Commander's Palace (NOLA, Garden District)

[Jason Perlow]

Commander's Palace Restaurant

1427 Washington Av, New Orleans, LA 70130

Phone: (504) 891-4466

Click here for Commander's Palace website.

Exterior

Busy lunchtime crowd

Including a few celebrations

Bloody Bull (Jason)

Gumbo du jour (smoked chicken and sausage) (Rachel)

Vegas Salad (Jason)

Garlic Bread

Spanish Mackeral - Special (Rachel)

Steak Panzanella (Jason)

Mango Iced Tea

Beautiful Table Setting

Empty Wine Bottle Tree

Commander's Martini

Bread Pudding Souffle

Edited November 24, 2003 by Rachel Perlow (log)

[joiei]

Jason, thanks for the post and the pictures, they bring back memories of a great meal at Commanders back when Jamie was still alive. And also of meeting Miss Ella one day at Foodies in Metairie. She is the gold standard when it comes to service and making a person feel good about being in her restaurants.

[Jason Perlow]

While you were there, did anybody order a flaming dessert?

Not at Commanders. But at Palace Cafe it happened about a dozen times. In fact I have the whole bananas foster process photo documented.

[hollywood]

While you were there, did anybody order a flaming dessert?

Any Cafe Brulot? Photos?

[Jason Perlow]

We had been briefed on Commander's Palace before our trip and got a lot of opinions about the food from a lot of people. Some say it's the best restaurant in New Orleans, with legendary food and service, others say the restaurant can be wildly inconsistent and it can be a crap shoot of whether you have a good experience or not.

Fortunately for us, it was more like the former. From what I experienced, there are only good things to say about Commander's. The staff is extremely, and I mean extremely attentive. I'd also have to say that for a high end restaurant, it serves one of the most value priced lunches I've had anywhere in this country.

I started out with the legendary Bloody Bull cocktail -- this one actually I think was a little better than the one at Palace Cafe in that it was rimmed with seasonings on the glass and I think it may have had a little more beef boullion in it. Rachel started with a Mango Iced Tea, which has a peice of candied mango in it and is accompanied by a sugarcane swizzle stick. It was good as iced teas go, but didn't really taste like mango so I'm not sure its worth the extra money as opposed to just having a regular iced tea from this place.

For appetizers Rachel had the gumbo, which was very tasty although not the best specimen we had in New Orleans that week -- that honor has to go to Upperline, Joanne Clevenger's restaurant only about a dozen blocks away, which excells in that the roux in it manages to be very dark and savory without being burnt, a huge accomplishment because its very hard to bring your roux to the brink of burning and stopping at the right time. Nevertheless, Commander's was a very good gumbo and I highly reccomend ordering it if you are there. I had the Vegas Salad, which was served on baby spinach greens with crumbled blue cheese and sliced pecans in a light balsamic vinagrette -- this is perhaps the best salad I had the entire week. So many New Orleans restaurants serve crappy salads because for the most part they don't have access to the type of high end produce cities like New York, LA and San Francisco get. No microgreens in this town. Still, it was refreshing and the baby spinach was fresh as can be and matched really well with the blue cheese crumbles and the baby sliced pecans.

The accompaniment to our appetizers was perhaps the best garlic cheese toast we have ever had -- slices of cut french bread toasted with parmesan cheese and olive oil, rubbed with garlic and herbs. The garlic taste was there without being overpowering, and we liked these so much we asked for a second order.

I didn't try Rachel's spanish mackerel but I was told it was very good. My dish was a panzanella salad (yeah, I had salad for two courses, but I was feeling very roughage deprived this week) with sliced prime steak. The steak was extremely tender, very well seasoned, and accompanied by fresh mesclun salad greens, tomatoes, onions in a light vinagrette. It was excellent and really satisfied my beef craving for the week after eating all that seafood.

We finished off with the signature dessert, the bread pudding souffle (which you have to order with your meal at the start because it takes a while to make). All I can say is WOW. The whiskey creme anglaise is amazing, you can almost drink it like egg nog. The souffle itself is fluffy and cinamonny and really is an amazing finish to a great meal. Highly recommended.

We finished off with one of the 25 cent Commanders Palace Martinis -- this is simply vodka with some blue curaco. Each of us had a swig and made a face -- I dont think they use particularly good vodka for these things. But it is a cool looking drink, nevertheless. There are a number of 25 cent cocktails on the menu, including a bright emerald green one that has a name which escapes me.

Verdict: Commanders is the New Orleans restaurant that started the restaurant revolution in the South and continues to be one of the best restaurants in the city. Definitely consider doing lunch there.

[budrichard]

'Commander's' shows that the 'Chef' does not always make the restaurant and in some cases may be deliterious to good dining. 'Commanders' has always been our favorite NO restaurant evenn after Paul and then Emeril left, we continued to go. The upstairs 'Garden Room' is quite nice.

