On the morning after Christmas we packed the car and left it with the valet as we hoofed it down to Brennan’s Restaurant on Royal Street. My daughter and I were dressed in dress pants with jackets, and Hugh looked dapper in his high casual attire as usual. We knew that Brennan’s expected ties for dinner, so we were dressed down just a tad from dinner for breakfast. We felt elegant enough for Bananas Foster, if you know what I mean.
So, our only disappointment with Brennan’s was that they allowed clientele who were dressed in shorts, t-shirts, and jeans to dine for breakfast. Granted, these individuals were escorted to the farthest room in the restaurant, far from sight; and, granted, Brennan’s appeared to need clientele, as our front room held only four filled tables out of approximately twelve. But, that sight was just sad. To Hugh, in his sometimes old-school ways, it seemed a matter of disprespect for the restaurant And, this time my daughter and I agreed.
Beyond this dismay, Brennan’s was everything I had dreamed about, it was everything that I told my daughter it would be, and it was everything that Hugh remembered. Here’s the lowdown on our menus for breakfast, where we all ordered the “Three Course Prix Fixe”:
Appetizers:
1. Strawberries with Double Cream: This was my daughter’s choice, and her eyes rolled back into her head at the first bite. The cream was sweet, rich, and perfect with the half-sliced ripe strawberries
2. Oyster Soup Brennan: This was my choice, and our waiter dropped two chunky pieces of crabmeat into my soup - a real treat! The soup was thick, redolant with fresh oyster stock, and the crabmeat was snow-white, infused with oyster sauces and juicy!
3. Maude’s Seafood Okra Gumbo: Hugh chose this one. While I thought the gumbo at Commander’s Palace was tastier, this was a different gumbo altogether. The gumbo at Commander’s was green, and this one was the familiar red with rice, okra (of course!) and Hugh also received some juicy pieces of crabmeat.
Unlike Commander’s Palace, we received our bread with our soups. French bread, with a crusty outside and a soft melt-in-your-mouth inside.
Entrees:
1. Oysters Benedict: Fresh Gulf oysters fried to perfection and served on Canadian bacon with Hollandaise sauce.
2. Eggs Hussarde (a Brennan’s original): One of the dishes that put “Breakfast at Brennan’s” on the map. Poached eggs atop Holland rusks, Canadian bacon, and Marchand de Vin sauce. Topped with Hollandaise sauce.
3. Eggs Benedict: A traditional dish of poached eggs atop Holland rusks and Canadian bacon, topped with Hollandaise sauce.
I ordered the first dish because I just wanted more oysters and I also wanted to honor my mother (oysters in some form was always part of my mother’s childhood Christmas-time heritage in Virginia). Mainly, I just wanted more oysters! The batter was peppered, spiced, and yummy - especially when I combined it with a tad of Canadian bacon and a smear of that Hollandaise. My daughter ordered the Eggs Benedict, because she had the same at breakfast the previous day and it wasn’t good (more about that later). She wanted the “good stuff,” and she got it this time. Hugh ordered #2, and the sauce was rich and perfect with the rusks and eggs.
Dessert:
1. and 2. Bananas Foster: A Brennan creation and now world-famous bananas sautéed in butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and banana liqeuer, then flamed in rum. Served over vanilla ice cream.
3. Creole Chocolate Suicide Cake: All the menu says is: “A Chocoholic’s Fantasy,” but that doesn’t do justice to the death by this cake. In fact, you can’t find the recipe online or in Brennan’s cookbook, “Breakfast At Brennan’s And Dinner, Too” (shown above).
Hugh and I ordered the Bananas Foster, which wasn’t flamed at the table - it was flamed at a stationary burner near the back entrance to the first dining room. Although we didn’t see ours flamed (we expected the table service, so we missed it), we were able to show my daughter how they created this obscene delight when the wait staff created more desserts for other patrons. The waiter did show us the pan with the bananas, the mound of brown sugar, and butter before we were treated, so that should have tipped us off to the fact that the flaming wasn’t going to happen at our table.
Beyond this, the dessert was more than I expected - when the hot sauce is poured over the mound of vanilla ice cream it creates a hard shell. When I pushed my spoon into that crust, the vanilla flowed out like cream. Awesome, tasty, ecstatic!
According to Brennan’s cookbook, Owen Edward Brennan, the original owner, wanted to promote the fact that New Orleans was the major port of entry for bananas shipped from Central and South America in 1950. He charged his chef, Paul Blangé, to include bananas in a culinary creation. The dessert was named for Richard Foster in 1951, who, as chairman, served with Owen on the New Orleans Crime Commission, a civic effort to clean up the French Quarter (from what we’re not sure…). Foster, who was also the owner of Foster Awning Company, was a frequent customer at Brennan’s and a good friend to Owen. Today, thirty-five thousand pounds of bananas are flamed each year at Brennan’s in the preparation of this now world-famous dessert.
My daughter’s death by chocolate was a huge piece of semi-sweet chocolate cake with sweet chocolate icing and a dab of chocolate ganache. This piece of cake, which was bigger than a small book of poetry and six times as thick, was surrounded by the same cream that soaked her strawberries earlier. I had two bites and was buzzing. She managed to finish off half the slice (the lower, thinner half) and she said that she had “two bites too many.” But, she was in heaven.
We had to purchase Brennan’s cookbook before we left the restaurant, and as I leafed through it on our way home I was delighted to see most of our morning menu in the cookbook. While I would never dare to try the Bananas Foster (I would burn down the building), I would try the oysters benedict. Shame there’s no chocolate suicide in the cookbook, but I won’t cut my wrists over it. I’ll just have to visit Brennan’s again.
Brennan’s wait staff was the best by far. They were fun, friendly, outgoing, and on top of every little serving at every minute. Our coffee cups were filled to the brim constantly with a smooth, rich, chicory blend. We were dazzled by the surroundings, bewitched by our breakfast, and honored by the staff. Perfect. We give Brennan’s for Breakfast a 10+.
PS - if you decide to eat a Breakfast at Brennan’s some morning, you can have the Bananas Foster with a cup of coffee for under $12.00. But please wear long pants, especially if you’re a man with hairy legs.
Posted by beanybabe at 3:47 PM PST
