At just 36, Patrick Brennan shows signs of an entrepreneurial spirit reminiscent of the family’s great patriarch, Owen Brennan.
While Owen hailed from humble Irish Channel beginnings, Brennan grew up in his father, Ralph’s, family-owned restaurants.
When Ralph Brennan opened Bacco, his son’s interest wasn’t limited to eating the pizza — he wanted to learn how it was made, and more. At the tender age of 9, Patrick Brennan sweet talked his way out of summer camp and right into the pastry kitchen at his father’s Red Fish Grill.
In high school, Chef Gerard Maras took Brennan under his wing at Ralph’s on the Park. A degree from the Culinary Institute of America followed.
His father insisted Brennan be employed elsewhere a minimum of five years before working for the family business, but as Ralph prepared to reopen the family’s flagship Brennan’s Restaurant, newly graduated Patrick begged to come home and cook.
Over the ensuing years he worked virtually every job — from line cook to front-of-thehouse management — until Ralph purchased the former Sucre commissary in 2020 and the former 9-year-old baker found himself with a potentially huge operation. From the iconic muffuletta loaves at the Napoleon House to Brennan’s dinner rolls and desserts, Patrick Brennan was now in charge of it all.
On the very first day the commissary’s ovens were fired for the initial baking, the pandemic shut everything down. Then, when Mardi Gras 2021 was canceled, Brennan developed a king cake business. Over 12,000 king cakes sold that first year, a number which grew to 25,000 in 2023. Following the huge success, Brennan took a long look at his life. Crazy restaurant hours including nights and weekends were becoming increasingly difficult with three small children at home. After he learned Congregation Coffee had closed due to an ill-timed pandemic expansion, Brennan said he “saw an opportunity to move from day-to-day operations into ownership, so I could take nights off to be with my kids.”
Founded in 2015 by restaurant-industry veterans Eliot Guthrie and Ian Barrilleaux, Congregation consisted of an Algiers Point coffee shop with a retail and wholesale roast bean business. Coincidentally, the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group was a Congregation client. Brennan’s restaurant chef Ryan Hacker introduced Ralph Brennan to Congregation, and it had been the flagship’s house brand for more than eight years.
In November 2023, Patrick Brennan reopened the original Congregation Coffee House in a Victorian storefront on Algiers Point. With a name like Congregation, one may suspect the building was previously a church. Actually, the name has nothing to do with religion, instead referring to a grouping of alligators, similar to “a murder of crows.” The alligator joke carries through Congregation’s blends inspired by the speed of an alligator’s gate. “Low walk” means to slither, “high walk” is a stroll and “gallop” means you’d better run!
All pastries served in the cozy, corner coffee shop from croissants to Danishes, cookies and quiche are sourced from the Ralph Brennan Bakery.
The former baker sees parallels between his former and current professions.
“They’re each an art and a science,” Brennan reflected. “Coffee roasting reminds me of bread baking. They both use two different forms of heat; conduction, as beans touch the hot drum, and convection as hot air moves through them. Developing flavor using air and drum speed along with temperature and time is the art. Replicating for consistency is the science.” Congregation’s in-house roaster, Zoe Underhill, ensures consistency for the entire portfolio of single origins and trademark blends.
Wholesale sales and development fall under the young business owner’s obligations. “We hold cuppings during sales calls, pouring boiling water over the ground coffee, then breaking that layer that forms on top. It’s really fun when the slurping part of the tasting begins,” he laughed.
Aside from Congregation’s ever-growing wholesale and online retail sales, Brennan intends to expand into other New Orleans’ neighborhoods. With an eye on Uptown and Mid-City, this fall Congregation will open at the end of Exchange Alley, on Conti Street in the French Quarter.
Poppy Tooker has spent her life devoted to the cultural essence that food brings to Louisiana, a topic she explores weekly on her NPR-affiliated radio show, Louisiana Eats! From farmers markets to the homes and restaurants where our culinary traditions are revered and renewed, Poppy lends the voice of an insider to interested readers everywhere.
