wherein we fall in love

So we fell in love last night with a new (to us) place, called indigenous.  We had a perfectly prepared meal with several knock your socks off courses and fabulous service (Thanks Jessica!) outside on the patio lit with fairy lights on an evening with 70* weather.  How could you not fall in love with a place under those circumstances? LOL

We had heard of the place before and had once called to get a reservation but they were so booked all they had was 5:30 LOL which as most of you know - is lunch to us... But last night we were able to get an 8:30 outside reservation and found the menu, the food and the server, very much to our liking. And you can BYO with a corkage fee.

This is a definite "return to" restaurant.

They are known for a number of dishes but many things change season to season so we were thrilled to find out that our two appetizers were among the standard menu items- we chose the Parmesan Beignets and the Mushroom Bisque.  While the beignets were wonderful, the bisque was exquisite- I gave some thought to ordering it for dessert as well! (the photos do neither of these dishes justice!)

 the mains were equally excellent - I ordered the special of line caught mangrove snapper with a fattoush salad mix under and a creamy sauce of basil and cilantro - seriously good! Phil had a lamb dish with savory middle eastern flavors.

the night was warm and the lighting was perfect- you could see your food and dining partners yet enjoy the fact that it was night- with a little sliver of a moon in the sky...the water glasses left their humidity on the coasters but it seemed a perfect temperature to us.

so if you get down this way and have an evening to spend in Sarasota- the place is near the Towles Court arts district- definitely go out of your way if you need to because this place is "worth the journey" as they used to say in Michelin guides... excellent meal and evening!

how Beer Haven became Bern's

So way back in the Post WWII period, a Madison Avenue type copy writer named Bern and his similarly skilled wife Gert, bought a small cafe called the Little Midway Cafe (LMC) in near south Tampa. The Cafe had a circus theme (think Columbian Exposition midway or to bring it closer to home here on the Suncoast - the Ringling Bros Circus midway.  It had about four booths and 18 seats at a counter.  Bern and Gert supplied their own farm fresh eggs and other produce for the breakfast and lunch at the LMC.  Gert worked the register and kept the books, while Bern would go to his day job after helping cook breakfast and then he would come back on his lunch hour to help with the lunch. The business grew....but they were strapped for cash because they were putting money back into the business.

At the point where they decided it was time to expand there was an open space in a shopping center on Howard Avenue.  The place was called Beer Haven (hey, I didn't name it- and this was in the mid to late 50s...) so they took over the empty beer haven and salvaged the B, the E, the R, and the N from the Beer Haven signage and opened up the first Bern's. A year later they had enough money to buy the 'S to complete the sign.  The naming of this now institution of wine and red meat was completed a bit later when the phone company told them they had to "be" something, a restaurant, a cafe, whatever... in order to be in the yellow pages... they settled on Steakhouse and that is what they are today. They eventually took over the whole shopping center on Howard Avenue and to this day they still provide their own produce and farm fresh eggs from the farm that is still a part of the operations founded by Bern and Gert.

Bern's is world renown... I know that may sound like hyperbole, but it is not.  French wine makers come to Bern's to drink wines their grandfather's made... and Bern's has the largest wine cellar in North America if not worldwide... they admit to 500,000 bottles.  Bern would go to France and when the wines he bought there (many times directly from the chateaux)were delivered, Gert would have to find a way to pay for them... Bern bought and bought and bought and today, the proverbial "fruits" of his labor are ours to enjoy.  And that we do - especially when wine loving friends and family come to visit.

here are a few past visits we have made to Bern's recounted:

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2014/03/we-celebrate.html

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2013/12/we-havent-finished-eating-yet.html

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2013/12/three-berns-visits.html

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2012/02/my-birthday-wines.html

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2011/02/away.html

Each evening brought amazing wines that are not available anywhere else in an American Steakhouse and many not available even in the library cellars of the actual wine makers.... this is "the stuff that dreams are made of..." like the infamous black bird- 

Last night was no exception-our regular Somm Brad Dixon really worked the cellar for us to provide and experience of some gems from the past. He commented that in the good vintages Bern would buy negociant wines but the off ones he cultivated direct grower/winemaker relationships, hence some of the more obscure producers that show up in the cellar inventory.  Of course the "names" and premier crus of Burgundy and first growths of Bordeaux get picked off by those seeking trophy bottles or who buy on "Parker" - the ratings guru who made his rep with the 1982 vintage of bordeaux. 

