Bay Focus 706 - The Salvation Army and "Treasure's by the Bay" Special Report at Bern's Steak House

Welcome, welcome to Bay Focus. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Well, it is the season, is the season. As they say, we are in the heart of the Christmas season and we are going to share with you today on this program how you can get out and get involved and help people this time of year. We're always honored each time this year we bring in the Salvation Army to talk about everything that they're doing and how you can get involved. You all know the bell ringers that are out there, but there's so much more that they're doing this time of year that you can participate. But before we get to that and talk to the representative today here from the Salvation Army, we are going to take you to one of the absolute best, and I say that because I've been there several times, for highlights, for special occasions, iconic, historic restaurants here in the Tampa Bay area, Burns Steakhouse. Elise Nicole, our reporter for Bay Focus, took her cameras there for one of her Treasures by the Bay feature reports for us. And we're so excited to share with you the history of this restaurant and take you inside. You know, this is a family founded and run, now run by the son of the founder, David Laxer. But wow, what an incredible history they have. And they are decorated for the holidays right now. One of the things we try to do with these reports is take you around the central Florida area and show you some of the landmarks and things. And Burns is one of those. And many of you have great experiences with your families and special occasions and times you've been there. So just stay tuned. We have so much to get through in the show, but we're going to start by taking you to Burns Steakhouse with this report from 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 Burns Steakhouse restaurant. Just in time for Christmas. The lights are glowing, the holiday spirit is flowing, and the presents are ready. And so is your dinner. Welcome to Burns Steakhouse. We're so glad you've joined us and can learn how it all got started. Burns Laxer, born in 1923 in Manhattan, after serving in World War II, went on to NYU and met the love of his life, Gertz. In 1950, they fell in love and got married. The enchanted lovebirds had a passion for fine quality wines and steaks. So when they moved to Tampa with their business savvy, Burns 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 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, they come and dine with us. And it's part of what really has made it a fabric of the Tampa community as a special occasion restaurant. But it's a piece that they feel like 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. It's always meant to remind them what they came to when they came back decades ago. Our job is always to keep it fresh and relevant, which is what Burns also did. Burns was always tinkering and playing. The legend of the story is how many times he played with certain recipes, like the because 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, you know, we take a lot of pride in keeping that legacy and that tradition that Burns created alive, but at the same time keeping it modern and relevant because people's dining habits change. And that's what Burns wanted as well. Even to 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 Burns so unique is it was all really homemade. He wasn't copying what was the newest rage in L.A. or New York. He was just doing what he genuinely believed in and what the community got behind and they liked. He was a pioneer. Oh, absolutely. Including the chef, many of Burns' 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 the family up there. I feel like family just being here. Always glad to have you. We believe we have the largest collection for any restaurant in the world. Burns, our original owner, has been collecting wine since the late 50s. I've heard the first Futures Bordeaux he purchased was the 61 Vintage. Probably got about 150,000 bottles here in the cellar and that's most likely just about 10-15 percent of our total collection. We've got a warehouse close by where we go every day. A team of stewards goes over to grab some cases and bring back here to restock our bins. One of the main reasons people come here is for the wine. Our wine program is pretty world-renowned. We probably go through 50 to 70 cases a week just for what we're pouring by the glass. Our oldest red that we're pouring right now is a 1974 Englenote Cabernet. We've got a couple of Rome wines from 1978 that we're 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. We've got Madeiras that go back to the 1800s as well and then plenty of Sherry. 