#92 - Eat Late-Night At Candlelight Diner

It's 3 a.m. on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. Olio is closed. The lights at IHOP have been out for hours. Jericho Turnpike is an empty strip of pavement dotted with red, yellow, and green lights. And you're starving. If this is a scenario you ever find yourself in, get out of the drive-thru line and set your GPS for 56 Veterans Memorial Highway. As long as it's not the Apocalypse—and they'd probably be open then, too—a table at is waiting.

The menu at Candlelight Diner has all the quintessential diner staples and more, covering breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and any other meal combination in between. In the wee hours of the night, the Diner feature a late-night menu, not because the full monte isn't available—if you want a ham-and-cheese omelet at 1:30 a.m., you'll get a ham-and-cheese omelet at 1:30 a.m.—but because the staff has a good idea what its nocturnal patrons are hungry for. Mozzarella sticks? On the list. Chicken fingers? On the list. Buffalo chicken wrap? On the list (extra ranch, please).

And if you do want an omelet, it might be a good idea to grab it then, because if you try to come back on a weekend morning, you'll be battling for a table with hundreds of other Commack residents, but it's a fight worth enduring.

Lunch at the Diner is a smorgasbord of sandwiches both hot and cold, along with different hamburgers and even a respectable turkey burger. French fries come out hot and ready to be devoured; sweet potato fries are an excellent alternative.

The sit-down bar offers the iconic diner experience, with stools and a TV to watch the news or see a New York sports team in action. Even standing in the entry way waiting for a table isn't a bad place to be, as it offers a view of the dessert case.

Candlelight Diner is located right on Vets Highway, on the edge of the  shopping center. Their hours are, like any self-respecting diner should be, 24/7.

A solid diner is on the shortlist of things necessary to make a town great. Commack has just that in Candlelight Diner. And if you haven't experienced it for yourself, you can literally do it any time you want.

Category: Food
Price: $
Season: Year-Round

Stay tuned for #91 next week, same time same place. And  if you missed #93.