Candle, the vegan restaurant that helped invent upscale plant-based dining in New York City decades ago, is closing again. Chef Jorge Pineda says the Kips Bay spot at 388 Third Avenue will shut down at the end of September, just three years after he and fellow chef Angel Ramos brought the beloved name back from the dead.
Pineda, who has devoted nearly three decades to the Candle brand, announced the closure on Instagram in August, citing a difficult economic climate and mounting debts, as reported by VegNews. He told the outlet that food, gas, and employee costs have all become very expensive, and that he does not have private investors to help absorb the losses. September, he said, will be Candle's last month because the restaurant simply cannot afford to keep going.
The remarks carry extra weight given what Pineda has already been through. Candle Cafe West closed in 2019 due to unresolved building safety issues, while the original Candle Cafe East shut down in 2020 after its building was sold out from under it. Candle 79, the Upper East Side flagship that Joy Pierson and Bart Potenza opened in 2003, also closed because of real estate developments that year. Pineda and Ramos revived the concept in March 2023 at the Third Avenue location in Kips Bay, according to the Observer, bringing back signature dishes like seitan piccata, chimichurri skewers, and polenta fries alongside other beloved items such as seitan chimichurris and raw lasagna.
A Name Born From a Health Food Store on the Upper East Side
The Candle name dates back to 1984, when Potenza bought a health food store called Sunny's on the Upper East Side and renamed it The Healthy Candle, honoring the previous owners' nightly ritual of lighting candles to bless the shop, according to New York Lifestyles Magazine. Potenza later partnered with nutritionist Joy Pierson, and the pair opened the original Candle Cafe in 1994, later expanding with Candle Cafe West in 2012. Per VegNews, Pierson and Potenza used more than $50,000 in New York lottery winnings from the early 1990s to help open that first Candle Cafe on Third Avenue.
Candle's ambitions went well beyond the menu. The original Candle Cafe was the first restaurant in New York City to earn certification as a Green Restaurant from the Green Restaurant Association, adopting eco-friendly equipment and commercial organic composting long before sustainability became a dining-industry buzzword, per New York Lifestyles Magazine. Candle 79 went on to become an internationally known destination, twice rated Zagat's number one vegetarian restaurant in New York City and named by PETA in 2015 as one of the six best vegan fine-dining restaurants in the country, according to Responsible Eating And Living. Its dining room drew celebrity regulars including Woody Harrelson, Paul McCartney, and Alicia Silverstone, with Harrelson calling it one of the best vegan restaurants he'd ever visited in a 2024 interview with Forbes.
The team's influence extended into home kitchens, too. Pierson, Potenza, Ramos, and Pineda co-authored three cookbooks over two decades — The Candle Cafe Cookbook in 2003, the Candle 79 Cookbook in 2011, and Vegan Holiday Cooking from Candle Cafe in 2014 — which helped popularize gourmet plant-based recipes for a national audience, according to the Sierra Club. In May 2023, the revived Candle also obtained official Kosher certification under International Kosher Council supervision, a move aimed at reaching Manhattan's sizeable kosher-observant dining community.
A Personal Toll and a Citywide Pattern
For Pineda, the closure is not just a business setback. He told VegNews that times are hard, especially for a Latino restaurateur, even as he said he hopes to see customers again soon. Candle is now the last remaining restaurant operating under the Candle name, and per VegNews, its return offered what amounted to a star-studded menu combining beloved dishes from across the chain's history.
Candle's struggles echo a broader retreat of legacy plant-based institutions across Manhattan. Blossom on Columbus Avenue closed in August 2024 after 19 years in business, and Peacefood's downtown location closed in mid-2026, according to West Side Rag. Industry analysis has pointed to a deeper market shift behind these closures: as plant-based options have become widely available at conventional restaurants, dedicated vegan spots have lost their exclusive appeal, even as the core self-identified vegan population has stayed around just 1% nationwide, per 2023 Gallup data cited in a 2025 report from The Main Dish.
A Farewell Planned Before the Doors Close
Community groups are moving to mark the end before it arrives. Plant Powered Metro New York and the NYC Vegetarian and Vegan Meetup have scheduled a legacy farewell celebration this September in Kips Bay to honor Pineda, Ramos, and Candle's history, according to a Meetup listing for the event. For longtime patrons, it's a chance to say goodbye to a restaurant that helped define what upscale vegan dining could look like in New York, before its final plates go out the door at the end of September.
