50 years at Bern’s Steak House: Iconic restaurant's last original employee to retire

Bern’s maintenance man retires after 50 years

Jennifer Holton reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - With less than a month before he retires, Bob Kovalski tells me he’s taking on the little jobs.

"Stuff that you need a little finesse with," he said.

But the truth of the matter is, the Bern’s Steak House maintenance man has had his hands in every big job at the restaurant for the last 50 years. That includes building out the dining rooms, painting the golden cherubs that make up the front room’s majestic staircase, and building the famed Harry Waugh Dessert Room.

The 83-year-old was hired by the restaurant’s namesake in 1971, and his original job title was carpenter. He laughs when asked how it changed over time.

"When I first started, I remember thinking, ‘What could they have to do to keep me busy?’ And wow was I fooled," he chuckled. "There was plenty to do. They found out I could do mechanic work, so I was fixing tractors, and rebuilding engines, and transmissions, and keeping their cars running. Bern never bought a new car that I ever knew of."

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As Bern Laxer would buy the best wine at auctions, Bob would be there when it was delivered.

"They’d come in on a semi-truck and park there next to the wine cellar and we’d be out there unloading it and we’d be out there carrying it in," Kovalski said.

And the famed Dessert Room? Bob did that too.

"The designer gave us a picture with no measurements and said ‘Make it look like this,’ and we did," he recalled.

On a tour of the room, Bob explained how Bern wanted it built from old redwood wine casks he had shipped in from California.

"They were huge tanks, like 16 feet tall and 25 feet across," he said. "We had to unload them from the semi, and they had all of the sediment on them. So we had to clean the sediment off of them. It was quite a job, it stuck pretty good."