It may attract glamorous visitors and loyal locals, but the focus is firmly on the food.
The Scene Luminaries from out of town automatically visit Bern's when they arrive in the Tampa Bay area. Limos jam the homely front parking lot and well-dressed diners crowd the foyer. For decades, the steakhouse has maintained its reputation for almost fanatically perfect food and service.
The Food Start with one of the 24 varieties of caviar. Move onto vichysoisse, a creamy soup served chilled, accompanied by garlic toast and crackling homemade potato chips. The chateaubriand is delectable. Choose anything from a petite, seven-ouncer all the way to a belly-busting 48-ounce monster. It arrives sizzling, crisp on the outside, juicy and tender inside, crowned with garlic butter and ringed with bright vegetables. Save room for the chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cake or the bananas foster for dessert.
Select from among the most luxurious desserts--bananas foster to creme brulee--at the top of Tampa's fanciest joint.
The Scene Nothing prepares you for it; not even the rococo excess of Bern's Steak House downstairs. People say, ''Dine in individual hollowed-out wine casks.'' Or, ''There are individual, wall-mounted radios to set the mood at your table.'' You hear something about an accordionist, and maybe flambéing waiters. Rumors about this romantic, dessert-only place (named after a wine-writing crony of Bern) get the heart racing.
The Food If romance leaves you cold, the sheer quantity of sugar, high-octane coffee and gorgeous after-dinner drinks are bound to give you a little thrill. Especially thrilling are the Framboise Macadamia Decadence, a tidy chocolate-cake cylinder flavored with raspberry filling; the Chocolate-Chocolate-Chocolate, light mousse segueing to denser cheesecake and even denser pie--all chocolate; or the drama of cognac-redolent cherries jubilee served with fat scoops of vanilla ice cream. And to go with it all: house cappuccino of Kahlua-marinated ground beans topped with lush vanilla cream.
