Author: Gary Nager

Bern’s Steak House. For anyone who has lived in the Tampa Bay area for any period of time, the name is almost mythical. For many of those who have seen the changes it ultimately had to go through since the late Bern Laxer (he passed away in 2002) and his wife Gert (who followed her husband in 2020) first opened Bern’s in 1956 (including now owned and is being run by Bern and Gert’’s son David), Bern’s is still the go-to steak house — despite the presence of chains like Fleming’s, Eddie V’s, Charley’s, Capital Grille and Ocean Prime — as much for the experience as for the food itself. 

While the restaurant does accommodate a varying small number of walk-ins for the dinner and lounge areas, and seating at the bar is “first come, first served,” reservations are highly encouraged for dinner tables in the various main dining rooms, and that reservation is still among the hardest to book in Tampa. They often have to be made up to 60 days in advance to ensure a table on the night you want. 

So, after correspondent Joel Provenzano and his wife Jessica told me that their most recent Bern’s experience didn’t live up to the steak house’s legendary reputation — and realizing that I had never taken Jannah there in the ten years we’ve been together — I decided to take us all out to S. Howard Ave. to give this venerable institution another try. 

On Becoming A Legend 

For decades, Bern’s Steak House has stood as a landmark in Tampa’s culinary scene, attracting local elite and the who’s-who of American food royalty, e.g., chefs like Emeril Lagasse, plus sports and entertainment celebrities and even actual visiting royalty. 

Since opening nearly 60 years ago, it has become a go-to destination for special occasions, high-end dining and one of the most extensive wine lists in the entire world, plus a separate dessert room nearly as famous as the restaurant itself. In other words, it would be virtually impossible to replicate what the Laxer family has created and nurtured for generations of Tampa Bay residents and visitors. 

The restaurant was born from very humble beginnings, created by Bern and Gert, with one dining room in a small strip shopping center (which today is the steak house’s Bordeaux dining room), Bern’s eventually grew to eight dining rooms, a massive wine cellar that first-time visitors just have to tour, and the fabled second-story Harry Waugh dessert room (built in 1985 and named for the renowned English wine merchant who provided the redwood wine casks for the dessert room’s 48 private suites) — taking over the whole adjacent strip of businesses and becoming the world-famous steak house it is today. 

A Grand Entrance 

Pulling into Bern’s under its classic porte-cochère, guests are greeted by an efficient valet service — an elegant first touch. Walking in the door, you’re transported into a different era, and a feeling of vintage elegance envelops you, set by the dim lighting and bold colors, textures and lush artwork. It’s immediately clear this is going to be more than just a dinner — it’s meant to be a unique experience. 

Once seated in the Rhône dining room, I ordered a 2004 Silverado Sangiovese — a Napa Valley version of one of my favorite Italian varietals (the grape behind Italian Chianti Classico), which I found by checking out Bern’s 200-page wine list online before we all visited. Our affable waiter Nick opened the bottle next to a lit candle, which not only provided illumination that allows sommeliers to see if there is sediment in the wine and stop pouring before it can enter the decanter — which none of us actually knew was a thing. It also adds to Bern’s romantic ambience. 

On their previous visit, Joel and Jessica shared the unique “Tuna and Wagyu” starter (left), a high-end fusion of Wagyu steak tartare wrapped in sashimi-grade tuna, topped with Osetra caviar. Joel says the four large pieces were visually stunning and delicious, absolute perfection even — a strong recommendation for those who like raw Japanese-style food. (Note- When they asked for chopsticks, they were told Bern’s hadn’t stocked them in years). 

But, speaking of you caviar fans (Jannah and I aren’t among those), Bern’s offers nearly two dozen varieties, plus a selection of high-end cheeses (from French camembert to Italian Fiore Sardo made from sheep’s milk). 

For this visit, we started with an incredible lump crab cake (right), which was mostly crab, grilled to crisp-edge perfection, with charred corn, tomato, basil and mustard seed vinaigrette. 

Other appetizers on Bern’s extensive menu include a dry-aged special chateaubriand carpaccio, seared foie gras, dry-aged beef rib empanadas, shrimp cocktail, oysters on the half shell, coal grilled octopus, escargots, black truffle steak tartare and baked clams, which we did order (left). They were good, but small and I didn’t think the addition of sheep’s milk cheese to the stuffing was a great (or necessary) addition. There also are two giant shellfish “Plateaux de Fruits de Mer,” with everything from shrimp, lobster and oysters to king crab, octopus and more. Not for me, but still. 

