A letter from Hyde Park / SoHo
Bern's Steak House
David Laxer's Howard Avenue institution — 70 years of dry-aged Delmonicos, a redwood dessert room, and one of the world's deepest wine cellars
Forty seats, one room, 1956
In 1953, Bern Laxer — a Bronx-born WWII veteran with an NYU advertising degree — and his wife Gert, a copywriter, opened a Tampa luncheonette called Bern and Gert's Little Midway. Two years later they bought out the Beer Haven bar next door at 1208 South Howard Avenue and, salvaging the letters B-E-R-N off the old sign because they couldn't afford a new one, opened Bern's Steak House in 1956.
Forty seats. One room. Bern chose every steak. Gert ran the front. David Laxer, their son, took over after Bern's death in 2002 and has run the operation ever since.
The world's largest wine list
Bern was a fanatic — he roasted his own coffee, grew his own lettuce, aged his own beef, and read wine encyclopedias for pleasure. He wanted the world's largest wine list, and he built it: hundreds of thousands of bottles in cellars beneath and around the restaurant.
In 1985 he built the Harry Waugh Dessert Room out of used California redwood wine casks — 48 curtained private booths that make grown adults giggle. David has inherited that maximalism and refused to modernize it away.
The block that grew up around it
Howard Avenue in the 1950s was an unglamorous block of a grocery, a barber shop, and a five-and-dime. Bern's absorbed the neighbors one storefront at a time — the room you dine in tonight might have been the dime store — until the restaurant sprawled across eight dining rooms seating 350.
The surrounding Hyde Park district grew up around it, becoming SoHo, and Bern's is now the anchor: the reason people know that corner of Tampa exists.
Order this
The dishes that made Bern's Steak House
Delmonico, Extra Thick, Dry-Aged 5 Weeks
Cut to the ounce and to the minute of doneness you name. Dry-aging happens in-house — 5 to 8 weeks depending on the cut. Ordered by weight, thickness, and degree; the ticket becomes the recipe.
French Onion Soup
A menu original from 1956 that has never come off — sweet caramelized onions in a beef stock Bern spent years dialing in, capped with Gruyère and toast.
Harry Waugh Dessert Room
After dinner you're escorted upstairs into a redwood-cask booth for a second menu of 45 desserts, 15 house ice creams, artisan cheeses, and dessert wines poured from bottles you didn't know still existed.
Good to know
Bern's Steak House, answered
Do I really need a reservation?
Yes — book weeks out for weekends. The eight dining rooms hold 350, but Bern's is a national destination and Friday/Saturday primes fill first.
What's the dress code?
Business casual works. Nobody will turn you away in a nice pair of jeans, but people put on a jacket for Bern's the way they used to put one on for the theater.
Is the Dessert Room a separate reservation?
No — it's included with your dinner. When you're done with your steak the captain walks you upstairs and hands you off; you get your own curtained redwood booth for as long as you want it.