BTW the nicest place to stay is Windsor Court. -Dick

Edited November 28, 2003 by budrichard (log)

[docsconz]

Commander's was my most disappointing meal in NO the last time we were there, but that was almost 10 years ago. The restaurants that stood out then were Emeril's (prior to FN), Upperline with an all-garlic meal including dessert and Bayona.

[tryska]

god..i want that bloody bull....NOW.

[Rachel Perlow]

Unless you live in that area of the country, you'll probably have to make it yourself. After we came back from NO after Jason's first experience with the Bloody Bull, he tried ordering it everywhere. No one makes it in this area, and even those bartenders that have heard of it don't make it because they don't keep the beef boullion on hand.

Here are some bloody mary recipes on the Tabasco website including the bloody bull. At Palace Cafe the Bloody Bull was garnished with a pickled green bean rather than an olive or celery stalk. You can buy them here.

[tryska]

hee hee - that's what i was thinking of doing actually. my bloody marys, soon to be bloody bulls are the best. (at least as far as i'm concerned)

[Jason Perlow]

Brad Brennan, GM of Commander's Place Las Vegas, was quoted in Las Vegas Review Journal this morning that Commander's Palace, which would have celebrated its 125 year anniversary is unsalvageable, along with its 18,000 bottles of wine.

[TAPrice]

Brad Brennan, GM of Commander's Place Las Vegas, was quoted in Las Vegas Review Journal this morning that Commander's Palace, which would have celebrated its 125 year anniversary is unsalvageable, along with its 18,000 bottles of wine.

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Do you have a link for that? I can't find the article. Was it wind damage?

I live a few block down the street, and the sattelite photos of the area look good.

Other reports say that damage was only done to the facade.

Edited September 4, 2005 by TAPrice (log)

[rjwong]

TAPrice, here's the link:

Hurricane claims historic restaurant

... Submerged and unsalvageable is the 18,000-bottle wine cellar at Commander's Palace, including a 1928 bottle of Chateau Cos d'Estournel worth $4,000.

"I'm going to be saintly and not say anything about the looters, but I would like to think that wine sustained someone's life," Brennan said ...

[chezcherie]

Let's not write CP's obit just yet. Information is hard to come by and a lot of people of are very upset.

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thanks for that...so true. in earthquake country, sometimes it looks more disastrous than it really is, right after the shaking stops....may that be true in new orleans. (sounds pretty pollyanna, i gotta admit, but at least for me, it helps to hold out a little hope.)

[TAPrice]

... Submerged and unsalvageable is the 18,000-bottle wine cellar at Commander's Palace, including a 1928 bottle of Chateau Cos d'Estournel worth $4,000.

"I'm going to be saintly and not say anything about the looters, but I would like to think that wine sustained someone's life," Brennan said ...

←

Let's not write CP's obit just yet. Information is hard to come by and a lot of people of are very upset.

The manager said that the restaurant is submerged, but as I said my house a few blocks down is completely dry according to recent sattelite photos. On NOLA.com, someone still in the Garden District (yes, many phones still work there) is sending out daily reports on the neighborhood. All is still relatively calm and secure.

While trying to verrify this story I ran across a quote from Susan Spicer that Bayona was five feet under water. Given the reports on the lack of flooding in the French Quarter, that just can't be the case.

In the next few weeks we will certainly hear about the destruction of many New Orleans landmarks. For the moment, however, we shouldn't give up hope on a place unless the report is a first hand account.

I'm going to pore over the photos and see if I can find Commander's.

Edited September 5, 2005 by Holly Moore (log)

[davebr]

This is so very upsetting. It's where I grew up. We would stop at Cafe du monde on the way to high school(Holy Cross in between the 9th ward and St Bernard) for breakfast. Commanders is where I would treat my grand parents to lunch--they used to go there on dates. The waiters always made them feel so important. Jamie would even come out to say hello.

Bayona is where I brought my parents, grand parents and my wife's parents and grand parent one night to celebrate the upcoming mother's day. My maw-maw loved the rabbit. My mom dumped her Pouilly fuisse into my Cali chardonnay while I wasnt looking so she could get a different glass of wine. AARRRGGHH that was gross.

Brigstens is where I took my parents for dinner a couple of days before Christmas. Smoked salmon with potato salad, Duck, sweetbreads---I mention this because the word is that Chef Frank has settled here in Shreveport.

I could go on and on..............

I haved lived away from New Orleans for the past 14 years(staying there for 6 months in 1992 and 1 year in 1994). I would only get to see my entire family at Christmas and maybe one other visit each year. These restaurants were central in me getting to spend time with my family. The food, service and atmospheres are stuck in my memories as much as my maw-maw's love for dessert. Where am I now suppossed to bring them? Most of them will probably not be moving back.