1845 grew on the roast. How much did you say it was? $49,000. So, you know, just a casual night out. Now, Berg's world-famous dessert room. They hand-built all of these rooms. They're made with redwood. So it's like your little dining room. We have a very extensive menu. We have over 20 desserts, 20 different ice cream sorbets. We have cheeses. We have different cocktails and dessert wines to choose from. We recently started to do seasonal menus. So we get to change that very often. And I really, that's part of my favorite thing to do because it gets the whole staff learning new things and trying different flavors 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 Cherry Jubilee anymore, but we do have the Banana Foster. That's everyone's favorite. The Banana Cheese Pie, our King Midas Carrot Cake. Those are Bern and Gertz 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 Bern and Gertz for your devotion and their son David and the Laxer family who carry on the Bern's legacy. Thank you so much, Elise, for that amazing report on Bern's Steakhouse. And thank you to all the staff at Bern's for opening their doors to us. I can't recommend them enough. I've had so many wonderful memories with my family. They're for special occasions. At this time of year, how fun would it be to see all the Christmas decorations? I hope you'll go. Well, we are going to change direction now and feature a ministry, an organization that you're familiar with, that we try to bring on every year here on Bay Focus. Because at the holidays, Christmas in particular, they're just everywhere. You see them. The Salvation Army, bell ringers. I know we've all had conversations with them already outside of grocery stores and everywhere that they are. And we're going to talk about what they're doing year-round and then here at the holidays with Major Ted Morris, who is back with us. Welcome back. It's just so great to have you every year. We've done this. We have, yes. For a number of years now. It's always an honor to have you. And Major Morris is the Corps Officer of the Salvation Army Florida Division Clearwater Corps. And you, along with your wife Pamela, are the commanding officers of the Upper Pinellas County region, have been for a number of years. So you really have a window into what's going on in this particular area on this side of the Bay, but you're connected statewide. First of all, give our viewers an idea of where your Clearwater location is and what's right there on the campus. Our Clearwater main office is on Belcher Road, right next to the Long Center, across from the fire station. That's our church and that's our offices as well. So anyone who has a curiosity about coming to church at the Salvation Army are more than welcome. Every Sunday we have services at 1045 and usually I do the preaching. And so we welcome anybody who comes. Some people just come out of curiosity. Who are these people? You know, I didn't know they were a church. We hear that a lot. You don't always think of that and you have to go back through the history and really look through. And we start off as a church and then our founder William Booth says, how do we minister to them spiritually if we're not ministering to them physically and emotionally? So that's kind of how we join those two things in them. And we still do that as well. Yeah, that's so, so, so important. And you know, one of the things, we're going to get into some specifics, but one of the really, I don't know what you do, but one of the really important things is you guys do. The Salvation Army brings, and you just touched on this, the spiritual and emotional support is so important. Yes, it is. Of what you do. And thank you for mentioning that we work year-round. Some people think we kind of burrow in our holes in January and kind of come out on Thanksgiving, but there's work year-round that we do, touching people's lives, helping people with housing, helping people who are homeless, providing food and clothing and things. So thank you for mentioning that as well. Yeah, and not to mention you're coming alongside them and, you know, if they just need the support, you know, spiritually, emotionally, ways that you just are ministering to them. All right, you just said a few, then let's get to some specifics. Before we talk about the holidays, you provide assistance on a number of areas. Tell us what you do, because if you're just, if I'm just ticking off boxes, you mentioned clothing, shelter, there's adult rehabilitation in some of your locations, disaster relief, Pathway of Hope, youth music. Explain all that. It's so much. You do so many things. And different units do different things as well, you know. I'm in the Clearwater office, and so we provide, you mentioned the School of Music. We have about 100 young people that come and are trained in music, about 25 staff of volunteers or paid staff, some of them professional musicians in their past life, who train our children. And so it's a free program. We're having a concert soon, and the children who've never been involved in music at all are loving music, and they're involved in music in their high schools now. I love that. And so they love to come, and they bring their friends, which is exciting for them, you know. So that's one thing we have at the Clearwater location. Most places we have, we provide housing for homeless. In the Clearwater area, we provide supportive housing for single women and their children. Half of the women we have actually came from street homelessness, living in their cars with their children, children going to public schools, and no one knowing, they're living in their cars at night. And so one family we found not long ago, seven children living in their