Brennan's is a
Creole restaurant in the
French Quarter of
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
,
Louisiana
Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
.
History
Brennan's was founded in 1946 by
Owen Brennan, an Irish-American restaurateur and New Orleans native. It was originally called the Vieux Carré restaurant and was located on
Bourbon Street across from the Old Absinthe House until 1956 when it moved to its current location.
This building, a two-story French Quarter mansion at 417
Royal Street constructed in 1795, was built for Don José Faurie and later housed the Banque de la Louisiane, the first bank in Louisiana. From 1841 to 1891, the mansion had been owned by the Morphy family, with
Paul Morphy, the celebrated chess player and unofficial world chess champion, living there until his death in 1884. In 1920 William Ratcliffe Irby gave the building to
Tulane University
The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...
and it was initially leased by Owen Brennan in 1954 to open the following year as Brennan's. The restaurant purchased the building in 1984.
Because Brennan's father owned a share of the restaurant, the restaurant was eventually inherited by Brennan's siblings as well as his children. In 1973, disagreement within the Brennan family over the expansion of the restaurant line led to a split into several different corporations, with the original New Orleans restaurant being wholly owned by Brennan's widow and children, and other restaurants in New Orleans, Houston, and Dallas, the
Brennan Family Restaurants, being owned by Brennan's siblings and their children.
Although the section of Royal Street in the French Quarter was spared the flooding suffered by most of the city in the
levee failures during
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...
in 2005, Brennan's did suffer significant damage, largely due to the contents of second-story refrigerators melting and seeping onto lower floors. The restaurant's extensive
wine cellar lost temperature control, ruining the entire wine collection.
Following an extensive renovation, Brennan's re-opened on June 8, 2006. Brennan's closed on June 28, 2013.
The new owners of Brennan's, Terry White and Ralph Brennan (a cousin of the former owners) purchased the building and the business at auction(s) after the former owners ran into financial trouble. For more than a year, the historic building (circa 1795) underwent an extensive renovation. The new Brennan's was unveiled in the fall of 2014.
Cultural references
Brennan's was featured in a season two episode of ''
Ghost Hunters'' in which the
TAPS team investigated claims of
paranormal activity.
Rush Limbaugh once stated (in a
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
interview with
Maureen Dowd) that he would sometimes charter a jet and go somewhere for dinner, adding Brennan's was his "all-time favorite restaurant."
See also
*
List of Louisiana Creole restaurants
References
External links
Official Site(New Orleans location)
Official Site(Houston Location) (historical)
{{Restaurants in New Orleans
Louisiana Creole restaurants in the United States
Louisiana Creole culture in New Orleans
Restaurants in New Orleans
French Quarter
Reportedly haunted locations in Louisiana
Restaurants established in 1946
Houses completed in 1795
1946 establishments in Louisiana