As a proud carnivore I enjoy my meat but when the true primal urge comes over me what I crave is steak. Des Moines has some good and even very good steakhouses including 801, Flemings, Iowa Beef, Rube's and, for top tenderloin Steak Deburgo, Sam & Gabe's. Truely great Steakhouses though are few and far between. Peter Lugar in New York & Gene and Georgetti in Chicago are considered a couple of the best. My wife Laura and I, visiting Tampa/St. Pete last week had the opportunity to visit the king of steakhouses though, Bern's Steakhouse
. Bern's deals in only Prime, dry-aged, hand-cut-to-order steaks. They have a two page CAVIAR menu. A Wine Spectator Grand Award holder (there are only 72) since the first awards were given out in I believe 1993, Bern's has a 6,800 selection wine list and over 500,000 bottles in their collection. Their bound wine book weighs 15 pounds, reaches back to 1790, and runs up to $10,000 per bottle (for an 1871 Graud Larose). I have been reading about Bern's since I first got into the wine business in 1992 and as a wine and food guy as well as a food and wine guy I felt it was my obligation (and opportunity) to make pilgrimage to this Mecca of meat. Laura and I are going to blog our take on this amazing dining experience in alternating parts over the next couple of weeks. Feel free to join in the conversation, ask questions and throw in any observations as we go along. A shared experience is the best kind of experience.
Howard Bernstein, Wine & Food Guy
Casa di Vino, Des Moines Wine and Food Connection