AlwaysLateNight: The Candlelight Inn (Scarsdale, NY)

Katie Reisert — August 11, 2009

Restaurant: The Candlelight Inn (view map)
Address: 519 Central Park Avenue, Scarsdale NY
AlwaysHungry Grade: A-
AlwaysHungry Recommends: Buffalo Wings, Seasoned Waffle Fries

For more than fifty years, the tiny red house with a green roof on Scarsdale’s hectic Central Ave., has been home to one of Westchester’s most beloved resaurants.
The Candlelight Inn is infamous for a “no reservations” policy and long lines. But don’t let the name fool you, it’s little more than a biker bar with a small dinning room, a full bar and a dozen tables. The maître d’ is a clipboard nailed to the wall.

If you don’t order a basket of the famed wings, you’ve missed the point. They’re moist and meaty inside and are served swimming in sauce, but still have crispy exteriors. Instead of a pile of wings and drumsticks, The Candlelight’s wings remain connected— the joint broken, skin intact, supposedly to seal in moisture. Customers can choose between three sauces: teriyaki, barbecue and buffalo.

 

Buffalo wings at The Candlelight Inn, in Scarsdale, NY.

Barbecue sauce is sweet and mild, but with a tangy quality appropriate for wings. The buffalo sauce varies in intensity of heat. Options include: mild, hot, extra hot or the feared “Chernobyl.” Extra hot, while a delicious balance of flavor and heat, leaves many diners icing their lips. Customers are encouraged to mix the sauces as they please, take the recommended “hotiyaki,” a combination of hot buffalo and teriyaki sauces. It’s a good compromise. The Asian element makes the heat more bearable by delaying its onset, and the heat lends a spicy spin on the traditionally mild sweet and sour sauce.

 

Top, Nachos. Bottom left, beer battered onion rings and waffle fries.

There are other things to order to further enhance this artery-clogging dining experience. Starting off a late night meal with a plate of the meaty, heavily cheese covered Nachos never hurts. And the seasoned waffles fries and beer-battered onion rings are musts. The excess wing sauce and a little blue cheese make for the perfect condiment.

Cash only. Hours: Mon-Sat, 11am-3am; Bar closes at 4am. Sun, Noon-3am. T:(914) 472-5831_