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.
Cousins Ralph, Dickie and Lauren Brennan (Brower) are watching closely as the next generation makes its mark on the family businesses. All have grown children involved in day-to-day operations at their respective companies.
When Ralph’s daughter, Kathryn Brennan MacLeod, was 5 years old, she loved working with Dad on Saturdays at Mr. B’s.
“My first job was napkin folding, but once Bacco opened I was old enough to help the hostesses. I would mark the tables off on the laminated dining room charts as they were seated,” she recalled. After graduation, Kathryn worked in banquet sales for famed New York chef Daniel Boulud, but the winters drove her south and her father welcomed her back into the family business.
“I did a bit of everything — sales, management, H.R. — wherever I was needed,” she said.
While Kathryn gravitated to the front of the house, younger brother Patrick found his home in the kitchen.
“The summer I was 8, I convinced the pastry chef at Redfish Grill to let me work there when I wasn’t at camp,” Patrick recalled. In high school, he worked as prep cook at Ralph’s on the Park, eventually moving up the line before heading to college. After graduation, he enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone and planned to stay in Napa afterward. “Dad called to say we were taking over Brennan’s and he needed my help, so I came home.”
Ralph Brennan’s new commissary has rekindled his son’s love for baking. Aside from producing breads and pastries for the restaurants, the 2020 pandemic inspired a new king cake business.
“I ordered 5,000 pink boxes to start, but we ended up selling over 12,000 our first year,” he marveled. During Carnival, Kathryn splits her time between Ralph’s on the Park —where she serves as general manager — and king cake sales at the commissary. Both siblings have their own little ones who delight in “helping” with king cake decorations on Saturdays.
The way Dickie Brennan’s daughter Sara sees it, she and his first restaurant, Palace Café, are almost twins.
“We were both ‘born’ in 1991,” she laughed. “My parents tried to talk me out of the restaurant business, but it has always been my dream to contribute to the Brennan family legacy.” Sara credits the extravagant cakes at Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse with sparking her passion for baking during high school. After completing a hospitality management degree in Charleston, she studied baking at Greystone’s C.I.A. and worked at San Francisco’s esteemed Tartine Bakery before returning home in 2019.
Geordie Brower, nephew of Dickie Brennan (his parents are Lauren and George Brower), treasures memories of his late grandfather, Dick Brennan.
“We’d walk to Commander’s on Sunday mornings and go down the line, tasting each soup and sauce before the restaurant opened but I didn’t eat there until my 8th birthday,” he said. It was a family rite of passage for each grandchild to have a special lunch at Commander’s with Dick Brennan to mark that milestone.
Geordie pursued a culinary degree from Johnson and Wales in Denver before finding work as a line cook and butcher on the East Coast. His eyes really light up, however, when he talks about designing restaurant kitchens, something he discovered an affinity for during the buildout of Acorn in the Louisiana Children’s Museum.
“Everyone teases me, if it’s stainless steel and has wheels, I’ll love it,” he laughed. He also helped plan Dickie Brennan & Co.’s commissary kitchen in the Lower Garden District.
When the pandemic shuttered the family’s restaurants, the fourth generation quickly reimagined their Commissary, offering family-style prepared meals to-go and DIY kits for home cooks. Now that the restaurants are operational again, the 7,000-square-foot facility is supplying them with stocks, soups, gumbos, fresh pastas, breads and baked goods as originally planned.
“All fish and meat butchery are done on site along with our entire charcuterie program,” Sara Brennan reported. “Whatever our chefs dream up, we’re doing.”
The Commissary’s new retail market offers those same premium ingredients along with local produce and dairy. Fully prepared dishes make the home chef’s job easier and dine-in service is now available.
“I see the Commissary as the beginning of our family’s next chapter,” Sara said. “It’s a hub for networking where we can be creative and innovate.”
Speaking of the next chapter, the family is currently anxiously anticipating its fifth generation of cousins, with births expected this spring. Recently about 20 family members gathered at the Commissary for a communal bus ride to Mosca’s for dinner.
“We just love being together,” Patrick said. “It’s a great family to be part of.”
Catch Poppy Tooker on her radio show, “Louisiana Eats!” Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Mondays at 8 p.m. on WWNO 89.9 FM.
