Owen Edward Brennan, the founder of Brennan's Restaurant, was born April 5, 1910, in New Orleans' "Irish Channel" to Owen Patrick Brennan and his wife, Nellie. Over a span of the next twenty-three years, Owen’s younger siblings were born in the following order: Adelaide, John, Ella, Richard (Dick) and Dorothy (Dottie).

Owen was already married when Dick and Dottie were born. Shortly after their births, Owen Edward Brennan, Jr. (Pip) was born to Owen and his wife, Maude. In time, Maude gave birth to two more sons, James (Jimmy) and Theodore (Ted) providing Owen with three male heirs.

Throughout his adult life, Owen Edward Brennan was driven by his devotion and an undaunting sense of responsibility to support not only his own wife and three sons but his parents and siblings as well. His father, Owen Patrick Brennan, was a New Orleans foundry laborer, which had made supporting Nellie and their six children very difficult; and so, his eldest son, Owen Edward Brennan set out to make his fortune.

Owen's undertakings and endeavors included buying an interest in a gas station as well as a drugstore and becoming the bookkeeper for a candy Company. He worked as a liquor salesman and district manager for Schenley Company and, finally, as the temporary manager of the Court of Two Sisters Restaurant.

In September 1943, Owen purchased the business of the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street. The Absinthe House had been built in 1798 and was known to be pirate Jean Lafitte's secret hangout. As its most recent proprietor, Owen staged lifelike mannequins of the notorious Lafitte and Andrew Jackson in what he called the "Secret Room" - the very room in which the pact was supposedly made in New Orleans' defense against the British at the Battle of New Orleans.

Owen became one of the city's best known hosts at his colorful Old Absinthe House, "the oldest saloon in America." Pianist Fats Pichon added to its charm with his talented renditions from Bach to boogie.

Owen added another dimension of ambience to the historical and musical atmosphere of the Old Absinthe House by inviting myriads of visitors to attach their business cards to its inside walls. Eventually, thousands of cards and autographed papers hung from its ceiling as well.

Owen's customers could recapture the past with a Pirate's Dream, the specialty drink of the Old Absinthe House. He labeled it "the high brow of all low brow drinks." Owen perpetuated the popularity of the Absinthe Frappe, an original creation of the Absinthe House and a favorite of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Admiral Earnest King.

Yet the adventuresome drinks and unique atmosphere of the Old Absinthe House were not Owen's essential keys to success. Owen Brennan didn't need frappes but only the flash of his smile and a warm welcome to his many customers. It was once written that Owen would hit his customers over the head with his personality - "a blow from which few tourists, writers, movie celebrities or presidents ever completely recovered." With this innate ability to win friends and customers while committing each and every one of their names to memory, it was no wonder that Owen would become a distinctively successful restaurateur.

Owen's good friend, Count Arnaud, whose restaurant was a popular New Orleans dining spot, allegedly posed a challenge to Owen. Owen would relay complaints overheard at the Absinthe House to offending restaurant owners. To which Count Arnaud replied, "You're forever telling me about the complaints you hear. If you think you can do better, why don't you open a restaurant?"

At the same time Count Arnaud taunted that no Irishman could run a restaurant that was more than a hamburger joint. To which Owen responded, " All right you asked for it! I'll show you and everybody else that an Irishman can run the finest French restaurant in this town!"

In July 1946, Owen Edward Brennan leased the Vieux Carre Restaurant directly across the street from the Old Absinthe House. He named his new restaurant for himself, Owen Brennan's French & Creole Restaurant; and with time, it came to be more commonly known as Owen Brennan's Vieux Carre.

Owen employed his gray-haired father, Owen Patrick Brennan, as he feared injury would befall him in the shipyards. He then gave his father a small percentage of the business. Making his father a minority stockholder was Owen's way of providing and caring for his parents as well as his younger siblings.

The success or failure of this venture rested solely on the shoulders of Owen. Owen Edward Brennan had become the patriarch of the family. Everyone deferred to Owen. Many years his junior, Owen's siblings were either still youngsters in school or just starting out.