car for six months, and we connected with her. We said, would you like an education? We partnered with her with St. Pete College, and so she's going to school now. The very first night she was in our shelter, she didn't sleep much because she walked from bedroom to bedroom and looked at each of her children and said to herself, my children have a bed. And those are stories you don't forget, you know. And so in St. Pete and Tampa, we have emergency shelters for the homeless as well. So depending on the location, that is what we do. You mentioned the rehabilitation program in St. Pete. We house about 110 men. Tampa, we have a women's program as well. And people who are trying to recover themselves from addiction to anything, really, and it's a spiritual-based program, about six months or longer, to help them move out of that. So if you call to help us pick up your clothing or your furniture, the trucks that come pick them up, the driver's an employee, but the ride-along person is a man in our program. And part of his work therapy is being involved in that type of program. And that program is totally funded by nothing else but the donations that people call and have picked up. Yeah. And how does that work into, I know you have something called Pathway of Hope. Yes. Pathway of Hope is The Salvation Army's national way around the country to break that cycle of intergenerational poverty. We do so by working along with families in their own homes, usually families that have children, so it can affect two generations or more. And we work with them to help them get an education. We have a case manager that helps them with budgeting, helps them find employment. And the hope is to break that cycle so the children can see that I don't have to live like that. And so if we can break that cycle, it changes generations. And so the Pathway of Hope program is a national program by The Salvation Army. I remember when that was launched. Yes. Yeah, that was a big launch. And it's so important to create self-sufficiency. Absolutely. People can pull out of situations. And some have no idea that they can. Yeah. I was talking to one of our case managers recently. She said that she talked with one of her parents and taught her about having a savings plan for retirement. Told her about a 403B. And the lady now has $4,000 never knowing she could save. And so her self-esteem has improved because she realizes now she can work and have money for the future because that's been off the table for so many years. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. All right. We'll come back if we have time to some of this. But we're kind of transitioning to one of the areas I really want to talk about that The Salvation Army does nationwide worldwide is disaster relief. But can we just talk disasters? We've had them, haven't we? Yeah. We're experienced with that. Back-to-back in this area. Back-to-back hurricanes here. And you guys did something. In just a moment we're going to show some pictures of this. But what did you do to get to help people? There's a lot of agencies and churches that did a lot of things in this area. And what we tried to do is provide food into communities that had no power or had major damage. That was a role that we tried to play. We partnered with the Baptist Church. We had a Baptist Church group from Louisiana come to Clearwater and partner with the Baptist Church here to fix food. Thousands of meals per day. We would pick up those meals and deliver them to parts of the area. I think that's some of the pictures we're going to see. Let's look at those. I think this kind of shows them on location. Tell us what we're seeing. What we're seeing is here one of our food trucks is providing food for an area. Apparently at that Walmart we were providing emergency assistance there. In the affected areas all the way from North County down to Sarasota we provided over 200,000 meals after Hurricane Milton primarily. And so this is one of our workers. We provide food on the canteens, on our food trucks. Also we transport the food on those food trucks into areas. We set up some places. Sometimes we rove. Sometimes you find communities that have a need. This is one of our units here. We provide food for the people. This is a unit that provides transportation for food. We take it out there, serve it, and we find out where the FEMA operations are many times. That's where the crowds are. We want to provide food, hot food, shelf-stable meals as well. We did that. We had three major teams in the affected areas. One in Lakeland within the state, one in Sarasota, and one in Clearwater. Each of those teams had about 10 to 15 of these food trucks that were deployed around the areas on the worst parts of the needed there. So mainly getting food to the people is what we try to do. Yeah, and I absolutely love that. And then of course, if there was needs you see from the families that have been greatly affected by the storm, they can come to your clothing centers, right? We can offer them vouchers to go to our family stores for clothing. And we have a little bit of some gift cards for them if they need small things, if they need just appliances and things. Other agencies do the big things. We try to provide, fill