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A Sneak Peek At … The Epicurean

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By JEFF HOUCK | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2007

TAMPA - TAMPA - As soon as you pull into the hotel driveway off South Howard Avenue, a valet takes your keys and parks your car as a bellman assists you with your luggage. You check in at the polished marble front desk, which is just off a lobby lounge that leads to a shop with the best wines the world has to offer.

Once you're in your room, a bevy of luxuries awaits. Bathrobes and slippers. Goose-down pillows. A flat-screen satellite television. Filtered water for bathing. Round-the-clock room service with fine linens and table settings.

What to do next? Maybe check out your stash in the climate-controlled wine locker downstairs. Or make an appointment for shiatsu massage and a facial in the 8,000-square-foot spa. Perhaps a dip with a cocktail in the rooftop pool is in order. Then again, there's a session with a famous chef in the culinary classroom to consider. Either that or a meal in the new restaurant designed by a world-renowned architect.

Fantasy or reality?

Actually a little bit of both.

Welcome to The Epicurean Hotel, the latest big idea to come from Bern's Steak House.

Under construction on a triangle parcel at Southview and South Howard avenues, the boutique hotel expects to open as early as 17 months from now across the street from the landmark restaurant. The goal: to greet customers who are in town to attend Super Bowl XLIII in February 2009.

Once completed, the condo-hotel (more about that later) will feature a spa, wine store, rooftop pool, sun deck and parking for 380 cars. Oh, and a new restaurant that's currently being designed by noted architect Mark Stech-Novak. It will be the third Bern's restaurant, in addition to the steakhouse and the progressive SideBern's, which is just a few blocks north on Howard Avenue and has a wine store attached.

But for the real draw, look only to the name of the hotel. Most boutique hotels worry about the towels and concierge service first; the restaurant is an after-thought. Partly because of where it will be located — far from the usual boutique hotel beach front and across the street from the steakhouse — The Epicurean will start and end with food being central to the customer's experience. Think of it as a theme park for food lovers.

"It really extends our brand into food and wine and hospitality and now lodging," says David Laxer, son of Bern's founder, Bern Laxer, who died in 2002 at age 78. David Laxer took over operations of the restaurant in 1993.

"There's nothing like it," he says. "In Las Vegas, you're there for the gambling. You're not on the beach. The Epicurean will be a food and wine destination for people who watch Food Network and HGTV and for whom food is an important part of their lifestyle."

The idea for a hotel, he says, was about a decade in the making. A lot across the street owned by the restaurant was being used for parking. Laxer first considered building apartments, then office space with some ground-floor retail shops, but then saw the trend of exclusive boutique hotels popping up across the country. At that point, about five years ago, Laxer and Jeannie Pierola, executive chef at Bern's and SideBern's, began brainstorming.

The hotels, they noticed, "were this combination of steakhouse and progressive restaurant. And we thought, well, we have a steakhouse and we have a progressive restaurant. Gosh, we should be going into boutique hotels."

That discussion gave way, Pierola says, "to a watershed of ideas of translating the pursuit of a quality life and food and wine and breaking bread and what that experience is about."

Tampa architect Richard Zingale of Urban Design Studio, who designed SideBern's, had the challenge of creating a building in a historical district that looked luxurious but which fit into the residential south Tampa neighborhood. The South Howard part of the hotel will feature multiple elevation rooftops and exterior textures. To shield neighboring homes, Zingale designed the structure to have all deliveries and day-to-day operations going on behind the building.

Restaurant Name Under Wraps

Creating a new restaurant for the hotel was a given (Pierola won't reveal the name or menu yet, other than to say it will be more casual than the two other restaurants), but so was the wine shop. Bern Laxer created one of the most extensive and diverse wine collections in the world.

Pairing wine with food has always been part of the Bern's legacy, so it made sense that the wine shop be moved to the new hotel and expanded so that tastings and seminars could be held in a more comfortable setting. Also in the plans: wine lockers for aficionados to store their collections in a climate-controlled setting.

In each room, a wine cooler will be available for storing bottles. And a dinner table will be available for fine-dining room service.

"The thing we're excited about is the educational classroom part, being able to not only enjoy food and wine while dining, but take classes in a first-class environment," Laxer says. "To have speakers [come in to talk] about food and wine and give hands-on classes and then be able to stay in a hotel that really embodies [food and wine], I'm very excited about."

Laxer wouldn't reveal the total cost of the project, saying only, "It's certainly a huge venture to undertake. I don't know that my father would have gone out that far."

To curb some of that risk, each of the 75 rooms at The Epicurean will be sold in the mid-$200,000 range as condominium rooms, says David Traynor of Smith & Associates marketing. Owner "members" will have 45 days of access to their rooms during the year, but will rent them out as hotel rooms the rest of the year through Coral Hospitality of Naples, which will give owners a percentage of the profits. It's similar to how the Sandpearl Resort in Clearwater Beach operates, says Kerry Mitruska, Coral Hospitality's vice president of sales and marketing. The buyers who decide not to rent out their rooms will have total access to the rooms and the facility year-round.

"The condo ownership is really a mechanism of financing for the developer," Mitruska says. "The fact that the unit will be individually owned will have no impact on the guests and their experience. We will drop the condo-hotel name as we get it open, so that there's no confusion."

Niche Marketing

The market for hotel patrons for much of the week likely will be business travelers looking for higher-end accommodations — the hotel will have conference facilities as well. On the weekends, patrons looking for a social food atmosphere will be the primary customers.

"I think that this is [aimed at] a niche market, but you regularly have people who travel to food and wine events around the country who would be interested in The Epicurean," Mitruska says. "This property gives you an opportunity to participate a lot more. It ends up becoming more than just dining in a restaurant. We've talked about some members or owners benefits where the chef would be on call for them. The members who are preparing a dinner at home could get instruction for those meals. It's a much more interactive experience."

The stakes for Laxer, Pierola and Bern's are high.

"Expectations when our restaurants are involved with something are very high expectations," Laxer says. "Our reputation is at stake. We joke that when you come and have a steak, if it's not dancing and doing a whole show, you fall below what our customers expect because they expect so much more."

As might be expected, Laxer says the complexity and multimillion-dollar scope of the project makes him a bit nervous.

"I'm nervous when we make menu changes in the dining room," he says. "But I believe so strongly in this project."

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