At Owen Brennan’s Vieux Carre, Owen's father was found greeting the luncheon customers until a heart attack in the early 50's slowed him down. Eventually, Owen employed two of his younger sisters, Adelaide and Ella, as well as a younger brother, John. Adelaide became the bookkeeper and Ella the kitchen supervisor. John was employed by his brother for a brief time only.

Owen Edward Brennan and his Vieux Carre restaurant attained nationwide fame on an "Irish smile and a kiss of the Blarney Stone." Owen built his restaurant into a famous institution overnight, competing with New Orleans' oldest and best in French and Creole cuisine. Owen's research and knowledge of French food, fine wine and impeccable service made him a master. He was called the "wonder man" of the New Orleans restaurant industry. Owen's Irish stubbornness compelled him to work extremely long and hard hours to put Brennan's on the culinary map - locally and nationwide.

Owen's ready wit, radiant smile and infectious laugh endeared him to locals, Hollywood celebrities and tourists alike. He was so very kind to so many people and was genuinely loved in return. As the famous novelist and syndicated columnist Robert Ruark once wrote about his good friend, "If he had a fault, it was his generosity." Owen was full of energy and possessed an incredible imagination; and all was reflected in Brennan's success.

Owen was known in Hollywood movie circles and entertained some of the brightest stars in his French Quarter restaurant - Vivian Leigh, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper, Jane Russell and Tennessee Williams, to name a few. For national magazine writers and syndicated columnists, such as Earl Wilson, Walter Winchell, Hedda Hopper, Dorothy Kilgallen, Robert Ruark and Lucius Beebe, Brennan's was oftentimes their first stop on assignments to cover New Orleans. As a result, many stories were written of Owen's life and success in the restaurant business in national publications, such as Newsweek, Collier's, Holiday, Life and Gourmet magazines.

The advancement of the New Orleans community was high on Owen's list of priorities. He was especially devoted to the promotion of the New Orleans tourist trade and was labeled a "one man Chamber of Commerce." Appointed by Mayor Chep Morrison, Owen was the founding chairman of the first New Orleans Tourist Commission. He was a driving force as a member of the New Orleans Crime Commission and the city's Chamber of Commerce. As a promoter of the New Orleans tourism industry, Owen arranged a special Mardi Gras ball for visitors during the Carnival season.

As a restaurateur, Owen Edward Brennan was a genius in a business for which he had no formal education. His creative ability was Brennan's crowning glory. After the publication of Frances Parkinson Keyes' Dinner at Antoine's, a new experience was conceived. Owen was convinced that if the concept "Dinner at Antoine's" could so successfully captivate a gastronomic audience, then why not "Breakfast at Brennan's?" And so Owen became the first in his time to promote this epicurean experience anywhere.

Brennan's, as Owen ultimately wanted his restaurant to be called, became such a lucrative venture that when the time came to renew the lease on the Bourbon Street building, the landlord demanded fifty percent of the business. Unwilling to meet these demands, Owen searched for a new location for his restaurant and found its present location on Royal Street.

Owen was under a tremendous amount of stress as a result of his landlord's demands and his decision to move to Royal Street. At that time Royal Street was not the busy thoroughfare it is today. In fact, the Royal Orleans Hotel was not even in existence.

In 1954, Owen leased the building and began renovating and redecorating the Patio Royal at 417 Royal Street to convert it into the new Brennan's Restaurant. On November 1, 1955, Owen invited Brennan's initial customers to join him at his officially opened bar located in the building carriageway. The opening of the restaurant was scheduled for the spring of 1956, but the hand of fate dealt a devastating blow.

Since the spring of 1950, Owen had been a member of La Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, an elite wine society whose original home was the Chateau du Clos de Vougeot, Cote d'Or since 1551. The objectives of the Tastevin were for its members to appreciate and promote the products of Burgundy and to maintain the region's festivities and customs.

Owen attended the fall dinner of its New Orleans chapter at Antoine's Restaurant on a Thursday evening in November 1955. That night no one enjoyed the exquisite wines, superb food and comradery of good friends more than Owen.

The next morning, Maude was unable to wake her husband. At the age of forty-five, Owen Edward Brennan had died of a massive coronary in his sleep on a fateful Friday, November 4, 1955. Although shock and grief overwhelmed his family and the friends who loved him so dearly, Brennan's Restaurant still opened in its new Royal Street location on schedule.

