Flambéed Bananas Foster – created at Brennan’s in 1951
The first Owen Brennan of the Irish clan landed in New Orleans in the 1840s, fleeing the potato famine and quickly found a comfortable life in the Irish community of New Orleans, in an area known to this day as “The Irish Channel”. Eventually, a descendant named Owen Brennan bought the existing saloon in the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. The business when through many incarnations and ups and downs, including becoming a club for top entertainment during the depression and promoting the story that the pirate Jean Lafitte had met with Andrew Jackson in a secret room of the Old Absinthe House.
Next, the Brennan clan started a restaurant across the street from the Old Absinthe House, simply named Brennan’s. Wanting a promotion with the same impact that Antoine’s had the good fortune of receiving after the publication of Frances Parkinson Keyes’ book “Dinner at Antoine’s” became a national bestseller. Owen Brennan’s worry was any reverence to the word “dinner” would come across as if they were copying Antoine’s.
Lucius Beebe, a famous American author, gourmand, photographer, railroad historian, journalist, and syndicated columnist, was listening to this story from Owen, when he suggested building a promotion around “Breakfast” at Brennan’s instead of dinner. This changed the whole concept of the restaurant and “Breakfast at Brennan’s” became a popular, must-do experience for all locals and visitors who came to the French Quarter.
In the mid-1950s Owen decided to move Brennan’s restaurant from the Bourbon Street location to 417 Royal Street, its current location, which had a classic New Orleans interior courtyard and garden. With the end in site but before the restaurant construction was completed Owen went to a “Chevalier” society meeting where four civic leaders were to receive their knighthood followed by toasts of great wines from the best cellars of New Orleans. When he arrived home in the middle of the night, he woke his wife to tell her how wonderful the evening had turned out. He then went to bed. When his wife, Maude, went to wake him the next day, he had passed away in his sleep. He looked like he was in a deep and pleasant sleep.
When the day came to open the new restaurant. The staff served breakfast in the Bourbon Street location, then many movers and shakers grabbed dishes, silverware, table cloths and glasses and behind a New Orleans Jazz street band, they all marched and danced over to the new Brennan’s on Royal Street. A buffet meal was set up for the first lunch, but the restaurant was a success from day one.
Financial and family disputes caused to the restaurant to go dark for several years, but finally, in 2014 Ralph Brennan and a partner purchased it from bankruptcy court and did a multi-million dollar remodel – reopening the long missed New Orleans institution and resurrecting “Breakfast at Brennan’s” everyone enjoys so much. The restaurant continues in a successful mode, and reservations are recommended as they are often sold-out – still serving all of the classic dishes for which they are known.
The different dining rooms at Brennan’s:
My Breakfast at Brennan’s
By Jack Atkinson Editor / Publisher ARTS&FOOD®
The entrée was Brennan’s signature “Eggs Hussarde”. This Brennan’s original is one of the dishes that put “Breakfast at Brennan’s” on the map. It is made up of Holland rusks with Canadian bacon, topped with marchand-de-vin sauce, then crowned with poached eggs with hollandaise sauce and chives.
I had some work to do and the restaurant was very accommodating letting me leisurely finish my small meal in the Roost Bar area, while I worked.
Brennan’s Invented the dessert, “Bananas Foster”
The origin of Bananas Foster – created at Brennan’s in 1951. As Ella Brennan remembered it – When Brennan’s was still located on Bourbon Street, her brother Owen was on a committee to eliminate vice in the French Quarter, and a good friend Richard Foster was the chairman of that committee. Holiday Magazine had asked Brennan’s to create a new recipe for a feature in their magazine, so for a dinner for the committee, they decided to test the new recipe.
The two owners, Ella and Owen had met with their head chef Paul Blangé and their matré d’ for a creative session with the goal of creating a dessert using bananas because bananas were a huge economic import item through the port of New Orleans. The group was having trouble when Ella suggested her mother would sauté bananas for breakfast and serve them as a fruit alongside soft scrambled eggs. Then the suggestion came about trying a flambé the bananas because Antoine’s and Arnaud’s flamed many of their dishes, tableside, which gave a crowd-pleasing presentation. So the chef sliced some bananas and sautéed them in a knob of butter and fair amount of brown sugar – when the bananas were soft, the chef poured rum and banana liquor into the pan and tilted it over the open flame, igniting the alcohol to flambé the concoction. When the flame died some he sprinkled some nutmeg into the flaming liquid, sending sparks into the air. When the group tasted the dessert it was soft bananas in a sweet caramel sauce – very sweet. Ella suggested the dish be served over ice cream like a caramel banana split sunday, the cream cutting some of that pure sugar effect on the palate. All of the others at the gathering objected, thinking the suggestion lowered the bar, turning a very sophisticated menu item into a soda fountain offering. Then they all tried the bananas and sauce over vanilla ice cream – thumbs-up all around!
The dessert was just another day at the office, intended to be a promotion created for publicity in the magazine article and they nonchalantly named it after their friend Richard Foster (not for the chef, or for a family member) since he was the “guinea pig” whom it was tested on for first at a committee meeting dinner. Banana’s Foster was born.
Thirty-five thousand + pounds of bananas are served annually at Brennan’s alone and the dish is currently served around the world as one of the most-loved and sophisticated desserts any guest can be offered.
Brennan’s recipes:
Banana’s Foster for 1 (Double for 2)
INGREDIENTS
2 Tbls brown sugar
1 Tbls salted butter
1 ripe banana peeled and sliced lengthwise
Dash cinnamon
1/2 banana liqueur
1 oz. white rum
1 large scoop vanilla ice cream
INSTRUCTIONS
Over an open flame melt butter and brown sugar in a flat chafing dish. Add banana’s and sauté until tender. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Pour in banana liqueur and rum and flame. Baste the banana with the liquid until the flame burns out. Serve immediately over vanilla ice cream.
Creole Gumbo
INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter
1 cup finely chopped white onion
1 cup finely chopped celery
4 cups liquid (add water to oyster water to make one quart)
2 cups whole canned tomatoes
3 to 4 bay leaves
3 dozen oysters
meat from 4 dozen crabs, add cracked claws to pot (if using fresh crabs – research proper cleaning and use)
2 cups raw shrimp – peeled and veined
3 cups okra sliced in 1/4″ medallions
4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp white pepper
Dash cayenne
white rice
INSTRUCTIONS
Melt butter in a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add celery and onion and sauté until lightly browned.Stir in flour and cook until golden brown. (making a rue) Blend in liquid and tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add bay leaves, crab, oysters, shrimp, okra, salt and cayenne pepper and continue cooking on slow heat for 20 minutes. Serve with white fluffy rice. Yield about 2 quarts.
(Source: Brennan’s New Orleans Cookbook. www.pelicanpub.com – these few recipes are considered as an editorial promotion for the book.)
Brennan’s
417 Royal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
Phone: 504-525-9711