the holes there that others might not be able to do. I love that. Okay, now let's tell us what's going on right now. We're in the middle of the holidays. Bell ringers and Angel Tree are kind of an interesting thing about Angel Tree is it's not only for children, but you do it for senior adults too. Yes, we have a thing called Silver Bells, which is for seniors. And seniors have need. They have a limited income, you know, fixed income. And so they fill out a card like this. Yeah, show us what that, that's the Angel Tree. This is an Angel Tree card. And this is one that's to William, a seven-year-old boy. And he put on here, he wants a Monopoly Super Mario. He wants some tennis shoes. His mother would call us, work with us and gives us his shoe size and what he wants. And the mom puts in there what they need. And so seniors will come to us as well. As you mentioned, they'll need microwaves. I saw one recently. I just need some, some twin sheets for my house. And so we provide things for seniors as well. Yeah, I love that. All right, where, where can people connect and do the Angel Tree? The Angel Trees are located in most Walmarts, Achiever Credit Unions at Countryside Mall and other malls in the Tampa Bay area. Anywhere you see one of those trees with these angels on it, then you can pick one. They can buy what they want or something else, bring it back to that location and our elves make sure that those gifts get to those children or those seniors. Yeah, I just, I, I love it. And I know people in different businesses and people themselves or whatever have, have latched onto this concept. Yes, we'll give businesses hundreds of them. Oh yeah. They'll put them, their business people and bring the toys in. It's fascinating. Yeah. And getting those toys to those children is quite a, quite a logistical challenge sometimes. But we make sure, my wife Pamela is, is the brain trust for that. And so she has that mindset and she makes sure that with volunteers, we get those gifts that are purchased for those people to those people when they come. Okay. And, and the, um, the bell ringers, we see them. What, when you're giving into those buckets and you're, you're contributing, what is that for? We are so blessed that the Christmas kettle has become a fabric of Christmas in America. When you see a Christmas movie, you often see a Christmas kettle. Those funds help us with our overall operation throughout the year. Not only at Christmas time, but annually. It's one of our largest fundraisers internationally, actually. And so the funds go to help us with our operational needs. So that's a, that is a year round. It is. You know, when you're giving, you're doing not just for the holidays, but you're doing, you're doing year round. Right. So is it still, um, is it still possible here? We're here in like mid December. Um, still people get involved in, in volunteer. Yes. They can contact our local Salvation Army. I'm sure we have places for, for them to serve either at Christmas time. We had a lot of volunteers at Thanksgiving, um, and also throughout the year. So most of the Salvation Armies have ways to use volunteers year round. And yeah, that's, that's, that's kind of what I wanted to ask you too, is year round, what would you say, uh, would be some of the greatest needs and on consistently how people can help you? Depending on the unit, I would say consistently the, the food, providing food, sorting food for our various food pantries, uh, maybe doing care for individuals, uh, visiting nursing homes perhaps, and providing gifts for them or just spiritual care for them. And so, so, and there's many number of things they could do, uh, you know, with volunteering. Well, we're putting on the screen and the show different times. We have two different websites, one that's a statewide, uh, SalvationArmyFlorida.org. And then yours specifically is Clearwater.SalvationArmyFlorida.org. They're interchangeable. You can go, you can find each other on both. Um, but, but we know this show because we go out on social media with this show and it's live streamed as well, that there's people beyond the Tampa Bay area. So you can go to the state website and throughout Florida or nationally, find out ways that you can get involved. Um, we're going to take a break in just a moment and show a little bit on, on the bell ringers and some of your year round, uh, you have, you called Love Beyond Christmas. But just, just on a personal note, what, what are you seeing in terms of the people that walk through your doors? What, what are the family situations right now? Sometimes we're seeing families who are just devastated by the storms. They're trying to put their lives back together. And so if we can help them with a little bit at Christmas time with toys for their children, we try to fill that. Um, a lot of seniors who are living on the edge, families that have been paying their rent, the rent goes up, all of a sudden they're homeless. So we have people who are homeless because of the economy, not so much because of other reasons. And those are the ones we try to help as everyone. We try to help, but those are the ones we try to move out of homelessness if we can into a program because they're living with children