Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

A repertoire of requests

No smoky clubs or crowded arenas. Musician Manny Furia plays piano and accordion for audiences of discerning diners at Bern's Steak House.

By AMY SCHERZER
Published September 1, 2006

[Times photos: Daniel Wallace]

“Are you taking requests?” asks Trudy Swedberg , sitting with Mike Duranko in the dessert room of Bern’s Steak House last month. “Always,” replies Manny Furia 75, sitting at the piano.

	Manny Furia, 75, wanders the first floor of Bern’s Steak House playing his accordion. He doesn’t play it as much these days because the 25-pound instrument is difficult to carry.

TAMPA - As the renowned Bern's Steak House pops the champagne to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Manny Furia rattles the keys in his fourth decade as the restaurant's piano and accordion player.

"Manny's been here as long as I can remember," said David Laxer, 41, son of the legendary founder who has gone from running around the restaurant as a child to running the place.

"He has quite a following," Laxer said. "He's a very engaging performer."

Furia auditioned for the late Bern Laxer in May 1967, despite the owner's warning that he didn't care much for accordions.

"I plugged it in and played Arrivederci Roma, and he loved it," Furia said. "I had no idea it was his favorite song."

Furia signed a contract for union wages, more than $100 a week plus tips. The gilt and red velvet lounge was his stage, but he was not to be Lawrence Welk.

"You're part of the big picture," said Furia, whose wavy gray hair makes him look younger than his 75 years. "The stars are the steak and wine, not Manny and his music."

Five nights a week for decades, he squeezed out pop hits, old standards and Irish ballads, walking table to table and throughout the lounge till midnight. His repertoire grew to include frequent requests such as Stairway to Heaven and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.

"You have to know the songs," he said. "There's no place to put music when you're walking around with an accordion on your back."

The late Laxer never ceased to amaze him.

"He was the most unusual man I've ever met," he said. "Like Reader's Digest's, 'My Most Unforgettable Character.' He was a genius."

Long before Florida's no-smoking bill passed, Laxer attempted to make Bern's a smoke-free restaurant, lounge included.

"He was ahead of his time," Furia said.

Furia reluctantly followed orders to move upstairs in 1990 to the Harry Waugh Dessert Room to play piano. Competition came from the TV sets in each dining barrel at that time.

"I'm not really a professional piano player, but I am a professional musician," he said. "You can ad lib if you know the melody and chords, but you gotta have the ear."

Furia outlasted the smoking ban, which Laxer rescinded in less than a year because of complaints.

"Customers took it very personally," David Laxer said. "I remember it got very nasty. People sent threats."

Furia came to prefer his upstairs spotlight, with frequent forays downstairs, accordion in hand, to play tableside when regulars request him.

Recent health issues forced Furia to cut back to three nights a week: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. These days, he plays mostly piano because the 25-pound accordion is too heavy.

Furia learned the basics of accordion playing when he was 8 from his truck driver father. He played tuba in the old Jefferson High band until he dropped out in 11th grade and moved to New York.

"I worked in women's lingerie. Still working on that whenever I can," he said, without missing a beat.

He took lessons at Pietro Deiro Accordion Conservatory in New York but considers himself largely self-taught. "You can't teach what I play," he said.

Furia moved back to Tampa in 1951 and joined the comedy musical group the Foursome, "which soon became the Threesome because the bass player quit."

The Threesome played at the Foursome Club in Madeira Beach from 1954 to '56, then went on the road for six months, ending in Las Vegas at the New Frontier casino.

Furia left the group in 1961 and played accordion with several local bands. He tried working as a city surveyor but quit at the end of a week.

He went solo in 1966 and got booked at the Old Swiss House in Busch Gardens. When the theme park did not renew the restaurant's lease, the assistant manager made a call to Laxer on Furia's behalf.

"Bern's has been my livelihood ever since," Furia said. "There's no place else I'd rather play."

Amy Scherzer can be reached at scherzer@sptimes.com or 813 226-3332.

[Last modified September 1, 2006, 05:36:16]