Each Christmas Eve I bring all 20 women in my family to brunch. They all live on the Westbank and they hardly if ever go to the Eastbank. I wanted the young ones to see how enchanting these grand bastions of New Olreans cuisine could be. That history, that grandure that pomp and that circumstance cant be felt anywhere else in the country. What the hell am I supposed to show my god child and her 2 sisters in Baton Rouge or my other nieces in Houston? No offense to Baton Rouge or Houston but it doesnt represent me or where I grew up. These places mean something very deep to me and I cant just start over. I have a reservation at Galatoire's for 20 on Christmas eve at 12:00. Now it looks like it will be my wife and I alone in Shreveport. Instead of "Thanks for the good time, I love you Uncle Dave" it will be "Thanks for mailing me some socks Uncle Dave".

These restaurants spark memories of my nieces. These restaurants spark memories of me, Uncle Dave, to them.

The hurricane hasnt just devistated a city. Ive been through 3 in Florida. I have never seen so many families ripped apart because of it. The people always come right back the next week and start to rebuild the city. The massive amount of time that will elapse before most people can move back will prove to be too great and a lot of people wont go back. They have to work. They have to eat. Then will the city have an influx of non-locals to take the local's places? That will change the soul of everything. We will all start to hate these new people right along with the city we loved so much. Because the city we loved so much may be rebuilt but it is still gone...................

[rlibkind]

TAPrice is right: don't write the obituary, at least not quite yet. Here's Brad Brennan saying something completely different in today's NY Times:

Some restaurateurs are vowing to continue. "We have been instructed by the matriarchs that we will rebuild," Brad Brennan, of the family that owns the famed Commander's Palace and eight other restaurants, said from his office at Commander's Palace Las Vegas. "There was no hesitation."

The matriarchs are Mr. Brennan's aunt, Ella Brennan, and his mother, Dottie Brennan, who was evacuated to Houston, where the family also has a restaurant.

Mr. Brennan said it was too soon to know the extent of the damage, but all of the 800 employees of the Brennan restaurants were accounted for.

Here's the full story from Sept. 6 NY Times.

Edited September 6, 2005 by rlibkind (log)

[bhoward]

Any idea where and when Brigtsen's is going to open in Shreveport?

[Jason Perlow]

Any idea where and when Brigtsen's is going to open in Shreveport?

←

I don't think any immediate plans have been made.

[davebr]

To the best of my "small town, news travels fast" knowledge, instead of a restaurant Chef Frank is considering teaching cooking.

[TAPrice]

According to the Wasington Post, Commander's Palace is largely undamaged:

The street is as quiet and empty as the graveyard. The glass on Commander's Palace's front door is smashed, but it looks as though the lock held. Through second-floor windows overlooking the courtyard, the tables are visible, still covered by crisp white linens and set for service.

Here is the article.

Edited September 10, 2005 by TAPrice (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

From reading this particular article, it appears that the damage to the traditional French Quarter landmark restaurants is not as bad as I had first assumed. The best lines in the piece?

Once you have lived in or even visited New Orleans, it steals part of your heart. How many other cities in the country have the word "beloved" placed in front of it, as is often the case with this place? It is a place that feeds the soul as much as the stomach. It is a place that smells like Mom's kitchen, where people greet each other with a hello and then, almost always, "Where'd ya eat?"

New Orleans once fed my soul, and my daughter's who went to Tulane, and, it now appears, will again! Thanks, TAPrice!

[rosebud]

DH just came home from a Yard Sale this afternoon with a 1984 copy of "The Commander's Palace New Orleans Cookbook." Probably wouldn't have paid the $2 if circumstances were different. Spent an hour or so flipping through it. Looks good.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Probably wouldn't have paid the $2 if circumstances were different.

←

Actually this was originally $25 ...can be had now in stores for somewhat less ... I think that you got a bargain!

Ella and Dick took over Commander's Palace, renovated it, and turned it into one of the most innovative, imaginative dining spots in New Orleans. This book brings together for the first time the fabulous recipes and secrets of this exciting restaurant.  There are more than 175 recipes in all, including drinks, appetizers and soups, salads, seafood, chicken and game, beef and veal, and desserts and coffees.

[rosebud]

Probably wouldn't have paid the $2 if circumstances were different.

←

Actually this was originally $25 ...can be had now in stores for somewhat less ... I think that you got a bargain!

Ella and Dick took over Commander's Palace, renovated it, and turned it into one of the most innovative, imaginative dining spots in New Orleans. This book brings together for the first time the fabulous recipes and secrets of this exciting restaurant.  There are more than 175 recipes in all, including drinks, appetizers and soups, salads, seafood, chicken and game, beef and veal, and desserts and coffees.

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Yeah, it goes right well with my set of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" Vols. 1 & 2, also for $2.