Photo: Bern’s Steakhouse
Writing about Bern’s Steakhouse is, more often than not, an exercise in futility. The internationally acclaimed, extravagantly adorned culinary experience is quietly nestled on South Howard Blvd. in Tampa, Fla., and is home to the largest private collection of wine in the world—one must truly see it to believe it.
A titan of taste making in the fine-dining world, Bern’s continually ranks amongst the best in food, wine, and atmosphere—a commitment to excellence dating back to the steakhouse’s founder, Bern Laxer. “Bern was a quality addict,” said Jamal Hussamy, head server and a Bern’s employee since 1972. “Anything he wanted to do, if it wasn’t in the best [quality] he could get, he wouldn’t even bother with it. He was lunatic in a way, but futuristic in his ideas. Everybody ridiculed him but later found out, the guy was right.”
A self-employed advertising agent from New York, Bern and wife, Gert, found themselves visiting Bern’s mother in Tampa while on their way to California during the mid-1950s. After watching his mother toil in the Chinese restaurant she owned for over 40 years, Bern vowed never to work in the food industry again. However, when money became tight, the Laxers opened a small diner in the back corner of an indoor shopping center, replacing the Beer Haven Tavern. They recycled the sign to spell “Bern’s,” and the cornerstone was laid.
“It used to be like a hole in the wall for breakfast and lunch and dinner,” Hussamy said. “A burger place. He kept going, got good at it, expanded, but the basics—what we call “the Bible” of the place—are still the same. [There were] cosmetic changes and improved on some parts, but it’s still the same principle from day one: training-wise, service-wise, food-wise.”
With the simple goal of providing guests with an experience different from everywhere else, Bern’s is a place that gathers the freshest ingredients from around the world, and creates unique culinary combinations guaranteed to please any guest. “We never take any shortcuts and that was my biggest education,” said Habteab “Hab” Hamde, Bern’s Chef de Cuisine and captain of the kitchen.
“When you really don’t have to worry about the cost, and you worry about just how satisfied the customers are, it’s different. We serve the freshest produce ingredients, the most expensive steaks, the finest wine.”
The commitment to quality begins with the steaks themselves, Hamde said. Paying sometimes $50 a pound for their beef, the choice cuts are aged and rotated on a daily basis in the freezer for weeks, sometimes months, just to give it the perfect tenderness and taste. As a Bern’s grill chef, knowing the exact number of days to age a steak is as important as knowing the telltale hues of an under or over-cooked cut, the density and grain of the meat, or the right amount of fat to leave behind for the perfect flavor. The customer seldom receives more than 25% of the total original cut: the other pieces that aren’t absolutely Prime are thrown in the trash. “There is plenty of waste at the expense of the restaurant,” Hamde said. “But all in the name of serving the best available.”
Bern himself could often be found behind the grill, ensuring every cut was just right. “When Bern worked here he cooked the steaks, and if a server said that the customer wanted their food he would say ‘bring them here.’ When they arrived the customers would be shocked, they couldn’t believe the owner was cooking their meal. When he was finished he would go help wash the dishes.” In the kitchen, a team of 65 full-time employees operates an intricate system of intense collaboration, an assembly line of gastronomic sensations that runs at an intense time schedule.
Every month a new seasonal menu is introduced, sometimes featuring never-before-seen dishes created in their own kitchen only days earlier. “The encyclopedic-sized main menu that Bern originally wrote never changes,” Hamde said. “Bern was a visionary. You can come up with the most creative idea [but] there is no way you can replace a lot of the ideas here. People right now, they work and talk about gastronomy, Bern used to have his own chemist in the kitchen in the 1970s,” Hamde said.
To meet the constant demand of the customers, as well as their own quality standards, Bern’s operates a farm just north of Tampa where all the vegetables, herbs and greens are cultivated. Hamde said he visits the farm on a daily basis and assists in the harvest. Servers, after working in the kitchen for a year and a half, are relocated to the farm for a week to better learn the grow cycles and styles of their produce before continuing their training. An in-house cheese cave keeps a wide variety of blues, Goudas, cheddars, and more perfectly aged creations to provide the best flavor. Seafood is flown in from as far away as Hawaii; the oysters are of Colombian origin, Hamde said. Eight types of coffee beans are roasted daily for their selections in a converted 19th century peanut roaster to give it a full-bodied flavor.
The wine service, known far and wide in the oenological world as the largest private collection in existence, spreads from a cellar under the kitchen containing 6,500 to 7,500 different types of wine in all different hues, some dating back to the 1830s. “Our ‘rare’ room is filled with a lot of last bottles on earth, one of the oldest being an 1815 port,” said Wine Manager Chris Lewis. “Our most expensive bottle is a 1947 Chateau Latour Magnum for $30,000.”
A storage facility nearby contains the rest of the wine collection which, when taken altogether, reaches roughly about half a million bottles. A by-the-glass list is prepared every couple of days to match the changes in the menu and the cellar collection is routinely updated to provide a comprehensive selection to meet even the most obscure of requests. Guests are encouraged to try whatever wines they want, but if the options overwhelm you (which definitely can happen), in-house sommeliers are on hand to offer suggested wine pairings with certain dishes and recommendations.
“I can’t tell you how many times I hear the guests on the tour say ‘this is why we’re here’,” Lewis said. “It’s actually kind of an eye opener and it’s really a pleasure for me bringing them on tour. When they come down here, they’re so amazed. Even the little kids love coming down here, it reminds them of an old cave; it’s just an experience all around.”
As testament to the importance of wine at Bern’s, the famous Harry Waugh is named after the world famous vintage collector, writer, sommelier, and close friend of the Laxers. Inside, booths made of wine casks imported from California provide guests with a cozy and unique atmosphere.
Though Bern passed in 2002, his wife and son, David, who serves as head chef tastemaker and current establishment owner, survive him. Even with the massive interior expansion, the revolving door of main courses, and the ever-increasing selection of available wines, Bern’s is still the same restaurant, operated by the close-knit “family” of staff.
For all of its eccentricities and dedication to “the Bern’s way,” the high-level of quality control, the cost of experiencing something completely different, Bern’s remains at heart a simple steakhouse—albeit with more options than anyone else. Like its nondescript exterior, often referred to as a “warehouse,” Bern’s relishes the humble façade on the outside, opting for opulence on the inside. ‘We don’t have the aloofness that some people in our position do,” Hussamy said. “We pamper the customer like we’re supposed to.”