NOTICED: The rise of candlelight; the end of the “it” lamp.
The city is ablaze and magic is afoot.
In dining rooms across the city, candles are being lit. For years restaurants coveted the soft light of the Pina Pro lamp, a tidy LED lamp with a pointed hat, that offered a small ring of lamplight to tables and guests. But the days of the Pina Pro are no more. It’s over, gone with the wind and our country’s sense of sanity. In its place you’ll find the good old fashioned flicker of flames — candle light.
The trend is on display at all manner of restaurants from maximalist showstoppers like Crane Club, where they sit in the center of every table, to halls of modernist cuisine like Ilis, where they light up the room, dripping down in melting waxy clusters like Gaudi sculptures, and at Foul Witch in the East Village, where the dark room is full of candelabras, giving it the feel of a windswept castle on a stormy night.
When you think about it, there is nothing like candlelight. It’s the OG of mood and swoon; a single taper with a flame can transform a room and a night; bewitching and seducing the space and those seated in it.
That’s what happens at Third Falcon, chef Cali Faulkner’s elegant restaurant devoted to the cuisine of Brittany in Ft. Greene, when she turns down all the overheads and strikes a match to the tall tapers she arranges on a circular entryway table next to a vase of flowers and bowls of seasonal fruits and vegetables, like a still life in 3D. It’s a beautiful way to enter a room, with that simple serene setting, like an oil painting in the making. It closes the door on the outside world.
And it’s not just the light that makes a mood. Indeed, candlestick holders give operators an added detail of design to create a vibe to add to the sense of place and evoke memory. Faulkner said she loves the candlelight for the moody romantic vibes, but says the idea to use candles actually came from the candlesticks. “I was in London at a store called Kept that has all these antiques and found items,” she recalled. “I just love them.”
Tapers are not just lighting up tables, they are hung on walls too. At Hildur, owner Emilie Khilstrom lights tapers on two striking wall sconces – one in the bar room and one in the front dining area; the walls glow behind the flame at their tips. “I love how taper candles make a space feel so warm and homey,” she said. “It’s quite common in Sweden in restaurants, especially when spaces are a bit minimalist.”
While they are expensive, she says a few go a long way. “We keep them to a minimum,” she said. “I don’t think you need many to make an impact.” She’s right. Just a handful of candles flickering on the walls makes the room feel intimate, close; let’s the deep lines of the face and the day soften. The effect is to signal something akin to letting go, giving in to the pleasures of the meal and your company.
A single slim taper is on every table at Crane Club, lit by your waiter as you settle in, almost to signify the beginning of the experience, the creation of the cocoon of hospitality and wonder. They set the stage for the night, a marker to all that there is magic afoot.
While LED lamps are safer (and do not require an open flame permit from the fire department as tapers do), for many operators of late, there’s no comparison. “Obviously, LED lamps don’t have ongoing permitting requirements or costs, but they don’t create mood at all,” said owner Jeff Katz.
I couldn’t agree more. This return to candlelight makes sense at this moment, when we are trying to block out the suffering of soaring tariffs, heightened anxieties, and sinking civil liberties. There’s a magic and mystery that comes only from live fire. A veil of candlelight takes the world away. Pull up a chair.
Down with the pina pro!!! Such a personality killer!!
Love.