My apologies for leaving you on the edge of your seats for a couple of weeks. I know you were anxious to see a new post, but I have been busy planning future travel! I think that's a good enough excuse, right?
Today I am breaking the longstanding tradition of my three-month old blog: I am not posting a recipe. And I'm also making this a wedding-themed entry! A couple of weeks ago, the hubby and I went down to Florida. On our first night in town, we visited a restaurant that will forever hold a special place in our hearts: Bern's Steakhouse. We got engaged upstairs in the marvelous dessert room, hence the "Something Old."
Now this is no ordinary steakhouse. Anyone who travels to the Tampa Bay area simply MUST visit this place. Since 1956, this beef shrine has been offering up some of the best steaks in the world. They perform some seriously delicious dry-aging of their beef (share a chateaubriand, rare with a warm, red center - it is THE BEST). They grow pretty much everything that they serve (cows, fish, sprouts, etc.) - a tour through their kitchen takes you through a fish tank, cheese room, trays of little half-grown sprouts, etc. Their wine cellar contains more than 6,800 different selections with more than half a million bottles. You can take a tour of this, as well.
Possibly the best thing about this timeless restaurant? The price. It ain't cheap, but it's also not as expensive as it may seem. For around $30-35 per person (depends on what you order), you get French onion soup that is to DIE for, a nice green salad, your choice of meat, vegetables, gourmet onion rings, and choice of potato (aka you have to order the mashed sweet potatoes with all the fixings). What a great deal!
And just when you think you can't eat anymore, it's time to go upstairs to the Dessert Room. In your own individual "pod," as I like to call it, you can eat your weight in macadamia nut sundaes (their best-known dessert), take a seat by the bananas foster fire, or propose to your girlfriend over soufflé. You know, the usual.
On our trip to Florida, we were able to experience the magic of Bern's Steakhouse and the Dessert Room all over again. My father and I shared bananas foster:
Now, you may notice that I didn't include a photo of the dessert as it was served to us. The fact is, there wasn't much time. I ate it before I could take the photograph - my apologies (but not really).
So, BOTTOM LINE: You simply MUST go to Bern's Steakhouse if you travel to the Tampa Bay area, and if you live there, go right now. Do it.
So that was the "Something Old" (we have been married for over a year!). Now on to "Something New." A few weekends ago we went to Chicago. Good friends got married, and my hubby and I got to tour the Windy City for the first time (if you don't include my multitude of visits to O'Hare). I also experienced a beach on a...lake...for the first time.
We loved the Art Institute and Millennium Park.
We also enjoyed sightseeing around the North Shore (including Northwestern's beautiful-but-not-as-beautiful-as-Duke's-campus campus and the Baha'i Temple).
And the Lincoln Park Zoo gives the National Zoo a run for its money for the title of "best free zoo."
We took in the view of the skyline from Signature Lounge atop the John Hancock Building.
Clearly, we really loved Chicago, but we agreed that we will never go there during the months of October, November, December, January, February, March, April, and maybe even May.
BUT, the REAL new experience was of a true Chicago delicacy: DEEP DISH PIZZA.
All I can really say is WOW. It is actually worth the 45 minute-1 hour wait! Gino's East served up our deep dish pizza with sausage, mushrooms, peppers, and onions. It was an experience of epic proportions. Only an hour to spend in Chicago? Eat a deep dish pizza. You will not regret it. It was a wonderful "Something New" experience. As was being in Chicago for the wedding of the Spitzes :)
Stay tuned for my next recipe! I will post soon now that next year's trip to Africa is pretty much set in stone - another "Something New" to look forward to!