And, although every entrée at Bern’s is served with salad and a tasty, cheesy French onion soup and every steak entrée also is served with crispy onion rings and the vegetable of the evening, Joel decided to substitute Bern’s She Crab soup, which featured a large portion of lump crab, with sweet peppers, corn and fino sherry. Nick poured the creamy soup over the other ingredients (right) and of course, I had to at least sample it and found it to be a unique blend of flavors. 

You Have To Try… 

And of course, the must-order when you visit Bern’s, despite the fact the restaurant has 30 different steak options, is the signature chateaubriand (top photo), which is a tender, large, cylindrical cut of tenderloin roasted to a crisp crust outside while staying incredibly tender inside. We ordered one 14-oz. and one 9-oz. cut of chateaubriand for the four of us to share and no one left hungry or disappointed. 

Among the other steak cuts are three sizes of filet mignon, two delmonicos, three sizes of dry-aged strip steaks, two porterhouses, two T-bones and five different varieties of A5 Japanese wagyu, including a wagyu tasting with 4 oz. each of tenderloin, strip and sirloin cap. There also are “large-format” steaks like the 36-oz. wagyu tomahawk, 40-oz. bone-in tenderloin and a 60- oz. porterhouse. Maybe next time. 

Other entrées include the famous Chicken Gert (with roasted garlic rosemary butter), cast iron-roasted grouper, roasted quail, dry-aged rack of lamb, coal-grilled cobia, roasted salmon, halibut and sansho pepper-glazed sea bass. But, if you’re a steak lover and want the full Bern’s experience on your first visit, go with the chateaubriand — it’s the steak that made Bern famous and it was still wonderful. 

In addition to the side dishes served with all of the steak and most of the other entrées, there also are a la carte, shareable vegetables and sides, including parmesan truffle fries, thrice-baked potato, an Okinawan sweet potato purée, steak house mushrooms, roasted asparagus, white truffle mac & cheese and the tasty creamed corn we ordered for the table (and more). 

The Tour & The Dessert Room 

If you’re making your first visit to Bern’s, you simply have to take the tour of both the kitchen and the amazing wine cellar. While many restaurants will allow you to visit the kitchen, very few invite every guest to see for themselves the size, scope and quality control that goes into creating your meal (left), but the crew at Bern’s wants you to know the pains taken to ensure you enjoy a great meal and dining experience. 

The absolutely legendary wine cellar, that Bern himself originally curated, houses about 110,000 bottles of red, white, rosé, sparkling and dessert wines on the premises at any time, which according to our tour guide, is only about 15% of the restaurant’s total wine inventory. If you can’t find a bottle you want on the restaurant’s world-famous list, ask your sommelier to recommend something similar…or better…or completely different — they will always have you covered. 

The rest of the huge number of bottles are stored in an off-site facility and the list is constantly being updated. Some of the rarest and most expensive bottles of wine in the world are housed here. 

The right photo on this page shows just a portion of the hundreds of wines available by the glass, if you don’t want to commit to a full bottle. It’s intentionally really dark in the wine cellar, so it’s tough to get great pictures of anything other than this area, but believe me, the tour is still very much worth taking. 

The Harry Waugh Dessert Room is so famous that you don’t even have to have dinner at Bern’s in order to make a reservation for just the dessert room. Redwood doors and walls separate each dessert room, so you and your guests can enjoy privacy as you indulge in the largest selection of premium cocktails and dessert wines of any restaurant I’ve ever been to— and yes, I’ve been to a few. 

The desserts themselves are so decadent that no matter how full you may be from dinner you kind of sort of still have to indulge. Joel, Jessica, Jannah and I each got our own dessert and there was a lot of sampling going on. 

Jannah’s Dutch apple pie, with Granny Smith apples, brown sugar crumble and caramel ice cream, was great, as was my single scoop of roasted banana ice cream with hot fudge. 

But, Joel and Jessica made even better choices — Jessica’s creme brulée, topped with fresh mixed berries (left) was spot-on and Joel loved his macadamia nut sundae in a house-made waffle bowl (below). 

We all enjoyed a well-deserved after-dinner cocktail and left Bern’s satisfied and thinking about making another visit to try some other wine, steaks, fish and desserts there. 

In other words, Bern’s is still Bern’s. Is it still the best restaurant in Tampa? Try to make a reservation and decide for yourself, but it is still a great experience that everyone should have at least once. 

Bern’s Steak House (1208 S. Howard Ave.) is open every day except Monday for dinner at 5 p.m. To reserve a table, visit BernsSteakHouse.com or call (813) 251-2421 for more information.