Berns baby!!

Last night I finally went to the famous Berns Steakhouse in Tampa FL.  This is the place where the President of the United States goes to have a meal whenever he is town campaigning or doing whatever it is he does when he's here.  I'll give them this, they make a pretty mean steak and they cooked it to perfection which was really nice.

The menu was quite extensive.  They had every type of steak you could think of and in every kind of thickness and they give you a list of the types of thickness, what ways it can be cooked, what thickness is appropriate for cooking it rare, medium etc.  There was even a glossary of terms and the waiter was very helpful as well in making suggestions.   When you go online and look them up and check out the prices, you're kind of overwhelmed at how much it costs.  But the thing is is that the meal includes so much stuff.  Say you order a steak (like I did) you get an onion soup, a salad, a baked potato, fresh onion rings, and veggies.  Thats pretty much a complete meal right there.  One thing that was pretty interesting was that they prepare your baked potato at the table.  You can't sub stuff but you can get a la carte.  I personally didn't sub anything but the people I was with did and even ordered this awesome tasting mac and cheese, and the crackers with melted cheese on it was totally awesome.

The wine list at Berns is just HUUUUUUGE.  It looked like a really thick text book I once had when going to school.  They had every kind of wine from every region you could think of.  And we're not talking the cheap stuff that you get a the liqueur store either, we're talking some vintage stuff that costs well over $700 a bottle.  I didn't have any wine of course but it was just cool to look through it and see what it was they were offering.

Dessert is yet ANOTHER completely different experience at Berns.  They have little rooms that have privacy doors so you can eat your dessert in complete privacy.  They even have a little box that lets you select different music to listen to.  Oh this is also really cool, they have a guy in a room that plays piano and you have a small phone so you can call him up and have him play a request so you can listen to it in your room.  You can't say that isn't freakin cool right there!  Of course this being Berns and all, it wouldn't be complete without yet another list of different types of spirits for just the desserts that they serve.  This list isn't as extensive as the wine list but its certainly just as expensive.  I had the Macadamia nut ice cream that they are famous for and they make it on site too.  I have to say that it was really good.

The atmosphere of the entrance of the restaurant is very old world European.  It has red velvet on the banister and on the walls, classical style paintings of famous rulers of Europe, and the lighting is quite dim as well.  There is a large bar on the premises as well and numerous different rooms that sport different themes.  I can say that if one lives or visits Tampa and has money to burn, Berns is a must see.  (The key here is that you need to have a lot of money to burn to eat here)