CRESCENT CITY CELEBRATION

COMMANDER'S PALACE IN NEW ORLEANS OFFERS A SPIRITED MENU STEEPED IN SOUTHERN COCKTAIL CULTURE

- Owen Dugan

"I hate the history," says Ti Adelaide Martin, co-owner with her cousin Lally Brennan of Wine Spectator Grand Award winner Commander's Palace in New Orleans. "I don't care. That's not what we're about. Yes, it's slightly interesting that some restaurants in New Orleans are much older. But what's more interesting to me is what you're trying to do now, and what we're pushing toward is so cool. We're just not going to stand still. It's just not who we are."

Despite Martin's feelings on the matter, that history is singularly important to the celebration and elevation of regional cuisines, both in Louisiana and across the U.S. The late Ella Brennan, Martin's mother and known as "Miss Ella" to all, had worked at her brother Owen's New Orleans restaurants and, in 1956, helped open Brennan's. She left that establishment in 1973 after a family dispute and, with some of her other siblings, bought Commander's, which has been at its current location since 1893.

Brennan was universally known as tenacious and caring, and her contributions were many. Chief among them were her elevation of regional cuisines, her discovery and promotion of talented chefs (Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse among them) and her commitment to investing in and educating herself on wine before that was commonplace. She was also a national figure in her own right (you can watch a documentary about her, called Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table, or read her memoir, Miss Ella of Commander's Palace).

But her greatest legacy is the forward-thinking that her daughter mentions: "That's the culture of this restaurant. You know, a lot of that just comes from my life, and my mom. She was the main person who yanked New Orleans out of the past and pushed for the future. So we're very busy, still yanking. I think some of the most exciting food in my history is happening in New Orleans right now."