Sometimes, you have a dining experience that you can barely put into words. Usually, it's some combination of food, service, atmosphere and company. Last week in Tampa, C & I had one of the best meals of our lives at Bern's Steakhouse. (As it happens, it also coincides with The Delicious Life's Queen of Cuisine).
This is one of those meals I'm going to break up into two posts. There is just too much to talk about in one... suffice it to say that we had an 8:30 reservation, and didn't leave the restaurant until 2am.
Every aspect of the experience was lovely, from the 45 minutes spent perusing the wine book over some amazing Iranian Osetra (which I haven't had in 8 years), to the unbelievable tour of the kitchen and 100,000 bottles of wine on-site (there are another 400,000 off-site) before being whisked upstairs to a private booth to celebrate our 2nd anniversary with after dinner drinks and dessert.
I'm going to talk first about the actual meal and wine; tomorrow, I'll post about the restaurant, its history and service. I have some really neat pictures of the tours, so please do come back and check in.
Meanwhile...
Chef Jeannie Pierola has my utmost respect for taking a Tampa institution and revitalizing it, while keeping all the things that made it special intact.
As soon as we were seated, our waiter, Lyndon, came over to greet us and hand over the wine book. I've never been so overwhelmed. I could seriously have spent HOURS with that book. As it was, C compared it to my "idiot box", and finally said, "Can we please order something?"
We started with two glasses of Bollinger Champagne, and an ounce of Iranian Osetra Caviar. There's no question that I'm partial to Iranian caviars--they are what I grew up with. And Osetra is my favorite grade--I find its nuttier nuances absolutely breath-taking, and frankly prefer it to both Beluga and Sevruga.
Bern's provides a choice of "classic" accompaniments, or their slightly more interesting "foams", which are really more like very light mousses. We opted for the latter, which were a unique presentation. In the center of a round platter was our caviar, along with a mother of pearl spoon. Surrounding that were six "foams" including red onion (fascinating purity of flavor), dijon, avocado and more. While interesting, the caviar itself was so exceptional that I just ate the eggs straight off the spoon.
After several more minutes with the wine list, I finally settled on a bottle of Bruno Clair "La Dominode". I was torn on the vintage, and the sommelier pointed us towards the '95, saying that at a recent tasting, it was showing beautifully.
Bern's takes beef seriously -- very seriously. They provide charts to outline cuts, cooking methods, agedness and even size. They encourage diners to select a steak for two, instead of two smaller cuts. C & I didn't have to be asked twice. We knew we were going for the Delmonico, or ribeye, in the 16 oz size. The menu advises that the oz weight you order is the amount of meat you get; they cut out gristle and large chunks of fat, replacing them with bits of filet! Asked whether we wanted some fat left on our steak, we both said "yes" since we think you lose some flavor if you cut all the fat off.
Now, for your $63, you both receive French Onion soup, salad, baked potato and several vegetable sides. You have the option to upgrade or change any of these items, and we decided to swap out our soups.
First, we took an order of Bern's Escargot, which were amazing. With a parmesan frico, spiced garlic butter and just a touch of creme fraiche, they captured the essence of the snails perfectly. Then we went for the Trio of Soups, which were demitasse portions of French Onion, Lobster Bisque and Vichysoisse. The bisque was exquisite, heavenly and simply not enough. The Vichysoisse was also delightful, and a nice cooling break from the other two soups. The French Onion was the least intriguing of the three, lacking the rich depth and sweetness that comes from well-caramelized onions.
Our salads were perfectly fine steakhouse salads. They take great pride in the quality of the organic produce here, and even brine their own olives. For that reason alone, Bern's should be commended.
Finally, the pièce de résistance... this steak was incredibly good. Of course, the pomp & circumstance -- presenting the steak, carving it tableside, splitting the potatoes and "finishing" them as we requested -- all added to the magic. But the steak was killer on its own merits, too. Beautiful marbling, perfectly aged and cooked to a light medium rare but warm inside. I've never had that in my life... it was amazing.
The wine we chose was silky and superb with the food, though I did feel as though it had lost a bit of its nuance.
OK, that's it for today... Come back tomorrow for the tour of the kitchen, then on Thursday I'll walk you through the Harry Waugh Dessert Room. I promise you, it's worth coming back for!
