Is Bern's Steak House Still Open? Best Thing I Ever Ate Update (Tampa, FL)

Best Thing I Ever Ate, Season 5, Episode 7

On "Old School", Bern's Steak House featured its dry-aged steaks and the restaurant's landmark wine program, built around the extensive cellar chef Bern Laxer began assembling when the restaurant opened on South Howard Avenue in Tampa in 1956. Bern's wine list has long been cited as one of the largest in the world, and the restaurant is known for its Harry Waugh Dessert Room, a separate dining area for dessert and after-dinner wine service. According to the restaurant's own website (bernssteakhouse.com), checked 2026-09-08, the site carried a 2026 copyright notice, listed current Tuesday-through-Sunday dinner hours, and offered online reservations and gift-card purchases. The site also referenced Bern's upcoming 70th-anniversary programming, consistent with its 1956 opening date. The 2026-09-08 check turned up no notice of closure, sale, or relocation.

The segment also toured the Harry Waugh Dessert Room and the wine cellar, highlighting the restaurant's tradition of pairing desserts with late-harvest and dessert wines after the steak course, and showed the dessert room's private booths, separate from the main steakhouse dining room.

Food Paradise, Season 1, Episode 12

This episode returned to Bern's Steak House, the Tampa institution known for its extensive dry-aged steak menu, its Harry Waugh Dessert Room, and one of the largest restaurant wine collections in the country. The segment highlighted the restaurant's steak offerings and its South Howard Avenue dining rooms. The restaurant, founded in 1956 by Bern and Gert Laxer, remains family-owned.