"You can try to be one thing all day long, but they dictated that we’re a family restaurant."Ĭandlelite's focus on families and the surrounding Rogers Park community extends to its iconic sign, bearing a marquee on which Fowler and Vernon frequently place messages that celebrate all sorts of achievements. "I’m a believer in your customers dictating who you are," Fowler says. The pair have expanded the restaurant's dining room and added some items to the menu, but they haven't felt the need to make any major changes to Candlelite. Photograph: Courtesy Candleliteįowler was working in the financial industry up until the collapse of 20, subsequently taking a job at Candlelite "to figure out whatever I was going to do next." But Fowler fell in love with the hospitality business, working as delivery guy, server, bartender and general manager of the Rogers Park spot before eventually purchasing the business in 2012 with his partner Pete Vernon. Fowler remembers the Candlelite of his childhood as "a family place where the kids could get pizza and the parents could get beer at this dark, dingy bar that just happened to have good pizza." Under his ownership, he's adapted to the changing Rogers Park neighborhood, positioning the restaurant as a family-friendly pizzeria that just happens to have good beer. It's the same type of pizza that Fowler fondly recalls eating with his family at Candlelite, while growing up in Rogers Park and nearby Evanston in the ’80s and ’90s. And while Candlelite has evolved from a neighborhood dive bar to a family restaurant, it's still eschewing the often-controversial deep dish pizza in favor of serving tavern-style pizza. With a cracker-thin crust that's cut into squares for easier snacking, this type of pizza was ostensibly designed to keep patrons sitting at a bar for longer periods of time, where they'd inevitably order more drinks (and maybe another pizza). "At the time, there weren't many places to go out and eat, so it was a big deal to go out to dinner in the ’50s."Īt some point between its opening and the dawn of the 21st century, Candlelite transitioned from a dimly lit spot where couples shared a pie to a dingy bar that served tavern-style pizza. "It was more of a date night spot originally," Fowler says, explaining Candlelite's romantic name.
According to current owner Pat Fowler, Candlelite was founded by an Italian immigrant who moved to Chicago and wanted to start serving pizza in Rogers Park-a neighborhood where there weren't many restaurants at the time. There's a marquee on the sign-likely bearing a congratulatory message for someone who has recent celebrated a birthday, gotten married or graduated-accompanied by a twinkling neon martini glass and a glowing set of letters that announce the building's tenant for the past 70 years: Candlelite.Įstablished in 1950, the history of Candlelite is shrouded in a lot of mystery and hearsay, thanks to a succession of owners throughout the decades (the business has changed hands at least six times). Head north on Western and just before you hit Chicago's northern city limits at Howard Street, you'll spot a large sign sporting an arrow covered in flashing bulb that's pointed at the nondescript building its attached to.
Nowadays, a mix of regulars and random patrons fill the seats inside the hole-in-the-wall dive bar, all stopping in for good eats, cheap drinks, and a laid-back atmosphere that the Candlelight Tavern has to offer.Western Avenue is one of Chicago's longest streets, a 24-mile conduit that takes you all the way from Beverly on the far South Side to Rogers Park on the far North Side, passing through neighborhoods like Marquette Park, Little Village, Logan Square and Lincoln Square along the way. The current owners have been operating the joint for the past 25 years, and have done a great job of making the place somewhere people actually want to be. When it first opened, the Wash Park establishment had a somewhat seedy reputation, but that's since been repaired over the years.
#CANDLELIGHT TAVERN TV#
Yep - that's it.Īpparently, Stephin King wasn't satisfied with Stanley Kubrick's version of the story, which is why he developed the TV series.
According to Denver Westword, the inconspicuous tavern made an appearance in a 1997 television adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining. In a scene during one of the episodes in the miniseries, the main character walks outside the Candlelight and then peers back into the bar's window.
#CANDLELIGHT TAVERN SERIES#
A little-known fact is that Colorado's Candlelight Tavern was briefly featured in a TV series back in the 90s.
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