When potential diners visit the Prime-88 Steakhouse website, the first thing the restaurant wants them to know is that this is an independently and locally-owned business with a classic steakhouse feel. Locals love Prime-88 because prior to the restaurant opening, there were absolutely no fine dining options in the city. 

About Prime-88 Steakhouse

Brian Hession, the owner of Prime-88, is a veteran of the restaurant industry. For the past few decades, he was a franchise owner of the popular but very casual Beef O’Brady restaurants in the greater Tampa area. Prime-88 is a huge step up from the casual sports bar atmosphere of  Brian’s first foray into hospitality. 

As we noted above, before Prime-88 opened, there were no upscale restaurants in Brooksville, Florida. And as a local, Brain took notice of this big gap in the market. What Brian wanted was a nice restaurant in the neighborhood that would cater to the business community, special occasion dinners, and, frankly, himself when he wanted a good steak dinner. Building Prime-88 meant that locals like himself no longer had to drive all the way to Tampa for an experience like the one delivered here.

Location & Atmosphere

Out-of-towners may find the location for a steakhouse of this caliber a bit odd, and we would agree with you. The restaurant is located way out in Brooksville, Florida, which is an hour north of Tampa. The next best dining option in town is an Applebee. 

Prime-88 has a classic steakhouse vibe with low lighting, cloth-covered tables, big, cozy booths, and a vibrant bar scene where the martinis are poured like water, and the conversion is always buzzing. The dining room has a beautiful floor-to-ceiling wine wall that displays the restaurant’s wine list selections. Tarec Verala, a level 2 sommelier, is responsible for curating the selections. 

If you’re looking for a steakhouse with patio dining in Hernando County, Prime-88 has got you covered. There are also ample heat lamps outside if the weather turns chilly.

The Food

It’s hard to improve on traditional steakhouse fare like spinach & artichoke dip, shrimp cocktail, iceberg wedge salads, dry-aged steaks, and those indulgent steakhouse sides and sauces. The menu here has every dish you would expect for a restaurant of this caliber. Items like lobster tail, king crab legs, crab cakes, and scallops mean you can also add some surf and turf to your meal.

Our Experience

This steakhouse may be in a non-traditional steakhouse market, but the quality of the food checks all of the boxes for a memorable experience. Let’s start with the wine list, which contains a lot of the usual suspects you find at upscale steakhouses. The first thing we noticed about the list was that they really love the Caymus family wines here. We also spotted bottles from JUSTIN Wines, Stag’s Leap, Duckhorn, Cakebread, Goldeneye, Etude, and Chateau Montelena.

While there are a lot of familiar wines to choose from, some of which we visited on our last trips to Napa and Paso Robles, we decided to go international and order a 2014 Chateau Margeaux. 

To pair with the wine, we chose a few of the Iowa premium, dry-aged Black Angus steaks, creamed spinach, asparagus, mac n’ cheese, and baby bella mushrooms. And you can’t go to a steakhouse without ordering a wedge salad. Prime-88 dresses their wedge with ranch and blue cheese crumbles rather than doubling down on the blue cheese. Really delicious.

Extra Touches

Prime-88 includes a lot of thoughtful little touches to help guests get the most out of their dining experience. Dinner ends with dark chocolate pieces, which are a great way to finish the last bit of red wine in your glass. Coffee is served table-side in a French press. And this one was really interesting. The bathroom at Prime-88 has mouthwash and handcloths, two things you don’t see very often in restaurants anymore.  

Corkage at Prime 88

Corkage at Prime-88 is $25 per bottle with no limit to the number of bottles a reservation can bring. If you’re a local and you bring a bottle that the restaurant has in their inventory, they will charge you a $50 corkage fee. Otherwise, guests cannot bring in bottles that the restaurant carries.

Closing Thoughts

We really enjoyed our experience at Prime-88 Steakhouse in Brooksville, Florida. The service and the food were both great. The staff was friendly, and we appreciated all of the efforts that the team put into creating a fine dining experience in this small community. They also have live music on Friday and Saturday nights.