Why Not Candle 79?

I am frequently asked for restaurant recommendations from friends and colleagues: some vegan, some not.  My rule of thumb is to offer six options of various cuisine and to always include ice cream as a supplementary suggestion for dessert.  The follow-up question I receive most often is, "Why not Candle 79?"

So, why not Candle 79?

For years, VM and I enjoyed quite the love affair with Candle 79; it was our go-to restaurant for "great food, chill atmosphere, top-notch staff..." and there was no shortage of accolades for them on this blog.  Then, unexpectedly (a month after my last C79 blog post), we had such a horrendous experience that it has kept us from returning.  In fact, it's been years.

I've been accused of being Mean Bean, but the fact of the matter is that I simply call it like I see it.  On this particular occasion, however, the situation was so awful that I chose not to document it publicly.  The problem with that, though, has been that this blog continues to return positive results for Candle 79, when that is definitely not the opinion I'd like to share.  Or at least the whole of it.  I'm sure their food is still delicious and they may even have an entirely different staff by now, but after the feeling that we had that day- so awful that when we left we had to power-walk 20 blocks just to let off steam, neither of us has any intention of ever stepping foot back into the restaurant.

So, instead of removing my previous posts about Candle 79, in an effort to better illustrate the whole picture I will simply add the letter that I sent to management the day following our visit.  In response, we received an apology and an offer to return as their guest at a pre-arranged time.  We declined.

To Whom It May Concern:

I have been a loyal customer of Candle 79 since 2005 and have always felt that the food, service, and atmosphere epitomizes fine, vegan dining in New York. Unfortunately, my experience this weekend was so utterly abysmal that I believe it has served to negate all previous, positive meals. Since the manager was not at all concerned with our disappointment, I thought perhaps this might reach an interested party.

We arrived at 3:15 for a 3:30 brunch reservation; the first floor was less than half full, but the hostess accommodated our request for a table by the window and sat us upstairs. Once our waiter took our order, he informed us that he would be leaving his shift for the day and bid us a good weekend.

Contrary to a typical visit, we did not receive an amuse bouche. We were barely into our appetizer when two employees came upstairs, cleared the settings off of the table next to us, and pushed it up against ours, explaining “Your second course is ready”. And so it was, entrees and sides delivered much too soon: hastily deposited onto an awkwardly adjacent table, cooling as we finished our appetizers. No one returned to remove our plates, so we swapped the course’s dishes ourselves and pushed the table back so that we did not eat our meal next to dirty plates.

Not only didn’t anyone come upstairs to remove the dishes, no one bothered to so much as ascend the steps throughout the duration of our meal. We were neither offered a second glass of wine or libation, nor did anyone ever check in on us in any way. In fact, when I needed extra sauce I actually had to walk downstairs myself in order to speak to a busboy.

When we were almost through with our brunch, a waitress wordlessly approached our table and removed one of the empty plates. I requested more water and her response was only, “Mmm Hmm”. Once she was gone, a waiter came upstairs, stood at the archway to survey ours and the other occupied table in the room and sighed, “There’s still f---ing people here? I hate this f---ing s--t." When I looked directly at him, he grinned.

Once the check was brought to the table, the waitress and this man positioned themselves so that they stood side by side staring intently at the remaining tables of diners; I actually had to excuse myself in order to pass them on my way to the restroom. Then, as I waited at the table for my dining companion to return from the restroom, the waitress returned to the table, pointed at the bill and asked pointedly, “Is this done?”

As we descended the stairs to leave, a woman stood at the base of the steps watching us and muttered to the waitress, “Well, here they come”, as though we were invisible, hard-of-hearing, or both; imagine our surprise when we asked to speak to the manager and learned that it was her. I suppose that with this kind of example, it’s no wonder that the class level exhibited by your staff on this day was so severely lacking. When we explained to her the deplorable service we had received- including, most appallingly, the language exhibited by the waiter, her only response was, “Thank you for your opinion.”

I’ll say here what the manager was not at all interested in hearing. If you choose to close your restaurant at 4pm, that is fine. But do not say that you stop serving at four, allow diners to begin their meal almost an hour earlier, and then attempt to rush them out. In a restaurant of Candle 79’s caliber, it is not unusual for a three-course brunch and drinks to be enjoyed over the course of an hour and a half. In fact, one would think that you would prefer for people to enjoy themselves at leisure while they continue to order drinks and courses.

As I stated earlier, this is not the experience I equate with Candle 79. And, I hope that you will have more than gratitude for my “opinion”.

With disappointment,
Abigail Bean