When Congregation Coffee Roasters shut down last spring, it was a blow both to the Algiers Point neighborhood where the brand had a coffee shop and to coffee lovers around town who could find Congregation’s brew at restaurants and its bagged coffee at groceries.
One of those fans was Patrick Brennan, and now he is bringing Congregation Coffee back.
Brennan has spent the past 10 years working for his family’s company, the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, which is named for his father.
Patrick Brennan worked for 10 years across his family's company, the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group. (Contributed photo)
He’s now left the restaurant company and acquired the Congregation brand from co-founder Eliot Guthrie.
Brennan plans to start coffee roasting at Congregation’s production facility Uptown on Tchoupitoulas Street as soon as next week. He’s working now to resume wholesale relationships with restaurants and retail spots.
Congregation Coffee Roasters makes artisan coffee in New Orleans. (Contributed photo)
He plans to reopen the Congregation coffeehouse at 240 Pelican Ave. in Algiers Point in November, with the opening date yet to be decided.
“This is about keeping a brand that was doing great things going, and it seems like a great opportunity,” Brennan said.
There could be more ahead. Brennan is looking at expanding Congregation with additional cafés in the New Orleans area, and he’s eyeing the French Quarter for a possible first location.
Eliot Guthrie co-founded Congregation Coffee in New Orleans. (Contributed photo)
Guthrie, who with a partner runs the tavern kitchen Duke Walter’s inside Finn McCool’s Irish Pub, is part of bringing Congregation back.
He’s working with Brennan to advise and share expertise on the production end and make introductions.
An espresso at the Congregation Coffee House in Algiers Point in 2017. (Photo by Peter G. Forest)
“The important thing to me is having somebody else take the reins on it,” Guthrie said. “I’m looking forward actually just enjoying the coffee again.”
Brennan has brought back some of Congregation’s previous staff and said he hopes to hire back more.
“I think that Eliot built a brand and team,” Brennan said. “There’s not much I want to change, I just want to bring it back and be what he envisioned it could be.”
Perking up the Point
The return of the coffee shop is sure to lift spirits in Algiers Point, where this corner spot just a few blocks from the ferry landing had established a special place in the neighborhood.
Congregation Coffee Roasters has a cafe in the Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
With big shop windows upfront, an open format inside and vintage woodwork all around, a visit was an everyday ritual for some and a destination for others taking a ferry ride across the river. The cafe closed in May, but is still set up for service, as if it could reopen at any moment.
Brennan doesn't plan to make any big changes to the cafe's look. The menu will start with pastries from the Ralph Brennan group’s bakery, and it could eventually expand with more breakfast items, similar to what Congregation once offered.
Initial hours are scheduled for 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
A sign on display at the Congregation Coffee House in Algiers Point in 2017.
Congregation got its start in 2015, roasting artisan coffee and taking its name for the term for a group of alligators. Guthrie and then-business partner Ian Barrilleaux came out of the restaurant world, and their first niche was supplying top local restaurants with coffee up to the standards of the other ingredients they brought in.
The landmark Brennan’s Restaurant, part of the Ralph Brennan group, switched over to using Congregation early on.
“It’s a high-end, top-of-market coffee that fit the restaurant,” said Brennan, who also subscribed for Congregation’s deliveries at home.
Restarting Congregation is a new venture for Brennan, who has worked roles from line cook to manager at his family’s restaurants, which include Red Fish Grill, Ralph’s on the Park, Napoleon House and Café NOMA in addition to Brennan’s.
He was a key part of starting the restaurant group’s own commissary bakery; he and bakery manager Drew Pope started the company’s king cake production, a pandemic pivot that has become a major part of the operation. Those king cakes will have another outlet in Algiers this season at Congregation’s cafe.
Congregation once operated a second cafe in downtown New Orleans, at 644 Camp St. This closed during the pandemic and is not part of Brennan's new start for the brand.
Congregation Coffee
240 Pelican Ave., (504) 265-0194
Projected opening November 2023
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October 25, 2023 at 08:00PM
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Congregation Coffee roaster, cafe to return with new owner from Brennan restaurant family - NOLA.com
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