Dickie Brennan's Tableau restaurant will be a French Quarter gem

LINK

Renowned restaurateur Dickie Brennan jokingly said he’s not sure what the spectacular, three-story, 16,500 square-foot, 200-seat "Tableau" restaurant adjacent to Jackson Square has cost so far … and he doesn’t want to know. His partner in the project, Steve Pettus, said that he’s well aware of the figure, but he’s sparing Brennan the bottom-line shock. Brennan and Pettus discussed the investment while standing in a dining room with a gently vaulted ceiling coated with opulent embossed floral design wallpaper glittering with hand-applied gold leaf. A stack of pre-cut, cocoa-colored wood planks stood on the floor awaiting installation in a herringbone pattern. The original, 80-year-old crystal chandeliers removed from the room before the renovation began, will be rehung after cleaning.

Just a few yards away, across a short hallway, is the balcony of Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, which has occupied the historic St. Ann site since 1922. Le Petit is also in the midst of a mass construction project. The survival of the venerable community theater was the impetus for Brennan’s new restaurant. Faced with foreclosure in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis, the board of governors of Le Petit sold 60 percent of their rambling historic building to the Brennan Restaurant group in 2011 for $3 million. The Le Petit management used $1.3 million of the windfall to give the grand dame of New Orleans entertainment venues an overdue facelift. Meanwhile, Brennan and company set out to produce a restaurant befitting the beloved real estate.

As a dozen or more construction workers labored noisily in the myriad rooms of the restaurant, Brennan said he hopes the massive conversion project will be complete by the beginning of April. The original pre-Super Bowl opening date slipped by weeks ago. At the beginning of a dusty preview tour on Tuesday morning (Feb. 26), Pettus pointed out that what seems like a single building on the corner of Chartres and St. Peter Streets is actually four interlocked structures dating from 1963, 1932, 1922 and 1797. The oldest part of the building was once the residence of Manuel Gayoso, the last Spanish Governor of Louisiana.

Inspired by the long history of the site, Brennan and Pettus envisioned an historical build out for the future dining destination. The seemingly timeless archways separating the ground floor lobby, salon, dining room and kitchen, plus smooth columns and patterns of flagstone and tile on the floor are the result.

“It’s built in the Spanish colonial style,” said Pettus, who added that even though the building is in the French Quarter, “everyone from New Orleans knows that most of the architecture in the French Quarter is of Spanish origin. “

Even more important than the antique Spanish influence was Brennan and Pettus’s interest in producing a flowing floor plan that allows vistas from the parlor bistro-style dining area, through the central bar into the more formal dining room, all the way into the open kitchen on the upriver side of the building.

“We just didn’t want to see it all closed up,” Brennan said, standing in the main dining room that was stirred by breezes from an open doorway. “So we were able, with some very talented people, to create this openness. And it’s neat. It’s different environments. It has different looks. It transfers from one feeling; from a bar environment to more of a grand café where you’re sitting down dining, to looking at the chefs preparing, performing, which you can enjoy.”

The walls of the restaurant facing the kinetic Vieux Carre streets and the calming interior courtyard are all perforated with large French doors, allowing a flood of piercing indirect sunlight to enter from all sides. Brennan pointed to extra air conditioners positioned over the doors leading to the street. The auxiliary cooling, he hopes, will allow the apertures to stay open, even in the summer. Those of us who recall Le Petit’s small, secondary black box stage that once occupied the new ground floor dining room will be amazed at the brilliant airy feel of the interior that the renovation has revealed. Le Petit’s 365-seat main stage is located in another part of the building.

The small secondary stage may be gone, but theatricality remains. Brennan said that he and other members of his illustrious family of restaurateurs have long believed that “dining has become theater.” To ask people “What are you doing Friday or Saturday night?” he said, is to ask them “Where are you going for dinner?”

So, “to see the talent and what these guys can do in the kitchen” has become a form of entertainment in itself.

Achieving the visual flow from one area to the other presented challenges. The staircase, custom-built on site by Jason and Clayton Hartdegen that leads to the second and third floors is gorgeous (even covered with protective masking tape and construction dust), but the fire code insists that fireproof doors must buffer staircases. To satisfy the requirement, Brennan pointed to a set of telescoping steel walls that deploy during a fire, but otherwise remain unseen.

Up that elegant staircase, diners will discover several more seating options. There’s the sedate dining room lined with soothing, moss green-colored paneling and mirrors, the elongated sunlit “Drawing Room” (as Pettus pointed out, the name of the thespian group that founded Le Petit Theatre almost a century ago was the Drawing Room Players), and the aforementioned room with the gilded ceiling. The gilded room, which is called “The Library” and was once used for meetings by the Le Petit board, will feature a selection of the finest dessert wines.

But certainly the most stunning second floor dining option is the 130-foot L-shaped gallery that wraps around the building, providing a splendid, sweeping view of Jackson Square and the surrounding architecture. The gallery was widened to overhang the entire sidewalk during the renovation. All of the second story seating areas will be serviced in part by a second floor kitchen nestled into the culinary labyrinth of halls and unseen stairways.

Up one more flight of stairs patrons will find exclusive dining at a custom-made table in the attic wine room and in a small lounge that provides a priceless, picturesque view of the interior courtyard. The copper-roofed balcony that spans the river side of the enclosure seems as if it might have been there forever, but it was actually added during construction. The courtyard will be used for outdoor seating when plays are not being performed at Le Petit. And when a play is under way, the audience will be able to visit the courtyard for hors d'oeuvres and cocktails during intermission. Bravo.