Where the culinary culture of New Orleans is concerned, you don’t get much more in-the-thick-of-it than Ralph Brennan. A third-generation scion of the family whose name is synonymous with New Orleans restaurants, he is steeped in the industry as a consummate professional – and as an enthusiastic wine and food connoisseur, in the truest sense of the word.
Food in southern Louisiana, he will tell you, is more central to everyday life than it is in most other parts of the country. Meals are planned, looked forward to, and celebrated with ritualistic importance. Any occasion at all – or indeed no occasion at all – provides an excuse to gather around food, be it nibbles with cocktails, or pots of red beans and rice, or a multi-course hours-long feast.
The Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group epitomizes the flavor, spirits, creativity, and hospitality of New Orleans through his six restaurants. Forty-seven years after Ralph Brennan experienced the business as a young teenager at Brennan’s, his sentimental favorite among his family’s restaurants, he was able to acquire the establishment and revive it to its full glory. His most recent addition, Napoleon House, a legendary icon dating back to the mid-1800s, is a treasure to New Orleans - known for its Pimm’s Cup cocktail and Muffuletta sandwich. Three times is a charm when it comes to owning a historical establishment like Ralph’s on the Park, built in the 1860s, which stands as a gracious cream-colored clapboard restaurant offering elegant hospitality for the past twelve years under the culinary direction of New Orleans native chef Chip Flanagan. Red Fish Grill, a Bourbon Street institution, has served well over three million of the signature dish BBQ Oysters. Café NOMA, within the New Orleans Museum of Art, creates an art of lighter fare and has been honored as one of the best museum restaurants in America.