Commander's Palace passed through several hands before finding its destiny. In the 1920s, Frank Giarratano owned the place and lived upstairs with his wife Rose and their two sons, while the restaurant operated below with a separate entrance. Rumors swirled about private dining rooms rented to riverboat captains, but the upstairs was simply the family's home. In 1944, with World War II winding down and his health declining, Giarratano sold to Frank and Elinor Moran. The Morans refurbished the restaurant and expanded the menu, introducing recipes that remain in use decades later. They encouraged courtyard dining around a large koi pond, with banks of electric heaters available for the mild New Orleans winters. It was during this post-war era that Commander's Palace, like many New Orleans restaurants, began earning national and international recognition.

The transformation that made Commander's Palace a culinary institution came in 1969, when the famous Brennan restaurant family purchased the property. The Brennans reimagined the interior to complement the lush outdoor setting: walls gave way to large windows, and custom trellises and commissioned paintings brought the Garden District's greenery inside. Under Brennan family stewardship, the kitchen became a launchpad for extraordinary talent. The restaurant won the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Service Award in 1993, and chef Jamie Shannon earned Best Chef, Southeast Region in 1999. Ella Brennan, the matriarch who drove the restaurant's evolution, received the Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. Executive Chef Tory McPhail added a Best Chef: South award in 2013. In 2008, the Culinary Institute of America inducted Commander's Palace into its Hall of Fame.

Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, and Commander's Palace did not escape the devastation. The historic building suffered extensive damage -- a cruel blow to a structure that had anchored the corner of Washington and Coliseum for over a century. But the Brennan family committed to a full renovation rather than retreat. The reconstruction took more than a year, and when Commander's Palace reopened on October 1, 2006, it was both a restaurant opening and an act of civic faith. The Garden District landmark was back, its turquoise paint fresh, its kitchen firing again. The comeback echoed across the city's dining scene, a signal that New Orleans' culinary heritage would not be washed away.

Commander's Palace sits in the heart of one of New Orleans' most storied neighborhoods. The Garden District, with its oak-canopied streets and antebellum mansions, provides a setting that few restaurants anywhere can match. Through the years, the property has expanded into adjacent lots, the courtyard has been redesigned, and the fence that once separated the restaurant from its neighbor has largely disappeared, blurring the line between private dining and the neighborhood itself. Since 2012, Commander's Palace has held the Wine Spectator Grand Award, and Wine Enthusiast has listed it among the 100 best wine restaurants in the country. The Daily Meal once ranked its wine list number one in the United States. But what keeps drawing people back is not the awards -- it is the rare sense that a restaurant can be both an institution and a living thing, still evolving after more than 130 years in the same Garden District corner where Emile Commander first opened his doors.