'Breakfast at Brennan's' honors founding father
Times Picayune
by Dale Curry, Food Editor
He was Irish and his restaurant was French. Together, Owen Edward Brennan and the world famous French Quarter restaurant that he founded became New Orleans institutions. That was in the '50s. Today, the two are the focus of a newly published cookbook, "Breakfast at Brennan's and Dinner, Too" ($28.50).
The Irishman died in 1955, months before his restaurant moved to the present Royal Street address. But his vision lives today through his three sons, Pip, Jimmy and Ted, who continue to run the restaurant as a family business and have produced the cookbook as a tribute to their father.
The opening of Brennan's came as a challenge to the bon vivant, entrepreneur and son of a New Orleans foundry laborer. He was told by a competitor that an Irishman could never run a decent French restaurant.
So Brennan set out to compete with the best of them and that he did, opening his original restaurant on Bourbon Street, across the street from the Old Absinthe House, which he also owned.
It wasn't long until Owen Edward Brennan's French and Creole Restaurant - the original name - was frequented by celebrities and hailed by national publications.
And French it was, known for pompano en papillote, escargots bordelaise, crepes and flambes. And Creole, too, serving local favorites. Original creations were soon on the menu including the famous bananas Foster.
But Brennan's strategy to make his restaurant famous peaked with the theme, "breakfast at Brennan's," rivaling a competitor's highly billed "dinner at Antoine's."
Today, the legacy of the gourmet breakfast lives on with a menu of egg dishes famous the world over - some original, some borrowed, but many linked in the minds of tourists and locals alike to the pink French Quarter restaurant with the rooster logo. Eggs Sardou, Benedict, Hussarde, Owen and many more make up the brunch dishes detailed in the cookbook.
Although a Brennan's cookbook was published years ago and has been sold in the restaurant, this is the first formulated by the restaurant owners themselves.
With it, the family states that it hopes to put to rest many myths about the origin of Brennan's and broader family links to it and other restaurants.
The history of the restaurant is accompanied by photographs of clippings, pictures and memorabilia from the '50s to the present.
The focus is on the family, not the chefs, who are simply mentioned in the book's opening pages. They are the late Paul Blangé , who created many of Brennan's original signature dishes, and current Executive Chef Michael J. Roussel and sous chefs Lazone Randolph and Harrison Duncan.