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For now, add valet parking to cost of Bern's outing

The self-parking lot is being demolished for a new garage and hotel. Bring an extra $5.

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published August 25, 2006

SOHO - If you're going to drop some serious cash at world-renowned Bern's Steak House, you can spend a few extra bucks to valet park, right?

Actually, it has become a rhetorical question.

The iconic restaurant's parking lot across S Howard Avenue is closed to self-parking while the lot is cleared and leveled. It's the first phase in building a parking garage and boutique hotel, the newest additions to the Bern's family.

Construction on the four-story garage will begin in September, Bern's spokeswoman Heather Sherer-Berkoff said. Crews began demolishing the pavement last week. Until the garage is completed next spring, she said, "everyone must valet." Valet parking costs $5.

Bern's is erecting the garage plus the three-story hotel, which will include another restaurant, in the lot across from the steakhouse. Sherer-Berkoff said Bern's officials are still working out details on the project but expect to release more the first week of September.

"We believe that the hotel project will continue to create interest and excitement in the SoHo neighborhood," Bern's president David Laxer said in a statement. "We have planned this project for several years and are thrilled to add another brand to our family.

"What we hope to bring to the hotel property is a new extension of our talents or the things that we hope keep bringing people to our properties - uniqueness, world-class food and world-class wines."

The project coincides with the 50th anniversary of the steakhouse, which originally was part of a strip mall. It eventually overtook the entire mall. In 1987, the restaurant added its dessert room.

The family initially announced the project more than 2½ years ago, with more ambitious plans that included townhomes and a tower of up to 70 feet tall.

However, those plans met with objections from some residents of neighboring New Suburb Beautiful and members of the city's Architectural Review Commission.

Sherer-Berkoff wouldn't comment on why it took so long to break ground on the project, promising more details in a few weeks.

Rick Gershman can be reached at rgershman@sptimes.com or 226-3431.

[Last modified August 24, 2006, 08:15:42]