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That’s where you’ll slide into your own private wine-cask cubby and try the banana cream cheese pie and a deconstructed chocolate sundae as a pianist plays anything you want. St. Petersburg-based Star Trolley filled a void when it started in 2020, providing festive transportation for weddings. Owner Richard Novikas started it after he acquired a fleet of trolleys and busses from his father, who was in the manufacturing business, which was responsible for not only the ones in Star Trolley’s fleet, but also those in St. Petersburg’s Downtown Looper. Once business started booming, Novikas considered a plan for his 44-passenger transit bus. Inspired by a trip to The Ringling Museum in Sarasota where he saw an antique circus train car, he turned it into a 1920s speakeasy.
The Farm
They also won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine Program, and the cellars are so extensive and impressive that they offer guests guided tours with dinner, something that stopped in the pandemic and is being re-introduced shortly. It is still family owned (Bern and Gert’s son), and clearly a passion project. I will absolutely eat there any time I go to Tampa, I may go back to Tampa sooner just to eat there. It is our policy to only seat complete parties as delayed guests impact following reservations. But the heart of the meal starts with USDA Prime steaks, dry-aged at least 45-days (which is extra generous in the industry) and cut in house, something only a handful of the best steakhouses do. But what almost no other top steakhouses do is offer you anything with your steak.
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Novikas said many people prefer to just stay on the bus and party. Very few steakhouses, even the best, dry age their own meat in house, and even fewer do it for ... Bern’s stores its collection, containing over half a million bottles and 6500 labels from all over the world, in both its on site 50° working cellar as well as its own temperature controlled warehouse. Nightly, guests can enjoy a red, white, sparkling or fortified wine either by the bottle or from over 150 selections by the glass, inclusive of our extensive dessert wine and port by the glass selections.
Bern’s Cocktail Lounge
While Bern's Steak House undergoes renovations this month, sibling restaurant Haven offers 'Taste of Bern's' specials - Creative Loafing Tampa
While Bern's Steak House undergoes renovations this month, sibling restaurant Haven offers 'Taste of Bern's' specials.
Posted: Wed, 05 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
For decades, this stately steakhouse has been a local favorite for special occasions of all stripes, and its popularity shows no signs of shrinking. Don’t fill up on the assorted sides—at the end of the meal, guests are whisked to the posh upstairs dessert room, where bananas Foster or baked Alaska can be enjoyed with house-roasted coffee and live piano music. There is a staggering array of dessert wines, fortified wines and rare whiskies by the glass, with many tasting flight options. And it is like two different superb dining out experiences wrapped into one great meal, and again, something you just cannot do at other top steakhouses.
ENJOY A Taste
Every meat on the menu is given its own paragraph explanation, which sounds like it was written by someone who's an e-commerce copywriter by day and a steak scholar by night. The Delmonico that they dry-age for 100 days is always our go-to. In the front, Bodega is the go-to for Cuban food and fresh juices in St. Petersburg’s Edge District. But peek around a barn-style door in the back and find Bar Chica.
Many options are available in current vintage releases as well as older, rarer offerings. The “special request” section is NOT accessed until the night of your reservation so please do not use this section to request a change in time, number of guests or any other information you need the restaurant to be aware of in advance of your reservation. After my years of frequenting nightclubs, dive bars and restaurant bars, niche experiences like the one at Bar Chica are a welcome alternative. There are a couple of strong options across the Tampa Bay area right now, bars that don’t feel gimmicky but do emphasize a certain quiet, intimate, speakeasy vibe. I have covered restaurants for decades and especially steakhouses, and there are a lot of great ones in the U.S., where cities like New York, Las Vegas and Dallas each have a dozen or more that would qualify as exceptional.
Bern’s Steak House was created from what was once an ordinary business block on Howard Avenue, containing a grocery, barber shop and dime store. Bern and Gert, with the help of their own carpenters, metalworkers, painters and electricians, built what you now see today. Bern’s can put a candle in the dessert of the person celebrating while in the Harry Waugh Dessert Room. Please make sure to notate the occasion when making your reservation or let your dessert room server know the occasion the evening you dine with us. Other major holiday hours vary; please call Bern’s for more information. Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox?
Now through July 8 and July 11-15, A Taste of Bern’s at Haven offers selections inspired by the Bern’s menu, including select cuts from its aging room, steak sauces, wines from its cellar and sweets from its famous dessert room. If your generationally wealthy friend from England opened a steakhouse in their parents’ old manor, it’d probably feel a lot like Bern’s. The lobby is all gilded furniture and ruby lights, and there are eight different dining rooms lined with wall-to-wall photos from the founder's travels to Bordeaux, Burgundy, and beyond.
While gardening and producing a gardening newsletter he and his wife opened a small luncheonette which served juice, coffee and cold sandwiches. It was a hit and soon they eventually added hot breakfast and lunch. All of this was in the early Fifties, long before anyone had coined the terms “farm to table” or “localvore,” but from the beginning, Bern and Gert emphasized the best ingredients possible including fresh veggies and fruit from his own gardens. 70 Years later Bern’s is still doing what has recently become trendy among top chefs elsewhere and growing its own.
Novikas did all the work himself, gutting the bus and building out the bar and seating. About a year ago he started testing the concept and found that people were eager to get a group together, dress up in 1920s attire and hit the road. It’s bring-your-own alcohol, but a bartender who will curate a bar menu can be provided for an additional fee. The bus seats 30 people and you can organize a tour, whether it’s a bar crawl of other speakeasies or just a stylish ride to a concert.
We recommend making reservations well in advance of your visit and we accept reservations only for the current month and the subsequent two months. In the lounge — which was last refreshed in 1998 — seating in the bar has been expanded and a new back bar display is being added. BDG Architects is overseeing the architectural design, with Richard Zingale leading the interior design. All the city’s essential spots for seafood platters, steaks, Cubans, and more.
These places are typically expensive and very much a la carte. All of that comes with each steak, which are priced lower than almost all other top steakhouses to begin with. A 12-ounce dry-aged NY Strip is $60 with all the extras, and two weeks earlier I ate at a high-end chain steakhouse where a not as good one was $72 with nothing. Our dining room dress code is business casual to semi-formal. If you are dressed in more relaxed attire, you may be seated in our lounge area instead of the main dining rooms. So, the wine list itself is reason to go, and one of the standout features that elevate Bern’s above its peers, but that’s just one.
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