Restaurants Spend More Staffing Candle Duty Than Serving Food

KEY POINTS

•Berenjak's new Los Angeles location and several other eateries replaced fake candles with real wax tapers for atmosphere.
•Tejal Rao of The New York Times noted staff replace candles as often as three times per meal to maintain vibe.
•A restaurant employee revealed the candle care role is a dedicated job, with some places using over 300 candles nightly.

In an astonishing throwback to the 18th century, restaurants like LA's Berenjak and New York's Borgo are reigniting the ancient art of real, literal candles on tables amidst lamb koobideh and saffron rice. Forget convenience: Tejal Rao of The New York Times reports staff swapping candles up to three times per meal, revealing a candle manager job that sounds way more high-stakes than waiter drama. LA eateries can go through 300+ candles nightly, probably single-handedly boosting beeswax sales. Meanwhile, chic places flaunt colored tapers—pink at DC’s La’ Shukran, deep yellow at Borgo—to inject basic wax drama masked as ambience. Also, the air filters are probably screaming. For mere mortals, luxury 12-packs at Amazon for $37.99 or inexpensive sets at Hawkins New York for $8 complete the romantic meltdown. In other words: eating out now requires a Medieval candle servant or serious Amazon cart dedication.