At the time of Owen's passing, his sister, Ella, was thirty years old and was still the kitchen supervisor. Yet her strong will and leadership ability enabled her to assume the role of manager of Brennan's Restaurant. Owen's widow, Maude, had not been involved at Brennan's in a managerial capacity, and none of their three sons was old enough to affirm their positions as proprietors.

At the time of their fathers death, Pip was a graduating college senior, Jimmy a sophomore in high school and Ted only seven years old. Immediately following his college graduation, Pip assumed a leadership role in the management of his late father's restaurant.

When Owen died, his photograph and the tragic news of his passing were front page headlines for New Orleans' Times-Picayune and Item newspapers. Time magazine included the calamitous report in "Milestones." Not only did nationally read Robert Ruark and New Orleans' own Herman Deutsch dedicate their columns to Owen Edward Brennan. But the editorial in the Item Sunday edition immediately following Owen's death was entitled "A Truly Fabulous Orleanian" in tribute to Owen.

In its new location on Royal Street, Brennan's prospered as it had on Bourbon Street. Owen's multitude of friends continued to patronize the restaurant he had founded even though their good friend was no longer there. Owen's ingenious concept of "Breakfast at Brennan's" and the dishes that were invented under his scrutiny, including Bananas Foster and Eggs Hussarde, combined with the expertise of his Dutch Chef Paul Blangé, had made Brennan's world-famous.

Owen's younger sister, Ella, inherited an enviable legacy in her position as Brennan's manager. Ella had learned most of what she knew about the restaurant business from her brother, Owen, whom she adored. Through the years Ella had observed not only Owen's technique in managing the daily operations but also his distinct style and finesse in dealing with the customers and news media. The mastery of public relations had been an exceptional expertise of Owen.

By maintaining Owen's many contacts and friends in the local and national news media, Ella was successful in her acquisition of publicity for Brennan's. She maintained Owen's friendships with numerous restaurateurs across the country and continued to promote Brennan's as a culinary mecca for celebrities.

Shortly after Owen's death, Brennan's needed additional working capital. Maude, Owen's widow, had already invested the money realized from her husband's life insurance policy in Brennan's, but these proceeds alone were not enough. Maude was advised by her late husband's good friend and financial advisor, Ralph Alexis, to offer her father-in-law, Owen Patrick Brennan, the opportunity to purchase additional Brennan's stock from her rather than allow non-relatives to become partners.

To provide the financial means, it was necessary that Maude's father-in-law borrow the money to purchase this stock. The cash proceeds from such a transaction would provide the business with the additional working capital. Maude heeded Ralph's advice and allowed her father-in-law to increase his percentage as a minority stockholder while maintaining control of Brennan's Restaurant for herself and Owen's three sons.

Owen Patrick Brennan and his wife, Nellie, died within a couple of years following the death of their son, Owen Edward Brennan. When Owen Patrick Brennan died, his minority interest in Brennan’s was divided among each of his own five surviving children and the late Owen Edward Brennan's three sons, Pip, Jimmy and Ted, further securing Maude and Owen's three sons as majority stockholders of Brennan's Restaurant. Until that time, Owen Patrick Brennan's children, Adelaide, John, Ella, Dick and Dottie, had not been stockholders in the restaurant.

As time passed, Ella sought to enlarge her legacy. In 1963, under Ella's management and direction, Brennan's Restaurant purchased the Friendship House Restaurant in Biloxi, Mississippi. At that time, Ella's expansion plans began.

The stock of each expansion restaurant - financed by Brennan's Restaurant and Owen's widow, Maude - was divided equally among the nine stockholders of Brennan's and not as the stock was divided in Brennan's itself. Thus, Ella and her siblings, who comprised five of the nine Brennan's stockholders, assumed control of the stock in each expansion restaurant while Maude and her three sons became the minority stockholders.

Ella continued to expand the Brennan family operations. The opening of Brennan's Restaurant of Houston in 1967 was next. Jimmy, Owen and Maude's second son, moved to Houston to manage that operation. Jimmy had been formally trained in the restaurant business at École Hôtelière de la S.S.H. in Lausanne, Switzerland. Brennan's of Houston benefited from Jimmy's knowledge of food, service and wine and was extremely successful under his management.

