Food of Course

n , emo-.-...- a10 00 We're doing it again! Shaking things up! Some businesses have a conference room - we have a patio. (Maybe it's another reason our "work" doesn't feel like work.) And we use our patio for all manner of in-house meetings, seminars, wine tastings, and on and on. Throughout the day, before and after lunch and dinner, you'll see on the patio a smattering of meetings: cooks gathered around a table of dishes listening to Jamie talk about the right seasoning balance; two captains discussing their newest protege; and managers huddled in one-on-one sessions with their team members. Food, of course, seeps its way into these meetings. Needing a little afternoon sustenance we find ourselves requesting certain types of food - food packing a flavorful punch to satisfy our greedy palates but nothing too heavy to weight us down before the dinner show. Maybe it's that desire to not be weighted down before dinner service - maybe it's just the types of food that have natural appeal when you're eating outdoors under the shade of our grand old oak tree with trickling water in the fountain as the background. How about a lusty but satisfying Chardonnay baked Lafourche redfish with garlic olive oil steamed spinach touched with green onions and jumbo lump crabmeat. A big lusty entree salad of crispy Golden Meadow softshell crab with local vine ripe tomatoes, sweet onions, cracked pepper, basil vinaigrette and touched with our own ravigote sauce... Food that explodes deliciously. Dishes that satisfy both our hunger and our unabashed desire for flavor. Food that we can eat quickly - often a one course meal. Food that won't slow us down. We realized we had none too consciously created a repertoire of food that fit our lifestyle. In a blinding flash of the obvious we saw that it will fit your lifestyle too. So we decided to give it a name and share it with you: Patio Food. So named because it's what we so often seem to want when we're on the patio. But - you 0 ' hay to b on the patie to eat it. It could be the What is all the fuss about? Food middle of January (and maybe 70 0 outside like this year) and you're in your favorite main dining room spot but your mind of course. Patio food is not a case of style over and appetite want steamed pulled ginger chicken salad with substance. It's food with its own verve and wit and charm. garlic pasta; or open faced smoked sliced sirloin sandwich It's food with a racy spirit like a symphony that begins loudly with onion marmalade and Creole new potato salad. Your and then slides into subtle. It's innovation in tradition. It's meal is good, very good, and fast. Better yet, you leave with different yet unmistakably Commander's. It's Patio Food. Ii some pep in your step. • Adelaide Brennan's beloved patio is holding court once again! Cigars and brandy in the patio after dinner with Alain Raynaud, the head of the Grand Crus Bordeaux Wine Makers Association. This charming French gentleman was kicked back and relaxing in his chair, cigar in one hand, brandy in the other. He kept looking up at the stars beyond the oak tree branches that seem to hug the restaurant and saying in his captivating French accent, "This is how I imagined New Orleans." Two local ladies immersed in a long lunch over a holiday weekend - in the patio under one of the new oversized umbrellas. 40-ish, they behaved more like 16 year olds sharing gorgeously unrespectable stories and reveling in a few "found hours" to catch up and share a meal al fresco. Dinner on the patio with dear friend and lawyer, Ted George, and his wife, Julie. Great food, wine and conversation on a beautiful night. Before we know it, it was past midnight and our voices rang out alone - the rest of the crowd gone. The patio holds magical memories for so many of you and us. We decided the old gal needed a face-lift - a real overhaul. But like good cosmetics/plastic surgery, you may never notice. We knew where she was sagging and drooping though so in came the bull dozer. We called the intermittent mess our "rock garden:' It looked like bombed out Beirut. All new plumbing and wiring, all new furniture, a new fountain, and new oversized umbrellas adding shade where the oak tree misses. She's back! Adelaide Brennan's beloved patio is holding court once again! Thanks to Dottie and Lally Brennan, who restored and embellished a piece of Commander's storied past, the patio is bracing for a starring role in Commander's future. Ii Commander's named Best Value in New Orleans by FOOD & WINE COULD WE CHARGE HIGHER PRICES AT COMMANDER'S PALACE? YES. WILL WE? NO. One night this fall, the brilliant, Nobel Prize winning