News from My Table
Big News from the Brennan’s Folks
(March 3, 2009) You’ll recall that Brennan’s was destroyed by fire during Hurricane Ike. But you can’t keep a good restaurant down, and on Tuesday, March 3, owner Alex Brennan-Martin – accompanied by Mayor Bill White – announced the restoration and planned fall re-opening of Brennan’s at its long-standing Smith Street address.
If all goes according to plan, Brennan’s will re-open just 13 months after the fire (sparked by an exploding electrical transformer), hurricane winds and drenching rain ruined Houston’s lovely Vieux Carré landmark. Right now reconstruction is in the variance-request phase (which Brennan-Martin likened to “walking through sticky glue”), but plans call for 80 percent of the historic John Staub building (circa 1930) to be restored. Many older aspects of the 42-year-old restaurant have to be brought up to current code; the restrooms, for example, have to be rebuilt about 20 inches wider, noted Brennan-Martin.
Additionally, Brennan-Martin is talking to the City of Houston and the Houston Parks and Recreation Department to relocate a mature tree from the Museum of Natural Science at Hermann Park to replace the historic oak that shaded Brennan’s courtyard and was also lost in the storm.
Also in the works: two new restaurants from the Brennan’s group, which were already underway before Hurricane Ike. They will be located in the new Hotel Sorella, which is being readied in the CityCenter mixed-use development out in Memorial. Cafe Rosé will be on the ground floor of the hotel, offering a casual menu of light breakfasts, salads, sandwiches, charcuterie and great wines, as well as cold-dripped ice coffees. The second concept is called Bistro Alex, and it will be open for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch. The Johnson Studio, a design firm out of Atlanta that also is responsible for Fearing’s in Dallas and Commander’s Palace in Destin, Florida, is doing the Bistro Alex design. The menu will take its cues from Brennan’s in terms of being a blend of traditional Texas-Creole and modern cooking. No chef has yet been named
