Delicious Anniversary

Dessert sampler-yum!

the Turk and I celebrated our 15th anniversary this weekend.  We took my parents to Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa to join our festivities.

The eclectic decor includes dark rooms, thick red velvet drapery with fringe, unmatched and ornate furnishings, and each room with its own personality.   

The room where we had dinner was lined with alcoves, each with a bust of someone who I didnt know, and each bust glowed with special lighting.  This all brought waves of nostalgia for Disney's haunted mansion.  Throughout dinner, I fully expected the heads to start singing in harmony.  

 

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Me and the Turk...with the haunted heads.

Our guests for the evening

 We selected a nice blend wine called Prisoner to go with our assortment of beef and seafood.  Quite a mix of grapes:  51% Zinfandel, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Syrah, 7% Petite Sirah, 3% Charbono, 1% Malbec, 1% Grenache.  Dad and Mark each had a filet and lobster while mom had shrimp and I tried the seafood en papillote.  Along with the accompanying french onion soup, delicious salad from their garden, and their baked potato - we were trying to pace ourselves for the dessert room.

In line for their steaks. They can grill 200 steaks at a time.

To help work off a couple of bites, we took a tour of the kitchen and wine cellar on our way to the dessert room.

Cutting and weighing steaks per the custom orders

The kitchen was busy - to put it mildly.  I've never seen so much dead cow in one spot!  We saw the sprouts they grow in the kitchen for the salads, and the cheese 'cave' to fill their cheese platters.  

Then we ventured down, down to the wine cellar - lined with Tampa Tribune newspaper insulation.  Rows and rows of wine that were 12 feet high.  Our wine guide was able to tell us which section our wine came from - though he could say anything and we wouldnt know any better.  We slowly walked around trying to absorb the essence of what was around us, figuratively and physically.    

Bern's has the largest privately owned wine collection in the world,  close to 7000 different table wines, 1000 different dessert wines, 240 different scotches, 270 cognacs and omgnacs. Wandering down one of the aisles, we came to the gated area where the really expensive wines are stored.They range in price from $200 to $30,000.  Bottles date back to 1790.  Many of the bottles are covered in plastic to protect the labels.

 

We could only hang around the wines for a bit since it was Saturday night and there was ALOT of activity in that area.  Next stop - the dessert room!

Upstairs is a maze of small rooms, each with their own sound system and music choice and a buzzer to call the waiter.

Chocolate peanut butter truffle

 The dessert menu was a book with pages of ice creams, chocolate fantasies, ports, wines, cognacs, coffees, and cheeses.

What to do?!?!  Too much to choose from!  We went with our guts - so to speak. Chocolate macadamia nut sundae with a pitcher of dark chocolate, chocolate peanut butter truffle (monster truffle), dessert sampler and the baked pineapple something that none of us got to taste since dad ate it so quickly!

We had a really nice time with all of these indulgences.  This warranted a 1/2 hour walk at midnight just so we could get to sleep.  Looking forward to my workout in the morning!