Photo courtesy of Commander's Palace.
Cousins Lally Brennan (left) and Ti Martin (right).
To be in the company of Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan is to experience the fullest extent of New Orleans’s renowned joie de vivre. Cousins Ti and Lally are co-proprietors of the 132-year-old New Orleans restaurant, Commander’s Palace, and they usually bring the fun, along with a wealth of experience and knowledge. When it comes to the restaurant business, their family’s long legacy of entrepreneurship shines forth.
Ella Brennan, Ti’s mother, began working with her brother, Owen Brennan, at his French Quarter restaurant when she was nineteen. When the family took the reins of the historic Commander’s Palace in 1969, they revitalized it for a new era and officially re-opened it in 1974. Ella made the restaurant her top priority, earning the nickname “Hurricane Ella.” She had very high standards and expected the same from her staff, whom she always treated with kindness, earning the respect of her employees and others in the food service industry. In 2002, the Southern Foodways Alliance awarded Ella the Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award.
Lally, who is the daughter of John Brennan, Owen and Ella’s brother, grew up with Ti in their family’s restaurants, where they played in the back offices and, in time, worked in the dining rooms. “It was really a wonderful upbringing, even if it was a bit unconventional,” said Lally.
“We have always been all-in. For nearly twenty years, we worked on furthering our hospitality in many ways.” —Ti Adelaide Martin
After finishing college, both women eventually ended up back in New Orleans, working within the Brennan restaurant empire—Lally as a hostess at Mr. B’s and Ti at the newly-opened Palace Café.
Ella Brennan turned over the day-to-day operations of Commander’s to Ti and Lally for a few years before the cousins took over as co-proprietors of Commander’s in 1997, under Ella’s watchful eye.
“We have always been all-in,” said Ti. “For nearly twenty years, we worked on furthering our hospitality in many ways. We started something called ‘Aqua Blue U’ to train our team, with courses mostly food and wine (and service-related), but also extending to personal finance and how to buy a first home or a car. We ramped up our wine training so much that the Court of Master Sommeliers began teaching their course at Commander’s. We kept pushing the food to be the leading edge of New Orleans cuisine.”
Ti said the first two years after her mom’s death in 2018 were very good years for the restaurant. But on the heels of a fantastic carnival season in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Ti and Lally had to do what every other restaurateur in New Orleans and around the world had to: pivot.
Photo courtesy of Commander's Palace.
Cousins Lally Brennan and Ti Martin.
The cousins did all they could to keep the business afloat, from offering take-out meals to shipping signature dishes around the country via Goldbelly. They even sold wine and cheese kits locally and hosted Zoom “tastings” to discuss the attributes of the pairings. When the Commander’s Palace dining rooms finally reopened, Ti and Lally were determined to make the legendary turquoise and white building in the Garden District the most talked-about restaurant in New Orleans.
One of the innovations was the twenty-five-cent martinis special offered with the purchase of a lunch entrée on Thursdays and Fridays. Lally shared an Instagram post that her aunt, Dottie Brennan, had insisted for years that they add the twenty-five-cent martini, a long-held tradition at Brennan’s. Lally said, “We love Dottie and we respect her.” Ti interjected, “But we did it so she’d shut up.” While the martini special is no longer on the Brennan’s menu, it is more popular than ever at Commander’s. There is a limit of three, because, as Lally said, “three is enough.”
The entrepreneurial wheels continue to turn for the cousins, who drew on their travels as children as their inspiration for Commander’s companion café, Le Petit Bleu, which opened in January 2024. “When we were young, my mother took us on restaurant scouting trips around the world,” said Ti. “We, of course, tried everything. Our favorite food was the crêpes we tried in Paris. We wanted them everywhere we went.” Ti and Lally dreamed of creating their own slice of Paris just down from Commander’s Palace on Washington Street.
The small café in a converted cottage offers to-go items, including Commander’s famous turtle soup, a crab ravigote, muffalettas, and cheesecake. The aroma of French Truck Chicory Coffee mingles with the scent of fresh-baked candied pecan biscotti. Behind the counter, crêpes are made to order, including lunch crêpes made with charred chili boudin, chicken liver mousse, and herb salad. “We wanted it to feel like a bustling Paris café,” said Ti. While Commander’s Palace has a strict dress code, Le Petit Bleu is more relaxed. It’s a neighborhood restaurant where anyone is welcome. “We even offer dog treats,” laughed Lally. “We figured if we train the dogs, the people in the neighborhood will come.”
“Everything ties back to us in some way so people will always remember their visit to Commander’s.” —Lally Brennan
The latest way Ti and Lally are expanding the Commander’s brand is with the new Commander’s Collection, which currently includes seventy-two specialty apparel and home items ranging from silk scarves, pocket squares, and socks designed by local artist Tim Trapolin to glassware, cocktail mixes, roux spoons, and oyster knives, with “many more on the way,” said Ti. “Everything ties back to us in some way,” explained Lally, “so people will always remember their visit to Commander’s.”
Also in the Commander’s Collection are books by Ti and Lally, including In the Land of Cocktails: Recipes and Adventures from the Cocktail Chicks. The book features classic New Orleans cocktail recipes with their history, along with illustrations by Trapolin. “We try to use New Orleans artists whenever we can,” said Ti. Other books available include Miss Ella of Commander’s Palace by Ti and Lally, Commander’s Wild Side: Bold Flavors for Fresh Ingredients from the Great Outdoors by Ti and Chef Tory McPhail, and Commander’s Kitchen by Ti and Jamie Shannon.
Meg Bickford has been the Executive Chef at Commander’s Palace since October 2020, but she has been working with Ti and Lally for more than a decade. “She has grown into this role in such an amazing way,” said Lally. “She has gained such respect from the entire staff, and she is doing a wonderful job.” The two cousins said they are energized by the young people who work at the restaurant. “They do a wonderful job every day.”
Ti and Lally spread their enthusiasm via social media. Their Instagram account (@commanderspalace) entertains while taking a deep dive into the history and unique traditions of Commander’s Palace, sharing current menu offerings and even cross-promoting with other New Orleans businesses, such as was the case with a recent shopping trip to Yvonne LaFleur’s. The cousins offer a spirit of inviting hospitality and excellent customer service that the Commander’s brand has become famous for. As Ti put it, “We believe that every guest who walks through our doors should feel like family.”
