Let the wine flow !

 Andy here, I will be doing my one and probably only: very own blog. Since this night was done for me I am going to share about our dining experience...and that it was!

A little history for those of you who might not know me.  Wine & food are my passions!   I come from a family of foodies;  my mother, my sister Tammy, my brother Larry and  my kids Greg, Briana & Michelle.  We  officially decided we ALL have OFD...Obsessive Food Disorder, lol.

We met a couple Bill & Jo a couple of weeks ago while we were at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. They are traveling from Texas.  We saw them again last week while we were in Jacksonville, Florida (Mayport Navel Base) and hung out for a couple of days.

We are now at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida and here they are again.   I am pretty sure they think we're stalkers. lol.  When we were in Mayport they found out how much I love food & wine . So once we got here they decided we should all go to Bern's Steak House for dinner. I was more than happy for this plan.

It didn't look like anything special from the outside but once we walked through the doors.....
 

I knew I was in for a treat. Very fancy pants!

Here we are enjoying some wine, well except for you know who

Of course we all had steaks. That was an interesting deal in itself.  There were two long pages on the menu telling us all about the cuts, what size, how to cook it etc. The waiter had to give a tutorial.

Yummy!!!

After dinner a "waiter in waiting" took us on a tour of the kitchen and the WINE CELLAR!!!

Bern's Steak House has the largest private wine collection in the world!  There are almost 7000 bottles on their  menu.  No, I did not mistakenly add an extra zero.  In fact, there are two menu's; one was a book of their bottled wines and the other lesser menu only listed their 150+ glass pours!   I realized once I had been "reading" for awhile that I would have to lay down my book and be social, lol. Decisions, decisions!

Nope, not too excited!!!

Preston here:  She was gleaming... Just look at that face!  If you know her.... you know where that smile and face comes from.  She was beautiful and happy !   However, I still don't get it about wine !

Quite sure I had died and ended up in wine heaven

Everyone who is employed here has to work their way up the ranks.  They start by mopping floors , giving the tours and actually working on the farm that supplies their foods.  It takes years to become a waiter and once you are, they don't leave. Spendy restaurant = great tips.

The kitchen was huge and lots of activity.

After the tour we went up to the top of the restaurant, the dessert floor.  Every party gets their own private dessert room, with a choice of 40 desserts.

Hard to tell but these are all individual rooms

Couldn't decide so we got a sampler

We had a wonderful time with our friends Bill and Jo.  Bern's Steak House was a once in a lifetime dining experience! Thanks Bill & Jo for inviting us along.