Dispute won't stop release of book on Bern

© St. Petersburg Times
published October 23, 2002

Six weeks after the death of Bern Laxer, Tampa's legendary restaurateur is the subject of several tributes -- and a book dispute.

Laxer's family looks forward to Bern's name on a scholarship fund and maybe on a small park a few blocks from the steak house.

It isn't so happy about seeing him remembered in a book by St. Petersburg author and publisher Joyce La Fray.

La Fray's book is not an unauthorized biography; Laxer, who was badly injured in a car crash in 1993, signed a contract approving it in 1997. Nor is it a negative tell-all; La Fray describes herself as a "close friend of Bern's for 25 years" and calls it a "very kind book about Bern's."

The book is titled Bern's Steak House, Reflections & Recipes from a Remarkable Restaurant, and its cover closely resembles the restaurant's logo; but it won't ever be sold in the famous restaurant or its other businesses.

"We don't plan to sell it or promote it in any way, shape or form," said David Laxer, Bern's son.

His complaint is that the family didn't like the direction of the book once it saw how the book was progressing several years ago. Eventually, both sides called in lawyers, and Laxer said he thought the project had been abandoned until a few weeks ago.

La Fray says that cooperation and communication with Bern's went from bad to none. She said she offered to make changes or to drop the book if Bern's would pay for her expenses, and she still plans to pay royalties to Bern's family.

"It's my story about knowing Bern and Gert all these years," supported by interviews with people on the staff, La Fray said. She did change recipes for home use but says she noted the changes.

The 200-page book will sell for $29.95 when it hits stores Nov. 15 for holiday sales. It will be one of the few hardcovers and the most costly book La Fray's Seaside Publishing has printed. Seaside prints inexpensive books about shells, fish, pirates and other tourist topics, although LaFray has built a specialty in food and travel, especially books by local celebrities.

She has published Clarita's Cocina on Cuban food, a cookbook by former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman, and One Tank Trips by TV personality Bill Murphy.

"We're sorry David didn't like it," La Fray said last week. But she decided to go ahead with publication because she has the contract and believes "Bern wanted his story told."

The view on S Howard Avenue is different: "It's not something we can stand behind," David Laxer said.

Once the Nibbler digests the book, he'll let you know how much meat, gristle and fat there are in it -- and the dispute.

A good fast-food burger

Fast-food burgers come in standard sizes. There are the beloved and all-too-rare little sliders and belly bombs of White Castle, Krystal and their imitators (may their numbers increase); the slightly larger basic burger suitable for double-decking; the quarter pounder, and finally, Something More.

The McDLT started a long, unsuccessful effort to build a better, or at least bigger, burger. More recently this premium stack of cholesterol has put on country ways as Big Buford and a Backyard burger. Burger King even asked employees to bring charcoal grills from home to set up as props. Sometimes the burgers had faux char on them; sometimes they were carefully misshapen to look homemade.

All succeeded only in reminding me of how far they were from the real thing.

No more. Try the so-called Six Dollar Burger from Hardee's (St. Petersburg, Zephyrhills, Valrico, Tampa, Ruskin and Seffner) and taste the breakthrough in fast-food burgers. Not from the back yard, this burger mimics the fancy half-pounders that corporate fern-bar chains sell for $6, but Hardee's peddles it for $3.95.

I don't know if this meets the adult burger profile in flavor or demographics, but it's the best burger I've had in a chain.

It's thick, hefty, juicy, freshly cooked (I had a seat and waited four minutes until mine was brought in a special black-and-white box with matching tray liner). A tangy crust sinks into the kind of fresh buns we love for burgers: sesame seeds on top and a dusting of white flour on the bottom. Fresh lettuce, decent tomato and an onion ring with bite made it harder to get your hands around, let alone your mouth. Single flaw: Bread-and-butter pickles are too sweet for me, yet even that showed a choice with taste.

I'm not the only one to call it a winner. Restaurant Business magazine tapped it as the best new burger of the year.

Plus, it has passed a really tough test: It's the only fast-food sandwich I've seen that looks as good in person as in the ads.

Heady cocktails

Tampa gets another shot of nightlife in the north end of Soho in the Starbucks, Panera and 717 South clusters this month. The vast loftlike space where Bacchus and Hideaway once mixed sushi, wild drinks and pool will become Whiskey Park Soho on Tuesday, with more pool tables, a restaurant, and four bars indoors and out. Mixing drinks, decor and concept are owners Christopher Scott, Tommy Ortiz and Peter Hannouche, better known from the late-night club scene.

Cooking the upscale bar fare and complete meals is Marty Blitz of Mise En Place.

How upscale will food be at Whiskey Park (720 S Howard Ave., Tampa; 813-259-9669)? Nachos will be house-made potato chips with pulled pork and a sauce spiked with Jack Daniel's and Tabasco. There will be lemongrass tuna and catfish in red pepper cornmeal, with creole mustard cole slaw and asiago mashed potatoes.

Political spillover

It may sound tasty at Whiskey Park, but given that Blitz's partner, Maryann Ferenc Blitz, is now managing the Tampa mayoral campaign of Frank Sanchez, who's tending the stoves at Mise?

Both Blitzes say they're committed to the restaurant that pioneered New American cooking in the Tampa Bay area. The two started the restaurant 15 years ago and became the first couple of modern dining locally; they divorced a year ago but have continued to run the restaurant together with no apparent animosity.

In interviews, they said their non-Mise projects came about during a deadly slow summer, and they were glad to tackle them. And, in truth, over the years the Blitzes have usually had another restaurant project or two on their plates.

Having created the Whiskey Park menu, Marty Blitz will train the crew at the beginning and monitor the food but then give full focus to Mise. "What I do here is my true passion. I'm more hands-on now than I've ever been," he said.

For now, Maryann Blitz spends days running the Sanchez campaign as a full-time paid staffer and nights working Mise's black-and-white dining rooms, but she says she won't stay in politics after the election in March.

"In reality, doing something else renews my energy for the restaurant, and I realize how much it means to me. It's home," she said. "(So) I look forward to having one job again."

In the meantime, it could mean better food with martinis and pool cues, and fewer rubber chicken dinners on the campaign trail.

-- Food critic Chris Sherman writes about dining and restaurant news in the Nibbler. He can be reached at (727) 893-8585 or by e-mail at sherman@sptimes.com.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright