Dickie Brennan

Restaurant(s) Owner

Born in 1960, Dickie Brennan grew up in a restaurant family and lived a block away from Commander’s Palace, when his father Dick Sr., his aunts Adelaide, Ella, and Dottie, and his uncle John bought Commander’s Palace. As a teenager, he started working in the kitchen with Commander’s chef, Paul Prudhomme, who used to admonish him “don’t take shortcuts!”

Dickie went to LSU (because all his friends went there) to study business administration. He graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans with a degree in finance. He worked at Commander’s Palace from 1975 to 1983, helped open Mr. B’s Bistro in the French Quarter in 1979, and was a chef apprentice in the summer of 1980 at Delmonico’s in Mexico City. In 1983, he apprenticed under Great Chef Larry Forgione at his American Place restaurant in New York City. He then went to France as a chef apprentice at Au Quay d’Orsay, Gérard Besson, Le Chiberta, La Marée, Tour d’ Argent, and, with Chef Michel del Burgo, at Taillevent. His ego survived the sometimes harsh French culinary tutelage with ease.

By 1986, he became general manager of the family’s “Brennan’s of Houston.” In 1990, he moved back to New Orleans to open Palace Café on Canal Street. In 1992, Great Chefs began producing the Louisiana New Garde television series, featuring the next generation of New Orleans chefs. His cooking philosophy is “we’ll take an idea—and we’ll make it us.”

Following Palace Café, Dickie went on to open three additional restaurants in the New Orleans French Quarter: Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse, Bourbon House on Bourbon Street, and Tableau on Jackson Square at Le Petit Théâtre Du Vieux Carré.