2002, Kamptal.
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The lovely Roast Beet Salad |
The main plates we very much enjoyed were the Black Olive Crusted Rack of Lamb, with roasted red pepper polenta, wilted garden arugula, warm eggplant portobello salad, caperberries and a roasted garlic red wine sauce (fab), and the Pistachio Crusted John Dory. So fresh, with Maine Lobster orzo, wilted garden arugula, caramelized fennel, blood orange gastrique and Saffron foam. A vast selection of steaks were, of course, available on the menu. We had a tasting of the most tender and smallest size Chateaubriand. The vegetables we chose were the complimentary Bern’s Farm Tasting, the Vine Ripe Tomato Confit with brioche bacon gratin and the Spinach with oven dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, sultanas and pine nuts and the Hawaiian Red Salt Baked Okinawan Sweet potato with a gorgeous candied ginger macadamia butter. How wonderful does that sound? It tasted even better!
While we chatted to the Sommeliers and our servers, the Chef sent out the Artisinal Cheese Fondue for our pleasure! Fingerling potatoes, smoked sausage, crudité, orchard fruits, fresh baguette and cornichons. Delightful.
To accompany, we had the Roundhill Petite Syrah 1973, the Domaine Carneros Pinot Noir 1999, the Mercurey 1996 Premier Cru and the Clos du Myglands Domaine Faibelier. Heaven!
Thank goodness for the exercise and break that the Kitchen and Wine Cellar tour, (featured above) provided! This is truly an amazing, unique and special place.
DESSERT
Upstairs our dessert table awaited in a cozy, private corner. It shape seemed to be at the bow of the ship and was fun, with an enormous triptych photograph of a vineyard with its vines sprouting, evoking our fond memories of travels to them.
Andrew, the upstairs manager was very helpful and informative adding that there is a cheese aging room being developed. The updated menu includes a cheese course now much to our delight. Three cheeses to taste for $16 and five for $25. A great sharing plate. He also told us that they serve 850-900 guests in the restaurant on any Saturday night in season! Wow!
From the many freshly made desserts we first tasted some cheeses; the Cave-aged Gruyere from the Swiss Alps near Geneva, the Condio alle Spezie, a blend of Italian cow and goat’s milk from Venice and the Bleu d’Auvergne, a traditional cow’s milk cheese from south central France.
We didn’t think we could fit any more delights, but the dessert chef sent us an amazing Lemon Cheese Mousse; a demi-sphere of almond-crusted mousse with fresh strawberries and sauce.
We hardly did the dessert room justice as only Neal enjoyed a Madeira to go with the lovely cheeses. I think the best plan is to go to Bern’s and have dinner, then return another time and go mad up in the dessert room. Next time we’ll start there!
This is truly a remarkable world-class establishment with much deserved pride in its ever-improving evolution providing us lucky guests with quality and luxury in the total dining experience. Many thanks to all involved and continued success.
Reservations and information:
www.bernssteakhouse.com
BERN’S STEAK HOUSE
1208, S. Howard Ave., Tampa, FL. 33606
tel: 813. 251. 2421
SIDEBERN’S
2208,W.Morrison Avenue, Tampa FL 33606
tel: 813. 258. 2233
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