Commander's Palace

This guide to Commander's Palace in New Orleans starts with a family disagreement in the late 1990s, when Dottie Brennan suggested reviving a stunt from an old sister restaurant: a quarter-priced martini at lunch. Ti Martin and Lally Brennan, running the kitchen their aunt Ella had built into a Creole institution, worried it would embarrass the linen rather than fill the room. You'll hear about Ella's own reign in that kitchen, her turtle soup and tableside bread pudding souffle, and the young cooks who passed through before their names meant anything. Listen for how a cheap idea and a formidable aunt's legacy end up sharing the same dining room.