Broussard's
What once was, still is
The preservation and restoration of New Orleans’ Vieux Carré’s grand architectural gems, erstwhile mansions, and historic buildings just took a graceful leap forward with the $1 million renovation of Broussard’s. The nearly ninety-five-year-old restaurant, whose partial physical plant dates back many more years into the nineteenth century, was completed this past fall by new owners, Creole Cuisine Concepts.
The restaurant was purchased from Gunter and Evelyn Preuss, who have been operating Broussard’s for the past three decades. But Broussard’s did not start out as a restaurant. In 1874, a wealthy Sicilian couple, Anthony and Mary Ann Borello, built the mansion that is now Broussard’s restaurant at 819 Conti Street. It was the marriage of their daughter, Rosalie Borello, that set the future of Broussard’s into motion.
WHAT ONCE WAS …
Born in Loreauville in 1889, Joseph Cezaire Broussard, a descendant of seventeenth-century French colonists, had aspirations of one day becoming a chef during his youth in the bayou country.
Throughout the early- to mid-1800s, New Orleans experienced a Golden Era. In the decades following the Louisiana Purchase and the victorious 1815 Battle of New Orleans, an influx of steamboats, sugar, and cotton, as well as hordes of eager immigrants, made for prosperous times.
Seeing an opportunity, Broussard and his brother traveled to the big city to make their way in the restaurant world. Joseph found work at Antoine’s restaurant, owned by the Alciatoires, who founded the distinguished establishment in 1840. He bussed tables, washed dishes, and finally landed in the kitchen.
He saved his money and eventually gave notice to the proprietors so he could go to France and learn the skills required of a chef. Descended from a French family himself, Alciatoire arranged for Broussard to apprentice with one of that country’s finest chefs.
Renowned Chef “Mornay” Voiron and his father, Joseph (one of whom reportedly created the classic sauce of the same name) welcomed Broussard into their Paris restaurant, Durand, as an understudy to learn the classical French methods and techniques.
After returning to New Orleans, Broussard went back to work in the city’s kitchens. It was then that he met Rosalie Borello. When they wed in 1917, Borello’s parents presented the young couple with the family’s stately Conti Street residence. The restaurant opened in the former family mansion in 1920.
Portions of Broussard’s grounds and buildings were originally part of the footprint of the neighboring Hermann-Grima House built in 1831. The original Hermann-Grima estate extended through the heart of the block from St. Louis Street to Conti Street, featuring a carriageway and the French Quarter’s first horse stables. Over time, sections of the property were sold off. For instance, much of the Jefferson Academy, a boys’ prep school that replaced the Hermann-Grima House stables in the 1800s, had been annexed to the Borello property. (It is now the restaurant’s Magnolia Room, used for private dining.)
In the years that followed, Broussard was able to achieve his goal in creating a grand restaurant featuring classic French cuisine as well as savory Creole specialties. The five–star restaurant drew admirers from all over, including famous figures such as Humphrey Bogart, Tennessee Williams, and William Faulkner.
The couple’s desire and efforts to produce inspired culinary experiences in an elegant setting never dimmed. Joe and Rosalie Broussard ran the restaurant until 1966 when they passed away within a month of each other.
Without any direct heirs to run the business, the property was sold in the early ‘70s to restaurateurs Joe Segretto and Joe Marcello. The new team made extensive renovations, even removing the huge courtyard’s flagstones to raise the slab and install an underground drainage system.
The restaurant reopened in 1975. The new team had a hard act to follow in the kitchen, so they went to the most successful restaurant in town at the time—the Pontchartrain Hotel’s Caribbean Room—and plucked its executive chef.
The legendary Creole chef Nathaniel Burton, a native of McComb, Mississippi, was revered as probably the most accomplished chef in the city at the time and for training so many other chefs. He authored a book with contributor Rudy Lombard, Creole Feast: 15 Master Chefs of New Orleans Reveal Their Secrets. Burton passed away in 1986.
