Brennan's
A
New Orleans food legend has a rough ride in the storm and a rougher one
after.
Jimmy Brennan and executive chef Lazone Randolph rode out Katrina at the venerable Royal Street restaurant. The storm took the top off one of the graceful old trees in the restaurant's courtyard. Some water pushed its way through the doors. And, critically, the power went out.
With some other Brennan family members, they stayed at the restaurant 11 days, living off food in the Brennan's stores, feeding some of the Eighth District police officers and fending off looters. "We weren't gonna stand for that foolishness," Randolf told The Food Network.
During that time Brennan's lauded wine cellar — 35,000 bottles, listed by Wine Spectator as one of the top 85 cellars in the world — was destroyed by heat and mold. The insurance paid $1 million for the collection and then took it away, perhaps for resale. Brennan has already begun to rebuild the cellar and diners at the re-opened Brennan's can expect a robust new wine list.
Brennan's remains closed, though they are shooting for an opening in late March or early April. Ted Brennan told New Orleans food reporter Tom Fitzmorris, "Our building was not built to be a restaurant, but a home. So we had to a lot of things in funny ways. One of those is that our big refrigerators and freezers were on the second and third floors. When they defrosted and the stuff started running out of them, especially the freezers. . . well, it was nasty. We have to rebuild a lot of that part of the building, and the kitchen. We can't do it and stay open at the same time."
417 Royal Street• New Orleans, Louisiana 70130• (504) 525-2302
Link: Brennan's