Step into the playfully nostalgic restaurant Void in Chicago, and you might assume it’s been around for much longer than a year, thanks in part to the vintage art that plasters nearly every inch of wall space. Or maybe it’s the timeless, dancing glow emanating from the votive candles on every table and the nine formidable taper candles positioned in Chianti bottles on the bar.
“We always had that image of creating a space that felt lived in, pulling from that classic Italian American aesthetic,” said Dani Kaplan, a chef and an owner of the restaurant. “In our minds, that always included the wrapped Chianti bottles with melted wax and tapered candles.”
In a romantic return to form that calls to mind the resurgence of vinyl records, restaurants and bars are trading the cold glare of LED lamps for the warm flicker — and high maintenance — of candlelight. A mix of votive candles and beeswax tapers in pewter holders set a cozy mood at the Manhattan wine bar Lei, which opened in June. At Ulysses’ Folk House in Manhattan, 60 votive candles cast their quivering light each night to mimic the atmosphere of a traditional Irish pub. At Cento Raw Bar, a chic new seafood spot in Los Angeles, 30 smokeless tapers cast a sultry luster over the cavernous, white-plaster interior.
During dinner service at Cento, one employee is tasked with tending to those candles, scraping wax off the tables and swapping candles out so none burn out halfway through dinner. Though “definitely high maintenance, the candles add that extra glow that makes the room, the seafood and honestly everyone in it look a little sexier,” said Avner Levi, the chef and a partner at Cento.
As part of a menu and design overhaul this spring, the Los Angeles bistro Pasjoli removed four hulking chandeliers that had lit the restaurant since it opened in 2019, and the remaining lights were dimmed and covered with filters. The team then tucked tea lights into the crevices of the aging, exposed-brick walls and grouped pillar and tapered candles on the bar and a wine service cart.
“The best lightbulb still can’t emulate a candle,” said Jeremy Overby, the service director there. “It’s not alive, but there’s life to it.” As a restaurant where guests are encouraged to share plates, however, they keep candles off the dining room tables, lest a menu or sleeve catch on fire.
At Void in Chicago, nothing “untoward” has caught fire yet, said Pat Ray, an owner and the general manager. The restaurant goes through at least a dozen foot-long tapers a night — and even more when the ceiling fans go full tilt during the summer. To achieve their drippy appearance, Mr. Ray places a fresh taper on top of each spent stump.
What surprised him most about embracing candlelight, he said, is how frequently he must change the restaurant’s air filters, up to twice a week. “It’s definitely worth the extra work; people love them,” he said. “If someone laughs a candle out at the table, it’s a nice extra touch to come over and relight it.”
As time goes on — and as drinks flow — the chance of small apparel fires in candlelit spaces seems to climb. Since Ulysses’ transitioned from rechargeable lights to real tea lights about 15 years ago, a couple of sleeve and hair fires have occurred annually. “We go through roughly 450 candles a week,” said Faith O’Gorman, the marketing and business development director of Harry’s Restaurant Group, which owns Ulysses’. “They are everywhere.”
That adds up to about $150 a week, along with the occasional cost of replacing a singed clothing item. Recently, the bar footed the $1,500 bill for an in-season Burberry jacket that had sustained a candle burn, Ms. O’Gorman said. “It’s never a Zara T-shirt, is it?”
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