A legendary restaurant can start with a late-night wake-up call and no business plan.

Hazem and Mack sit down with Alex Brennan-Martin of Brennan's of Houston to hear the story of a restaurant family that bought its first bar the day after a rushed call to a sleeping father in 1945. Alex traces the Brennan's story from his Irish immigrant grandparents in New Orleans to a one-way ticket to Paris, a Paris rooftop room across from Napoleon's tomb, and an unexpected 1982 call to Houston that turned into 40 years. He explains why he thinks his family's culture of treating staff well made Brennan's what it is, and why a great restaurant is really in the business of memories. He also tells how a Houston mayor helped him win approval for one of the city's first chef's tables in the kitchen.

Learn more about Brennan's: https://www.brennanshouston.com/

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Key Takeaways

1. The Brennan family started in 1945 with no business plan and no bank debt. Alex's uncle Owen heard a bar was for sale, woke his father, and the family owned the Absinthe House bar the next day.

2. When Owen died suddenly during construction of the new restaurant at 417 Royal Street, the banks called the construction loan. The family took out second mortgages, and the contractor agreed to be paid when they could. The restaurant opened in 1955, and everyone eventually got paid.

3. The Houston building at 3300 Smith Street has a surprising origin. Architect John Staub sketched the New Orleans building on a linen napkin in the 1920s to design the Junior League's Houston home. Decades later, the Brennans found it nearly identical to their New Orleans restaurant, and Brennan's of Houston opened there in 1967.

4. Alex went to Paris at about age 21, became a teaching assistant, and worked in three Paris restaurants at night. After a stretch in the south of France, a student visa problem sent him back to the U.S. around 1981. He then worked in New York before arriving in Houston in 1982 for what was meant to be a few months.

5. Alex says treating employees well, long before paid vacations or health insurance were standard, is why many Brennan's team members have stayed 20, 30 or even 50 years.