Where to Dine in New Orleans
Gastroenterology/Endoscopy News
by John Mariani
Combine New Orleans' legendary hospitality with an infectious Irish spirit and you have Brennan's. With its spectacular wine list, its lush courtyard, and its fine, traditional Creole and French cuisine, Brennan's is one of the most impressive and elegant restaurants in the French Quarter, and the food has never been better.
Paterfamilias Owen Edward Brennan opened Brennan's in 1946, making it into the most famous restaurant in the Vieux Carre, a hang-out for visiting movie stars and dignitaries and a must-see on just about every traveler's list. He also instituted the wildly successful "Breakfast at Brennan's" to compete with the "Dinner at Antoine's." Many people today think of Brennan's only for that lavish mid-morning meal, thereby denying themselves the pleasure of lunch or dinner.
There is always something breathtaking about entering Brennan's. You push your way through the gleaming front door of the salmon-pink building and look past the fine artwork, crystal chandelier, maitre d's station and bar to a leafy patio set with potted flowers and wrought-iron tables and chairs. Here you may enjoy one of Brennan's nonpareil Bloody Marys or an absinthe Suisse. Breathe in the perfume of the flowers and take in the view of the lovely verandah and brick-faced archways around you. There are a dozen dining rooms for public and private use, and a former slave's quarters of this antebellum structure now houses one of the world's finest wine stocks, overseen by Jimmy Brennan, who likes nothing better than a customer who likes to talk wine.
Most people go to Brennan's for the first time for the famous breakfast-a very lavish, formal affair that begins with a cocktail and moves on to excellent steaming cups of Creole coffee, eggs Sardou, grillades and grits, and ends with the irresistible Bananas Foster, created here back in the 1950s to honor a favorite customer.
But don't neglect Brennan's for dinner. Chef Michael J. Roussel is a master of Creole culinary traditions, and you'd be hard put to find better renditions of dishes like Oysters Rockefeller, shrimp remoulade, crawfish omelet, eggs Portuguese, and crepes Fitzgerald.
While you're there, pick up a copy of the brand new book, "Breakfast at Brennan's and Dinner, Too" (Brennan's, Inc.), which is as much a fascinating history of dining out in New Orleans as it is a fine cookbook.
Dinner for two will run about $80.
John Mariani is restaurant columnist for Esquire magazine and author of the Dictionary of American Food and Drink (Hearst Books).