Brennan's of Dallas opened in 1969 with no Brennan family member in charge of its operations. A manager was hired by Ella and the pitfalls of expansion with absentee ownership became apparent.

In the spring of 1970, Ted, Owen and Maude's youngest son, moved from San Francisco, where he had been working since his college graduation, to take over the Dallas restaurant with high hopes and serious expectations of redeeming its reputation. By the time Ted arrived in Dallas as the restaurant's newest manager, Brennan's had been opened for fourteen months and was operating in the red with little hope of recovery. However, after much hard work, duress and his own Irish stubbornness, Ted was able to turn Brennan's of Dallas around, win back many of its initial customers, cultivate new ones and, finally, show a substantial profit.

In 1969, the Brennan family also purchased an established New Orleans restaurant, Commander's Palace, as well as a family-style restaurant in Metairie called Chez Français. After the opening of Brennan's of Dallas, plans for a Brennan's of Atlanta ensued as did a chain of two hundred steak houses which was to be called the Inner Circle. Ella informed the family that she intended to assume the ownership of substantially more stock than her usual one-ninth in these two hundred steak houses.

In July 1973, concerns arose among Maude and her sons regarding the rapid expansion that was occurring. The concerns stemmed from the obvious inability to manage adequately the restaurants that already had been acquired.

The overall quality of the original Brennan's in New Orleans was suffering as were the other acquisitions with the exception of Brennan's Restaurants in Dallas and Houston. Concentration, finances and valued employees had been diverted in the efforts of expansion while culinary excellence was sacrificed.

At the July family meeting in New Orleans, the subject of discontent was first on the agenda. Surprisingly, Ella's panacea was, as she put it, "to split up the corporations and not the family." This may have been possible had everyone agreed to Ella's terms.

However, after discussing Ella's proposal among themselves, Owen's three sons, Pip, Jimmy and Ted, responded in a manner which Ella probably had not anticipated. Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans had been their father's legacy for them. Along with their mother, Maude, Pip, Jimmy and Ted controlled its stock and were merely minority stockholders in the six expansion restaurants. These were reasons enough to inform Ella that they would assume sole control of the original Brennan's and that she with her brothers and sisters could have the remaining six expansion restaurants.

Intense hours of discussion and negotiations among the accountants and attorneys from both sides of the family ensued for several months following that fateful July meeting. However, no proposal splitting the restaurant corporations equitably was acceptable to Ella as long as she was not awarded the original Brennan's Restaurant. After months of endless negotiations and frustrating attempts to settle this unfortunate family dispute amicably, on November 5, 1973, Maude, Pip, Jimmy and Ted assumed complete control of Brennan's Restaurant of New Orleans resulting in a family schism. The issue of expansion may have been only the tip of the iceberg among the real causes of unrest, unfairness and resentment within the family; but this single issue simplifies the story.

Immediately, after the Brennan family split, Maude, Pip, Jimmy and Ted restored Brennan's to the quality-oriented restaurant that Owen Edward Brennan had originally established. Through the years they have worked diligently to maintain its greatness. Simultaneously, Ella recognized the need to restore Commander's Palace, as it had declined also since its acquisition by the Brennan’s in 1969. Commander's then provided a New Orleans base for her six restaurant corporations.

Not until November 1974 was a complete and final agreement reached between the two factions of the family. At that time, Maude, Pip, Jimmy and Ted assumed complete ownership of Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans with no minority stockholders remaining, while Ella and her siblings accomplished the same in all six expansion restaurants. Since that time, Ella and her brothers and sisters have closed four of their original six restaurants with only Brennan's of Houston and Commander's Palace remaining.

Ella and her family have since expanded their restaurant holdings. Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans is in no way affiliated with these most recent ventures or any other restaurant operations.  Owen's three sons, Pip, Jimmy and Ted, remain the sole owners and operators of their fathers world-famous restaurant on Royal Street.

Owen Edward Brennan set the high standard of excellence still nurtured today by his three sons, Pip, Ted, and Jimmy.