Segretto had been the road manager for Louis Prima and Keely Smith during the artists’ peaks and had fraternized with a slew of other celebrities. In the ‘70s, Broussard’s added even more glamour and glitz to the local scene with “Rat Pack” members like Sammy Davis, Jr. dropping in along with Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher, Sam Butera, and Tony Bennett, just to name-drop a handful of those enthralled with Chef Nate’s cooking and the ambience of the charming restaurant.
Around 1984, Gunter Preuss came into the business as a partner, securing ownership of the restaurant in the early ‘90s. An award-winning, much-honored European-born and -trained chef, Preuss was, along with wife and business partner Evelyn, the restaurant’s proprietor and caretaker over the next thirty years.
… STILL IS
At the same time that the Preuss family was thinking about selling, Creole Concept’s Ammari brothers were thinking about developing more upscale restaurants for their company. The match was made, and the historic restaurant has triumphantly entered into its fourth era with a new set of custodians at the helm.
In the directors’ chairs: General Manager Chris Ycaza has been in the restaurant business for nearly twenty years, serving as both Galatoire’s and Cuvée’s general managers, among other posts. Ycaza is also the 2014 president of the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience.
French-born and -trained, Chef Guy Reinbolt is Broussard’s new kitchen maestro. A native of Colmar in Alsace, Reinbolt holds several formal culinary degrees from the Lycée d’Enseignement Professional et Hotelier de Guebwiller. He has held chef positions in five Michelin-starred restaurants in France and Germany and has traveled the world cooking, as a guest chef or often just to learn the cuisine.
Growing up, Reinbolt always wanted to travel to the U.S. “I was a John Wayne fanatic,” said Reinbolt. “I imagined what it would be like to go back in time and see the Wild West.”
It wasn’t until he began working for his mentor Chef Jean-Yves Schillinger at Schillinger in Colmar that Reinbolt was encouraged to follow his muse. He landed a position as sous chef at New Orleans’ Hotel le Meridien at the exquisite Alsatian-themed Henri and was absolutely enchanted with the city.
Reinbolt was on an eighteen-month visa, but that was enough time to meet his future wife, a local Tulane student working on the weekends at La Gauloise, Le Meridien’s bistro.
Reinbolt went back to France, where he and his wife repeated their marriage vows in a French ceremony. Upon returning to the U.S., he was chef at a series of high profile restaurants, hotels, and casinos along the East Coast and into the South over the next dozen years.
In 2007, he joined the Sheraton Hotel in New Orleans as executive chef where he remained until the opportunity at Broussard’s arose.
Paul Gustings, well known for his many years behind Tujague’s Bar, was tapped as the head bartender at Broussard’s newly crowned Empire Bar where his many fans have followed him.
During the renovation, the bar was expanded, receiving a new white marble top to correspond with the marble-topped bistro tables imported from Italy during the ‘70s era renovation.
Three sets of French doors that open onto the smaller courtyard were added to the bar—creating an annex to the bar under the one hundred-year-old wisteria vine. The new doors match the older historic parts on the property.
In the larger courtyard, Broussard’s spent more than $40,000 on lighting, landscaping, and proper irrigation. Necessary updates and repairs were made to the interiors as well. The three dining rooms all had major work done, with painting, wallpaper, fixtures, carpet, drapes, and artwork replacements.
A major project involved redoing the walkways in the entrance foyer, restrooms, and Empire Bar with continuous white marble flooring. The Venetian plaster in the entryway is another historic touch.
The kitchen renovation was the most daunting. Hard structure upgrades needed to be made. The slab had to be cracked to get to the plumbing, as the drainage required updating and being brought up to code.
Although the labor-intensive job slowed Chef Reinbolt’s ascent into his newly renovated kitchen, he went about developing the dishes and specialties for the new menu.
“I designed the menu based on my French background and education, what I’ve learned in other countries, and from the Louisiana culture: Louisiana-inspired French cuisine with a continental touch.”
Chef Reinbolt brings an updated, perhaps broader, perspective of the Gallic cuisine than the founding chef, along with the high Creole standards that Broussard and Burton practiced for many years. In addition, Reinbolt’s background also provides many reflections of the continental, à la Gunter Preuss. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Details. Details. Details. Broussard’s 819 Conti Street New Orleans, La. (504) 581-3866 • broussards.com