However, each time we have been there we have tried to find the lesser known gems and we usually take the 200 page wine list and narrow it down to 30 wine or so to discuss with our Somm and let him run with the "gist of it"... and if you actually read any of the prior posts you know that he's done a brilliant job.  And last night was no exception. Four amazing wines- perhaps a bit more pricey than prior visits as the giant values (with ancient pricing leftover from when Bern was still living) are disappearing over time--- so no more of the incredible wines from the 60s and 70s that we were drinking in some of those previous forays into the depth of the cellar. 

This wine got 3 of 4 votes for wine of the evening- 

where to find Bern's

so a very fun evening of wine and catching up with CBGB... and just to "circle back" as our CFP says... the old cafe Little Midway became Sidebern's and now has been reincarnated as Haven.  Yes, an homage to Beer Haven and the transition from Bern & Gert's Little Midway Cafe to Bern's Steakhouse with a few iterations along the way.... truly a fun place 

game day!

So today we were off to a new stadium for a spring training game between Phil's beloved Cardinals and the local Sarasota team, the Orioles.  The Orioles have been playing their spring training games here in SRQ for the last five years or so, since the stadium was completely rehabbed... it is a very very clean place with nice ushers and probably the best food we have had at the five spring training parks we have been to so far (except for the strawberry shortcake with ice cream at the Tiger's Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland near the Plant City strawberry capital!)

Our seats were in the sun and it was quite hot- high mid 80s in "real feel"- so I kept moving between a shaded grove and the seats but Phil was a true fan and followed the every move of the lackluster (until the ninth inning) Cards... when we left in the middle of the 7th they had left 12 men on base... but they got 3 runs in the 9th and won 8-6... so yea!

 the above photo is from the architects website but the rest are my own- 

a card from the stand where I got us excellent snow cones (red cherry flavor)

I would say the afternoon was a little warm for my taste but it was nice to check out another ball park used for spring training here in the Grapefruit League. We have now been to the Yankees, Twins, Braves, Orioles, Tigers and Pirates... still trying to get into the Red Sox spring training - maybe next year...

and tomorrow we are off for our annual visit to Bern's in Tampa -home of the more than 500,000 bottle wine cellar- we haven't seen CBGB since Forks & Corks in January so we will be catching up with them before Phil leaves in less than a month! Time flies!!!!!!

the very definition of charming

Although renown as a genius, a prodigy, virtuoso, and many other labels, the one I was bowled over by was how absolutely charming Itzhak Perlman was from the stage of the Van Wezel.  A terrific selection of music was made even more enjoyable by his lighthearted charm with the audience.  He was especially effective in teaching the audience (who must have been opera goers - who applaud at virtually every pause) about not applauding between movements of a composer's work.  He also had a moment or two of fun (for us) in teaching the tech staff about the lighting for the auditorium... house lights at 50% during the performance despite them being full bore for the entire first half of the program.

The timing of the concert (at 8 PM) meant we could all watch the sunset outside just before going in to our seats (fifth row center for us!)

 

the works announced from the stage include a Prokofiev, a Tchaikovsky, the theme from 

Schindler's List and several others... all performed after introductions by the again- very charming Perlman.  

Phil said he could think of no artist as "decorated" as Itzhak Perlman and the information from the program would bear that out- he has received pretty much every possible award and then some I think...

(all of the above taken directly from the program guide for last night)

I also found the ten commandments worth considering - 

Numbers VII and VIII being my own personal favorites - the singing along and shouting out song titles is probably my biggest pet peeve of this list of pet peeves.  

we did the full concert series last year- with three excellent concerts - by the Haifa Symphony, by Joshua Bell and by Lang-Lang - recounted in this prior post: http://semifreelife.semifreelife.com/2014/01/tchaikovsky-gesundheit.html

this was the only one for this year, as we have expanded our cultural outings with other choices including things like the Julian Sands one man show on Pinter, the National Theater LIVE, and Fogartyville concerts.... but this was certainly an excellent choice! A fabulous talent!!!!

And today, we are off to Ed Smith Stadium to see the Cardinals versus the Orioles in a spring training game. It will be our first time in this venue. (we have done spring training stadiums for the Yankees, Braves, Twins, Tigers, and Pirates (x3 because this is our local Bradenton team). So far my favorite venue has been the Joker Marchant Stadium (Tigers in Lakeland) because they are near Plant City and served strawberry shortcake with ice cream!!!    So I will report back on the experience at the Orioles- Cards game in Sarasota...