Local Flavor: Winging It at the Candlelight Inn

Some places are born to wing it.

It’s more than just an item for restaurant menus, of course. It’s a philosophy and a lifestyle that finds expression in not just the spicy, buttery sauce that naps the neat little morsels of poultry, but in the atmosphere in which they’re munched, the staff that serves them and the cooks who whip them up.

has it all.

“We just let it be here,” John Tracy, Jr., told Scarsdale Patch. “We have three generations of waitresses working here—a grandmother, mother and daughter—and three generations eating here. Since my dad, also John, took the place over in 1955, we’ve gone through many evolutions, and most of them have been caused by us reacting to what the customer wants. The most popular items on the menu have appeared there because of a request or because of a weird accident in the kitchen.”

Auspicious mishaps are par for the course with wings.

When the wing first landed on the Candlelight Inn’s menu, the restaurant was in the midst of one of its periodic makeovers.

“We had retired my mom to Florida and the drinking age had gone up again,” Mr. Tracy said. “The bar was no longer just a drinking place, it had become a place for families to go to grab a wholesome meal at an affordable price and we were re-jigging the menu, but we wanted straightforward options for people.”

In other words, nothing trendy.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, Phyllis Tracy had done much of the restaurant’s cooking from home, Mr. Tracy said.

“Mom would watch me and my three brothers and cook at the same time,” he explained. “Around 8:00 p.m. or so, she’d load us into the car with roast beef and whatever else she'd made and we’d shuttle over to the bar.”

“We’d always fight over who was going to drop it off. At 6, 7 years old it was no picnic walking through the smoky bar area—some of our patrons were real characters back then, so you can imagine the comments little kids got walking back to the kitchen with big hunks of roast meats. Whoever drew the short straw would get stuck with it.”

Mr. Tracy was the second eldest boy, and despite his reluctance to haul joints of beef through the rowdy crew clamoring at the front of the Candlelight Inn, the place became an extension of his home. His father would bring him to work frequently, and he spent many happy days tinkering around in the crawl space, washing glasses, sweeping, fielding ridiculous questions from regulars and thriving on the roller coaster of controlled chaos that fuels every family-run small business.

Candlelight offers soulful All-American food, a departure from the simple sandwiches, hot dogs and burgers fried in a pan it offered in its initial days.

The menu evolved with Tracy’s help. Though he has always had his hands in stockpots, he refuses to call himself a chef.

“A chef?” he asked. “No, not here. Chefs are those guys in the big white hats who stand around and don’t do much. Cooks get things done. I’m a cook.”

Mr. Tracy and another Candlelight cook were hanging out after hours tossing around ideas for fleshing out the homey offerings, when the cook presented Mr. Tracy with his take on wings.

“They were ... disgusting. He made a lot of good things, but those wings?” Mr. Tracy said. “Not something I wanted to eat ever again.

Tracy went on vacation a week later and had some delicious wings made by his friend’s wife. He asked her for the recipe, started tinkering with and added the item to Candlelight’s menu.

That was in the early 1980’s. Two decades later, wings are a staple at the Candelight Inn—so much so that the restaurant even served 8,000 pounds of wings on Superbowl Sunday.

Clearly, Scarsdale has a voracious appetite for them. They come in mild, medium, hot, Chernobyl, teriyaki, BBQ and now, scampi—a recipe that came about after Tracy accidentally dropped some wings in the sauce.

But there are also excellent nachos, poppers, sandwiches (yes, the roast beef is still available, but mom doesn’t make it anymore), salads, grilled items and seasonal specials. All of the fare comes in hearty, and shockingly reasonably priced portions. Very little on the menu is more than $12.00 and much of it hovers around $8.00.

And while food is the star, the Candlelight Inn is still a drinks destination. Another Tracy brother, Mike, runs the bar and front house; John Jr. operates the kitchen and handles some administrative duties; and their father, John Sr., still manages whatever paperwork John Jr. doesn’t have time to get to.

While the vibe at the Candlelight Inn is casual, behind the scenes the restaurant is run with military precision.

“My dad and I are both former Marines,” John Tracy, Jr. said. “We’re no nonsense, but we know how to kick back and have fun.”

Sounds like a perfect recipe for success.

The Candlelight Inn is located at 519 Central Park Ave. It is open seven days a week, 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 a.m. Monday – Saturday and 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m. on Sundays. (If you show up at 11:00 a.m. on a Sunday desperately craving wings, Mr. Tracy will probably let you in). The kitchen closes at 3:00 a.m. Call 914-472-9706 for more information.