Celebrating Greg's Birthday at Bern's in Tampa

Wayne and Howard and Greg have a tradition where they take each other out for their birthdays.  It was Greg's turn, and this time Bern's Steak House was the celebration location.  It's well known and many visiting 'dignitaries' dine there.  The outside of the building is very plain.  We parked in the lot across the street and headed over for our 9:00 PM dinner reservation.  I was warned that upon entering, one would think it looked like a bordello.  And, they were right!  The high ceiling in the foyer and the portraits on the walls reminded me of the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom.

I didn't want to disturb the ambiance of the red lighting scheme, so I did not use a flash.  I believe the beauty shows through.  :-)


Now, I like steak, and this place is noted for it's steaks,  (Be sure to check out the menu on the above link), but I don't crave steak very much at all.  So, I ordered the Jumbo Shrimp Angels  ( jumbo shrimp stuffed with lump crab, prosciutto wrap, sweet potato fries and tomato balsamic sauce.)  It was to die for!

Our waiter, Davor, was attentive, funny, and entertaining.  He asked if it was the first visit for any of us.  Since it was for me, he suggested we take the kitchen and wine cellar tour after dinner, and then head upstairs to the dessert room.  He suggested a scoop of the macadamia ice cream, his favorite.

Davor ( in picture to the left) brought us to the kitchen where we met our kitchen guide.  On a usual night there are just under a hundred workers in the kitchen!  They cook up to 200 steaks at a time.  After our kitchen tour, we were turned over to the wine guide for a tour of the wine cellar.  That was amazing!  There are 100,000 bottles in this cellar, and another offsite cellar with hundreds of thousands more bottles!

After answering a bazillion questions from an inquisitive Wayne, our guide turned us loose to head upstairs to the dessert room.  It was around midnight now.  The dessert room was amazing!  There are seating areas in booths, set around in a dimly lit labyrinth, the booths representing wine barrels with windows.  I selected the 'Malted Chocolate Cake, pictured to the left.  I was surprised that it contained three different items! ( Valrhona chocolate creme, chocolate cake, malted marshmallow creme icing, mini chocolate malt, and malted chocolate mousse. )

Wayne selected the Trio of Liquid Center Cakes.  ( Mini dark chocolate cake, dulce de leche center with banana caramel ice cream. Mini chocolate cake, praline hazelnut center with Caramélia crunch ice cream. Mini chocolate cake, white chocolate center paired with vanilla bean ice cream. )  Howard selected one scoop of the macadamia (chocolate) ice cream, but ended up eating half of our desserts!  Greg was too full, but our waiter brought a small whipped cream tart with a candle!)

It was a most interesting and fun and filling outing!