Brennan's 80th Anniversary
Brennan's began its storied life as a gibe between Arnaud "Count" Cazenave, proprietor of Arnaud's, and Owen Brennan, proprietor of the Old Absinthe House.
Shortly after opening its doors on Bourbon Street in 1946, Brennan's Restaurant became a staple eatery, particularly for breakfast and lunch. The restaurant moved into a larger space on 417 Royal St., its current home. The cheery pink facade welcomes guests from near and far daily and all leave happy and well fed.
Owen Brennan's nephew, Ralph Brennan, was born just six years after Brennan's opened, and it was a constant in his life. He recalled, "I grew up there as a child. I used to go to dinner there with my Aunt Adelaide and my Aunt Ella. What I remember is we would go see a movie at the Saenger, the Lowe's, or the Joy when they were all movie theaters, and then they'd take me to Woolworth's and buy me a little something to play with, and then we'd go to the restaurant. They would work, and I would play around the building and stay out of everybody's way. My mom, Claire, used to take us there during Mardi Gras, and we would sit upstairs at a table by the window and do our homework, have dinner, and wait for the parades to come by. The parades were much different. They were smaller and they would come through the Quarter. Then my mother would have us go give out beads to the people in the restaurant. Mom was a big fan of Mardi Gras." This special attention to customer experience stuck with Brennan throughout his career.
As Brennan's in the French Quarter and Commander's Palace in the Garden District were family-run restaurants, many Brennan family members started their careers at them before branching out into other eateries, but they all began their work in the kitchen. "I started working there when I was in high school, [at] about 12 years old. I worked as a prep cook. My first job there was peeling shrimp and boning chickens," Brennan remembered. He was soon promoted through other back of house and front of house positions. "They taught me how to poach eggs and make hollandaise sauce—two very important items at Brennan's."
Working through the ranks to learn every aspect of the restaurant still exists for family members. Brennan proudly explained how his daughters Kathryn and Kristin work alongside him at Brennan's now, and the education they receive going from kitchen work to administrative work is invaluable. "We are a people business, so you need to understand the guests, the staff, and how everything works together as a team. The best way to do it is to work at it. They'll know what it's like to be in our business—the commitment that it takes to operate these restaurants and the commitment to our customers. It can be very rewarding."
Despite the decades of strong-held traditions, Brennan's is as fresh as ever. Adventurous menu items appear for holidays and special occasions, beckoning even those who are regulars to come try something new. Brennan is happy to be one of the bosses to taste and approve of these items. "Our philosophy is it's nice to keep things changing because it makes us focus on guest experiences. I just don't want us to get stale." Brennan's Aunt Ella instilled this ethos. "My Aunt Ella, who was very close to me and helped me a lot in my younger days, always was concerned about not continuing to grow and develop and getting stale. She always strived to keep the restaurants fresh and new to some degree, always improving and innovating. That's what we instilled in Brennan's and it's true in all my other restaurants. Obviously we have the traditional breakfast items, but we also have a lot of contemporary dishes."
"When I was young, dinner was not a busy meal period at Brennan's and that continued through my cousin's tenure there," he explained. "After we took over, we decided that breakfast should be what it was because there's a lot of tradition in that. Then we have a more contemporary menu for dinner. Our goal there was to have one foot in the past, one foot in the current. That's partly to keep things interesting so you're not getting the same thing every time. That's just to make it special and give the chef an opportunity to play."
Brennan sees the current culinary landscape of the city like the first great wave of popular Louisiana cuisine going national with the likes of Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse, both proud chefs of Brennan-family owned restaurants. "I just love doing what we do. I'm very proud of New Orleans. I'm very proud to be a part of the food industry in New Orleans. And I'm very happy to make guests happy. We honor our roots in Creole and Cajun food here in South Louisiana and our fresh Gulf seafood, but it's the way it's prepared. There's a lot more diversity in New Orleans cuisine than you would have seen when I was young, which is exciting. We just don't want to have a notebook full of old standards."
