Treasures by the Bay with Bay Focus Reporter Alyse Nicole at Bern's Steak House!

tropical tranquil triumphant Treasures by the bay with Elise Nicole hi this is Elise Nicole reporting for Bay focus and treasures by the bay and we are here in downtown Tampa Bay at the beautiful historic burn steakhouse restaurant just in time for Christmas the lights are glowing and the holiday spirit is flowing and the presents are ready and so is your dinner welcome to burn Steakhouse we're so glad you've joined us and can learn how it all got started burn laxer born in 1923 in Manhattan after serving in World War II went on to NYU and met the love of his life ger in 1950 they fell in love and got married the enchanted love birds had a passion for fine quality wines and Stakes so when they moved to Tampa with their business savvy burn Steakhouse was born boasting a collection of nearly half a million bottles of wine perfectly cut aged dried steaks and decadent desserts Burns was a smashing success now to this day with eight breathtaking dining rooms and a gorgeous towering Lobby captivating Mystique it's no wonder why nation's restaurant news deemed Burns an All-American icon let's now have a talk to the chef this restaurant I've I've always told people and take a lot of pride in the fact this is where people in Tampa come to celebrate this is where they come to share all life's biggest moments whether it's an anniversary a birthday celebrating the closing of a business deal you know we have now like it's not uncommon for people to be on their third and fourth generation of family that come and dine with us and it's part of what really has made a fabric of the Tampa you know Community is the special occasion restaurant but it's a piece that they feel like they they own a piece of it you know they come to the same server they have the same room they can drink the wine from their birth year or whatever it may be but it's that Nostalgia and it's always been to remind them what they came to when they came back decades ago our job always to keep it fresh and relevant which is what burn also did burn was always tinkering and playing the legend in the story is of how many times he played with certain recipes like the infamous macnut ice cream cuz back in the 60s and 70s there wasn't just a produce market to go to there wasn't you know FedEx shipping bringing every ingredient in the world so um you know we we take a lot of pride in keeping that Legacy and that tradition that burn created alive but at the same time keeping it modern relevant cuz people's dining habits change and that's what burn want as well even at this day there's all these homemade little inventions and things that we have that he designed you know if you have the French onion soup in this building that cheese was cut by a homemade cheese cutter that they designed well before I was probably even born that's part of what I think makes burn so unique is it was all really homemade he wasn't copying what was the newest rage in LA or New York he was just doing what he genuinely believed in and what the community got behind and they liked and he's a Pioneer oh absolutely including the chef many of Burn's workers have been there over 20 years what do you love the most about working here just the employees and the way we're treated and you know just a family affair I feel like family just being here well pleasure to have you we believe we have the largest collection for any restaurant in the world burn our original owner has been collecting wine since the late 50s I've heard the the first Futures B he purchased was the 61 vintage probably got about 150,000 bottles uh here in the seller and that's most likely just about 10 15% of our total collection um we've got a Warehouse close by where we go every day the team of stewards goes over to grab some cases and bring back here to restock our bins so one of the main reasons people come here is for the wine our wine program is is pretty world renown we probably go through 50 to 70 cases a week just for what we're pouring by the glass our oldest red that we pouring right now is a 1974 uh Engle not cernet we've got a couple rone wines from 1978 that were pouring by the glass which is wild no one else is able to do things like that so a lot of people have the opportunity to come here and try something with a significant amount of age that you can't try anywhere else without breaking the bank as well so it's a pretty fun opportunity uh we've got maderas that go back to the 1800s as well and then plenty of cheres 1845 Gad the roast how much did you say it was $49,000 so you know just a casual night out now Burn's world famous Dessert Room they hand buil all of these rooms they're made with redwood so it's like your own little dining room we have a very extensive menu we have over 20 desserts 20 different ice cream sorbet we have cheeses uh we have different cocktails and dessert wines that to choose from we recently started to Do seasonal menus so we get to change that very often and I really that's PARTA of my favorite thing to do cuz it gets the whole staff um learning new things and trying different flavor and throughout the seasons there are some desserts that are Classics they don't go anywhere that's the cherry jubilee and Banana Foster we don't have the cherries jubilee anymore but we do have the banana fosters that's everyone's favorite um the banana cheese pie our King Midas carrot cake um those are burn and gerts recipes the owners those don't ever go anywhere those stay the same and they've been on the menu for 40 years well there you have it folks thank you burn and Gert for your legacy