We Celebrate in Style

For my parents’ 25th anniversary (in November 2007) my Dad had this fun idea to take my Mom to this really fancy steakhouse in Tampa. It was a legendary institution in Florida, but neither of them had ever been.

My Dad spent months planning that fancy meal and what my Mom didn’t know was that all four of her children (one was living at home at the time, one in Miami, and two in Tallahassee) were waiting at the hotel room to surprise them when they walked in the door.

We hadn’t all been in one room since that Summer. My Mom burst into tears as soon as she saw us all standing there.

We ate at the fancy restaurant, had one of the best meals of our lives, enjoyed each other’s company, and Mom and Dad still recall it as their best anniversary ever.

Since I’ve moved to Tampa that fancy steakhouse that made such a good impression on my family has always been in the back of mine. It’s definitely a special occasion sort of place, but what better special occasion is there than Derek’s birthday? 😉

The plan all along had been to eat in the dessert room (yes, Bern’s has their own dessert room seating area), but last minute we decided to eat at the restaurant. Unfortunately by the time we figured that out it was too late to make a reservation and our 9:00pm arrival at the restaurant would have resulted in an hour and a half wait.

Change of plans again.

Instead we went across the street to Ciccio’s for dinner then return to Bern’s for dessert.

My brother and his girlfriend, Adena, just took their final med school test (they still have boards and other exams, but this was their final schoolwork test) and decided to drive up from Miami to celebrate with us. We had lots of celebrating to take care of!

Also, random reality dating show film crew were celebrating with us too! If only we knew what the show was! 😉

Dinner began with a glass of cab.

and I ordered the seared tuna lettuce wraps for my meal.

They were ok. The tuna and sauces were nothing special.

After dinner we headed back to Bern’s for the main event.

Bern’s dessert room is incredible. It takes up the entire second level of the restaurant and each table has it’s own little private cubby. It’s the perfect romantic spot for an important date or just a really fun way to celebrate a special occasion.

We got to business ordering a bottle of wine for the table from their 500+ page wine list!

The dessert menu was three pages long itself and incredible difficult to choose from. Each dish sounded more decadent than the last and I would have been happy to enjoy anyone of them. We made a rule in the beginning that none of us would order the same thing and shared bites were allowed.

I ordered the King Midas, which was a slice of carrot cake topped with macadamia nut ice cream (yum) and a chocolate fudge sauce drizzle. Amazing.

Derek ordered a Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate flourless fudge cake that was rich, decadent and required equal amounts of the fresh whipped cream in each forkful.

Josh ordered the Keylime Pie. It was tart, sweet, and a deep contract to the rich, chocolate based desserts the rest of ordered it.

Last, but not least, Adena ordered what would have been my second choice – the Caramel Chocolate bread Pudding. Incredible.

Our dessert room experience ended with complimentary birthday shots for Derek and my brother.

One of the best things I remembered about Bern’s was the kitchen and wine cellar tour they offer each restaurant patron. We were all very excited to get another glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes at this fancy steakhouse.

Everything is made fresh on premise. They even butcher their own beef! (though, I think that’s done off site)

The wine collection is one of the largest in the world. They only house about 10% at the restaurant and the rest of the 120,000+ bottles are stored at a local warehouse.

The wine cellar is twice as big as my condo and includes a rare room with on bottle of wine that retails for $30,000 on the menu.

We joked that next time we would order the highest bottle in the far back corner just for kicks.

And just for fun, 2007 versus 2011.

All in all it was an amazing night of celebrating. We got home late and this morning I can definitely feel all those glasses of wine (I think I had 3 in total?) coming back at me. I’m such a light weight. 😉