Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa, Florida

[Lonestar007]

I have had the honor of dining there several times, and am exceedingly proud of this gem being in my home state. Even if you are visiting elsewhere in Florida, worth the drive for this dining experience. Yes, steaks pricey, but I would say steaks are really not that much more that many non-aged steaks in other upscale restaurants. The quality of the steaks and other menu items far exceed that of what is generally considered other known upscale steakhouses.

[Spinaker]

With out a doubt, one of the best steak houses I have ever been too. Truly amazing.

[RAmorris]

Bern’s Steakhouse was established in 1956 by Bern and Gertrude Laxer. It is now owned and operated by their son, David.
The following was written by Bern's restaurant.
We learned early that if you want to be the best at something, you can't worry about the cost or the trouble. We do things differently, and we do them with great pride and passion.
Our waiters train one year with us, working at almost every station in the restaurant, in our workshops, and on the farm. They then train for another 8 to 12 weeks in the dining rooms before they wait on you by themselves.
We devote space equivalent to 100 dining seats just to offer you the widest selection of wines in the world.
We use only freshly-squeezed juices and the highest quality liquors to prepare your cocktail.
We fly in fresh caviar regularly.
Our seafood is flown here daily so that we can offer the freshest product from all over the world.
We buy veal bones to help us make better onion soup, even though we have (and use) hundreds of pounds of our own beef bones.
We sprout organic curly cress seeds in our kitchen, just to add one small flavor ingredient to your salad.
We marinate our olives for at least one month in pure olive oil, herbs and spices, even though you may scarcely notice one on your salad. We grow what we can on our own farm, organically, without pesticides or other toxic materials, and pick your vegetables ripe and fresh as frequently as possible.
We peel your tomato before serving it.
We age your steak as long as we do for the best flavor.
We broil your steak with lump hardwood charcoal instead of super- convenient briquettes.
We then cut and trim and weigh your steak only after you have placed your order (with 62 choices to cut, a bit more labor is required than if we just served you several pre-cut steaks).
We make garlic butter for your steak the old-fashioned way, by peeling lots of garlic and blending it with 100% sweet cream butter.
We use hundreds of pounds of 93 score AA unsalted fresh creamery butter weekly in the kitchen.
We prepare all our vegetables either to your order or in very small quantities.
We bake your potato to order (and throw it out if it is baked a shade too long).
We prepare your onion rings so that they are ready when your steak comes off the grill. We hand-sort our green coffee beans to eliminate every single defect before we roast them (up to eight different beans separately), and then blend our American and Turkish coffee beans each day in our kitchen. We use three separate grinders so that each of our distinct coffees and blends are freshly ground only to your order. We also brew your coffee strong and believe that only
heavy whipping cream is good enough for it.
We use organically grown spelt and whole wheat flour for our freshly-baked breads and toasts. We make all our own ice creams, sherbets, pies, pastries, hot fudge, whipped cream, breads, crackers, etc. ourselves, so that we might use more exciting ingredients throughout.
We import specialty and hard-to-find products like chocolate, rare liqueurs and flavors from all over the world just to produce a unique dessert.
We mean it when we say we want you to have a most memorable evening when you dine with us, tonight and each time you come.

Aged meat is already tender (and never bloody). You can order it cooked less done than you would fresh meat. In fact, fresh meat is cooked to tenderize it, and aged meat becomes tougher the longer you cook it. You can order your steak any thickness you want from thin (one inch thick) all the way to very thick (over 3 inches thick).
You can also combine two adjacent degrees of doneness in one thicker steak.
Prefer fresh steak? Other than T-bone, we can cut your steak any way you wish unaged, since we cut your steak after you order anyway. No extra charge. No problem, just tell your waiter.
Our beef is the most beautiful and most costly in America. However, in order to be beautiful, it must be well-fed. And this is the problem: what to do with the excess fat. We remove it (and the gristle, too, where possible) even though it gives you a less-perfect looking steak. It's our weight loss. But we want you to know that we cut our steaks to give you good eating, not necessarily good looking.
If you tour our kitchen, you'll see why we buy 3-4 pounds of beef in order to give you one pound of steak. Here are our various cooking choices.

(Rather than reproduce the entire chart of degrees of doneness for five thickness of steaks, below is for 2” to 2 ¾ inches thick.)

Very rare no crust, cold and raw
Very rare with crust, cold raw center
Rare with cold center and medium crust
Rare with large warm red center and good crust
Medium rare nice crust, medium warm red center
Medium, thick crust, hot pink center
Medium well, very thick crust and no color left
Well done, Very thick crust. No color and no juice

HARRY WAUGH DESSERT ROOM
One of the most famous, and popular, aspects of Bern's Steak House is its dessert room. Here guests can enjoy a leisurely and intimate end to their dining experience choosing from nearly 50 dessert choices to more than 1,000 dessert wines and spirits.

The Harry Waugh Dessert Room was built as a tribute to Mr. Harry Waugh, an internationally known and respected wine connoisseur, director of Chateau Latour and good friend to Bern Laxer. Waugh's books and personal diaries on wine tasting are well known throughout the world.

While dining at Waugh's home in London, Laxer was introduced to the idea of building a separate dessert room in his restaurant. Construction began in March of 1978 was completed and opened in 1985; its square footage larger than all seven of the main dining rooms combined.
The Harry Waugh Dessert Room is located on the second floor of Bern's Steak House. The Dessert Room is constructed of California redwood wine holding tanks that Laxer had purchased from California wineries, shipped to Tampa. Once in Tampa, his crew created the 48 individual enclosed booths that reside in the dessert room.

Bern's house pastry team, 20 in all, creates each and every component of the desserts, ice creams and sorbets for Bern's Steak House. As with other ingredients at Bern's, only the very best chocolate, vanilla and fresh dairy ingredients are used to create Bern's signature desserts.

There are nearly 50 dessert choices on the menu including classics like Banana Cream Pie a heavenly, whipped pie with fresh bananas and Cheesecake Gert, named for Laxer's wife Gertrude, it features a hint of orange, a streusel crumb crust, fresh strawberries and strawberry sauce.

In addition to its handmade desserts, the Harry Waugh Room features more than 1,000 after dinner drinks, cordials and dessert wines, some made in the 18^th century, available by the glass and the bottle. Depending on their taste, guests can choose from more than a dozen Sauternes, more than 200 scotches, ports from all over the globe and a selection of Madeira that is unrivaled.

In 2009, Rachael Ray rated Bern’s as the best restaurant in America. Nation’s Restaurant News deemed Bern’s a top all-American icon. And George W. Bush ate at Bern’s twice during his presidency.

Here are some pictures from when Kate and I last dined at Bern's, in 2013. Unfortunately I didn't take any of my steak.