economist, Milton Friedman and his wife were dining at E Commander's Palace with two charming Tulane professors. -- I was thrilled to have Mr. Friedman in the restaurant and he enjoyed hearing my stories of being taught at Tulane Business school by his son, David. We bantered about dinner and economics and they asked how business was. I said things were good and that we were very lucky. One professor commented, "At Commander's prices, I guess things are good." I found myself about to retort that in fact, Commander's Palace had just been named Best Value in New Orleans by Food & Wine magazine. Before I could even get the comment out, the economist, Mr. Friedman, surveyed the full dining room and said, 'Td say they've got the prices figured just right." Now I was really having fun! It's so often that people lump together all fine dining as expensive. Compared to fast food, yes. Compared to other fine dining and the perceived value of an evening of warm, professional pampering service, a great meal and a gracious ambience - No! We know we could charge more than we do - many others in New Orleans do - but we won't overcharge you just because we can. There is no victory in that for us. Times are good. The economy keeps rolling right along through corrections here and there. We could get away with it - but it's just not our style. We want to provide you a great experience - complete with all the costs that entails. We have layers of costs to provide you extra service that most other restaurants skimp on. We want to run the restaurant efficiently, allow for a fair profit and have that equation leave you knowing that Commander's Palace is a great value. We eat at restaurants all around the u.s. and New Orleans. We think that at Commander's Palace you get more for your money - it's that simple. Ii - Ti Martin Ella Brennan (far left) and her sister Just as singer Ella Fitzgerald complements New Orleans' Dottie Brennan toast to the good times great Louis Armstrong, another legendary Ella jazzes up had by all at the award-winning the city's cuisine. And what beautiful music-for-the-palate Commander's Palace restaurant in New Orleans. Ella Brennan conducts at her Commander's Palace, source of all things wonderful to eat in the Big Easy. The restaurant's signature Creole dishes (the spicy Turtle Soup, the saucy Bread Pudding Souffle) are beloved rites of passage. For that, millions are thankful. ((This business is in my blood," says this 70-ish doyenne of New Orleans dining, who's commanded the landmark teal-and-white Garden District restaurant for more than 20 years. ((My family and I don't know any other way." The Brennan family is synonymous with fabulous dining in the City That Never Stops Eating. That's thanks in large part to Ella, the restaurant team's most visible and vocal coach. Her eye for talent has fostered such celebrity chefs as Paul Prudhomme, Emeril Lagasse, current sensation Jamie Shannon, and two dozen other culinary stars who have passed through Commander's kitchen. Reprinted from Southern Living Magazine February 1999 From left: Brad Brennan, Ti Martin, Ralph Brennan, Dickie Brennan, and Lauren Brennan Brower. They were born and raised in New Orleans, schooled at the legendary Commander's Palace, and have taken the Brennan restaurant family into new venues and locations. «We're turning some new pages, but not writing a new book;' Alex Brennan-Martin says Alex Brennan-Martin. «We're doing exciting things, but hopefully, we're not going to do too much differently than our parents. They didn't open many restaurants, but they didn't close many either." Orleans restaurant scene: «The family has now organized As 1999 begins, the offspring of Ella Brennan, her sister, Dottie, itself to give each one a chance to use the entrepreneurial and brothers, Dick and John, who died last August, continue to spirit that runs so strongly in the Brennan family." make foodservice news in the Big Easy and beyond. According to Funk, "New Orleans is one of the last Says Jim Funk, executive vice president of the Louisiana bastions of independent restaurants, and people like Restaurant Association and a longtime observer of the New the Brennans are helping to continue that." • Ella Brennan's son, Alex steakhouse. He remains a • John Brennan's son, operates Brennan's partner in Mr. B's Bistro. His Ralph, operates Bacco, r----__----------------- ,t::IoustoD.J:!e daughter, Ti, sister, Lauren, is a partner Redfish Grill, and Storyville works out of Com mander's with Dickie at Palace Cafe District, and is a partner in Palace but is heading up and the steakhouse.

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