Commander's Palace

Commander's Palace, at 1403 Washington Avenue in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, has stood as the archetype of New Orleans fine dining since 1893. The turquoise Victorian mansion occupies a full city block in the Garden District and has been operated by the Brennan family since 1974, the dynasty responsible for raising the national profile of Creole cuisine through decades of deliberate excellence. The restaurant's influence on American cooking extends beyond its own dining room: it served as the formative kitchen for chefs Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse, both of whom trained here before launching the careers that made them national figures. The cuisine is described as haute Creole — a cooking tradition that fuses French technique with African, Spanish, and Native American influences through the cultural history of New Orleans. Turtle soup is the signature dish and has appeared on every menu since the restaurant's earliest decades; the preparation — a rich, roux-based broth of snapping turtle meat with hard-boiled egg and a splash of dry sherry added tableside — is a dish unlike anything served elsewhere in the United States. The Saturday and Sunday jazz brunch is one of the most celebrated meal formats in New Orleans, beginning at 10 a.m. with live jazz accompaniment in the Garden Room. The wine list, comprising thousands of bottles, earned the restaurant a Wine Spectator Grand Award. Service is formal but warmly personal — an approach the Brennans describe as 'jazzy' — and consistently ranks among the finest in the country.