Brennan’s Restaurant: Haunted Restaurants That Make You Say ‘NOPE’

2. Brennan’s Restaurant | New Orleans, Louisiana

Built in 1795, Brennan’s Restaurant is one of New Orleans most famous restaurants, both for its menu and ghosts.  Chef Paul Blange was known for helping to build Brennan’s menu and inventing choices that are well known around the world today, like bananas Foster.  He was so devoted to what he did, that when he passed in 1977, he was buried with Brennan’s Restaurant menu and a knife and fork across his chest.  But death didn’t stop him from occupying the restaurant.  Chef Blange watches over the kitchen by keeping his eye on the employees, and sometimes reaching out to touch them.  He also bangs pots and pans together at the end of the night, just as the doors are being locked. 

If feeling watched and being touched by something that isn’t there, isn’t enough for you, let’s chat about Herman Funk that dwells in the wine cellar, even though he has also passed.  Mr. Funk was known as a wine master, and makes it very clear that is presence is still around by clinking wine bottles to let staff know which choice would be best for the diner. Although employees could easily ignore Funk’s suggestion, they usually go with his choice to make sure this ghost stays happy (which is probably a good idea since Brennan’s is known for their incredible wine selection).  Wine Spectator magazine named the restaurant as one of the 100 best wine cellars in the world.

Oh, that’s not it, there’s still plenty more ghosts to help make Brennan’s one of the most haunted places in the world.  There have been sightings in the Chanteclair room of an old woman peering through the windows, but it is the Red Room that seems to be the most cryptic.  As one of the original owners continued to feel the grief of financial woes, he felt that his best option to escape the trouble was to murder his wife and child, just before hanging himself in the Red Room.  Of course with such horrific events, the Red Room is now the source of many different hauntings, and the current owner’s don’t make the feeling any easier by keeping portraits up of all three of the previous owners that died in the room.  There are reports of cold spots, portrait facial expressions changing, misty fogs, feelings of being watched/touched, and even the feelings of being hated. 

Want to have dinner now? Nope.