Commander’s Palace stands as a Victorian, turquoise and white monument to the glory of independent restaurants.
While it has spawned sibling restaurants in such faraway places as Nevada and, soon, Florida, the Garden District destination has been luring patrons since Emile Commander founded it in 1880. And Commander’s Palace shows every sign of continuing to lure in new generations with such classics as turtle soup and bread-pudding soufflé as well as such innovations as foie gras beignets.
The venerable Brennan family—Ella, Dottie, Dick and John—took over the restaurant in 1974, and a new generation with Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan continues the tradition. The Commander’s kitchen has produced such luminaries as Paul Prudhomme, Emeril Lagasse and Jamie Shannon. Executive chef Tory McPhail now oversees—and pushes the boundaries of—the culinary tradition.
“We try to be on the leading edge,” Martin says, “to continually evolve what we call our haute Creole cuisine.”
Martin points to such current Commander’s culinary adventures as oyster and Absinthe domed soup as reflecting that philosophy.
“The pastry domed soup and flavor pairings are amazing,” Martin says, adding that she’s fond of foie gras beignets with bourbon-braised figs.
“We constantly evolve the menu,” Martin says. “We’re constantly sneaking in new things. We never go ‘boom’ with a whole new menu and freak [guests] out.”
Such new innovations help Commander’s keep talented staff, Lally Brennan says.
“That’s a key to keeping talent in your kitchen,” she says. “They are getting to do new things.”
Under construction
Brennan and Martin say business is building after the restaurant was closed for 13 months following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
“We didn’t get flooded here,” Brennan says, “but the wind and tornadoes inside of the hurricane caused so much damage. The rain came in through the windows and siding. It gave Ti an opportunity to write a new cookbook with Tory, and I wrote a new cocktail book.”
This branch of the Brennan family tree also owns and operates Café Adelaide and Mr. B’s in New Orleans, Brennan’s of Houston, and Commander’s Palace Las Vegas and plans to open a third Commander’s Palace in Destin, Fla., this summer.
Secrets of success
Martin says Commander’s success depends on offering a variety of experiences.
“We offer the opportunity to have three courses in the $30s,” she says. “We’ve always wanted to be the best restaurant in town but only the fourth-most-expensive restaurant in town. We always said we wanted to be the place the plumber would [visit] on his anniversary. Now, we say that, but this is post-Katrina, and the plumber now makes far more than I do.”
Diners can take advantage of the package meals or go whole-hog with chef’s tasting menus.
“You can come and have a variety of different experiences here,” Martin says. “You can be quick and frugal, or you can go for it with the tasting menu.”
Despite boasting several hundred seats, the restaurant gives the impression of being a small-scale operation.
“Large restaurants can do a great job,” Martin says. “We feel like we can afford a lot of things that a lot of smaller places can’t.”
The menu and the kitchen have always gotten acute attention under the Brennans’ watch. McPhail started working at Commander’s in the kitchen at 19 under Shannon. After Shannon died of cancer, McPhail took over as executive chef in 2003.
“I’ve worked all over, and I’ve never found a better restaurant family to work for,” he says. “Ti and Lally and Ella and Dottie Brennan: They are some of the sweetest people I’ve ever known in or out of the restaurant business.”
Preserving the past, finding inspiration
McPhail keeps the menu fresh by looking both backward and forward.
“We study like fiends,” he says. “I’m a huge fan of antique cookbooks. We study the history of New Orleans, the history of Louisiana. Then we take that history and try to make solid connections with local farmers and try to get as much sustainable, regional local product as we can. With modern technology and creativity, we try fresh twists on foods that are recognizable.”
Along with such standards as pecan-crusted fish, McPhail is pushing the menu with such new items as put-up peach and pork belly pie.
“In the Commander’s kitchen, we do all of our own preserves and our own canning,” he says. “At the peak of season, we’ll grab fresh local peaches from Louisiana and cook them down with Riesling and Southern Comfort, and make jam.
“Then we take fresh pork—Louisiana has tons of pork farms—shoulder and belly, and brine them and slowly smoke them over sugarcane pulp. We’re surrounded by sugarcane fields, and part of the by-product is bagasse, which is dried pulp from sugarcane. We ram that in down onto the cooking elements of our smoking. We slowly smoke our pork bellies and pork shoulder. It’s a naturally sweet, rich flavor. We braise it down for 12 hours and put it inside a light pastry shell. We make our dough with rendered pork fat, too. On top of that are big pieces of garlic and black pepper and Louisiana hot sauce, and then we add our peach jam on top like a cooling effect, with a little crispy sweet-potato hay on top, and [we] drizzle the outside with some bourbon-braised fig jam.”
While the pork pie has been on the spring menu just a few weeks, that dish has already become a best seller, he says.
OPENED: 1880 TAKEN OVER BY PRESENT OWNERS: 1974 ADDRESS: 1403 Washington Ave., New Orleans SEATS: 200 DINNER CHECK AVERAGE INCLUDING BEVERAGES: $55-$58 BEST-SELLING DISHES: turtle soup and bread-pudding soufflé
“We want to be young, fresh, hip and cool,” McPhail says. “It’s not some stuffy old-school restaurant, and we’re having fun doing it, too. I can promise you our best meals are ahead of us, not behind us.”