in their cars and we can't have that. Yeah. I just, I, the story you shared about that, the one mom, it's seven kids in a car. How do you do that? How do you do that? That is just unbelievable. Um, okay. And, um, looking into the year ahead, um, where I guess you're hoping that there's no more hurricane. Not for a while. No, we're hoping that, but, but we know you have so many, um, ways that our, our viewers can connect in doing this. So thank you so much for sharing this. Um, you also, I just, I, I wanted to mention too, for the Clearwater location again, because I really do like to, to promote that you have a church. Tell us again, the church times and, and you have like, where people can get involved. You have youth there. We have youth activities. We have Bible studies, women Bible studies, men's Bible studies. And so, and some people think that at the Salvation Army church is simply homeless people. We have some that are there. You wouldn't know they're homeless. They come to our church. Most people that come are either retired ministers or professional people, young families, working people. And so people are often surprised when they walk into the Salvation Army church and feel like it's a church they may be comfortable with. Well, and what are you going to attend church there and then also get involved in all your outreach. Absolutely. Yes. Our people are friendly. We want people to be. Yeah. I love that. I like promoting churches. So that's always the side of it that I, I think you're right. People don't realize that. I like talking about it when you come. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah. I thank you so much, Major Morris for coming again this year. And, um, on the screen, you're going to see in just a moment to, again, a little bit more about, we're going to show you what the bell ringers and what Salvation does beyond Christmas, Salvation Army does beyond Christmas as well. I mean, definitely a year round thing. So stay tuned. We'll be right back with more of a focus. Let's take a look at the Salvation Army Christmas kettle. What'd you see in there? Hope. Your love isn't confined to an advent calendar. It doesn't stop when the Christmas lights come down. But the Salvation Army, your love lasts all year long. It puts a present under someone's tree today and a roof over someone's head tomorrow. It brightens Christmas morning and the hardest nights for hardworking families. When Noche Buena comes to an end, when wrapping paper litters, the living room and the euphoria of Christmas morning begins to fade. The need goes on and your love goes on to meet it through every branch of the Salvation Army in every neighborhood, in every season. Together, we love beyond bell ringing. We love beyond snowfall. We love beyond Christmas. Welcome, welcome to Bay Focus. Thank you so much for tuning in. We have so many things to tell you about. There's some exciting things coming up. The power of God is so much stronger. The power of Jesus is so much right. Well, I hope you'll get involved and help the Salvation Army this year. You know, we've throughout the last month or so of shows during the holiday season, we've been showcasing some of the ministries in the area that are meeting the needs of people this time of year, year round, but also this time of year, there's a real push because there's so much need. And so we want you to participate, but there's no better organization than Salvation Army. We don't even have to make a case. They're good ground to sow in. You're familiar with them, you know, and they're just so consistent in meeting the needs of people nationwide, worldwide, in our area in particular. And really, this is the time, this year is the year. If you can roll up your sleeves and help, I mean, it's been such a rough couple of months. Yeah, it felt like a couple of years, the last two hurricanes in particular that we had. And I don't know about you, but it felt like we went from summer hurricane season and jumped through, boom, we're in Christmas and we're wearing long sleeves, you know, but it's like it went so quickly and maybe caught us off guard, but don't let it catch you off guard in terms of helping the people that need help. And so we need to all do our part this holiday season. I also want to thank Byrne Steakhouse and Elyse McColl for doing the report and Stephen Jane, our videographer that goes out and shoots these stories with Elyse here from CTN. He's also our director for the show, does such a tremendous job in doing this. You know, we really want to get out and show you areas here in the Tampa Bay area that you can visit, that you can enjoy, you can take your family to, along with the ministry and other humanitarian organizations that we have on the show. So also, I would like you to connect with us here at Bay Focus. If you will, you'll see on the screen how you can reach me, how you can let us know what's going on here in the Tampa Bay, Central Florida area. We want to get, you know, we're talking to you people in Lakeland as well, Sarasota, all parts around Central Florida. Well, I hope you'll continue to have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas season and we will see you next week on Bay Focus. God bless you.