I picked up my first Candlelite pizza on Monday. I like thin and crunchy, this was more thin and chewy, but it was certainly tasty. I was a little turned off buy the cost - $18.32 for a large, two topping.

I'll toss my hat in the ring with a reccomendation for La Rosa's, on Golf just west of Crawford. Not sure if that's Evanston or Skokie. It's a few bucks less expensive, and they've got a big old brick oven many decades old. If you live in North Evanston or Skokie, give this place a shot for thin and cruncy 'za.

stevez wrote:Rob,

I had somehow forgotten about the thin pizza-athon. I'll get to work organizing it right away. I'll try ot get something poisted today or tomorrow. I've got to do a little research into the hours of some of the places on the list so that we can come up with a workable plan.

Whenever you decide to get back on the job, Steve, I hope that you will give this consideration in the line-up.

Erik M.

Erik M. wrote:

stevez wrote:
Whenever you decide to get back on the job, Steve, I hope that you will give this consideration in the line-up.

Erik M.

My Eyes, My Eyes! What have you done!!!

Stevez et al:

Check this out: this*. The claim is bold but the image soothing after the double-melt nastiness.


A


*this=homepage for Totonno's website. By the way, my relatives in Italy call me 'Totonno' but I am not affiliated with the pizzeria mentioned here.

Ellen and I had the pleasure of MAG, TPA and Thor's company at the Candlelite last evening.

Pizza and garlic fries were right on the money and Thor seems to be enjoying himself.



Enjoy,
Gary

.....I live close by, so I picked it up and we ate at home. (No delivery service is available at present). We had a sausage & mushroom, and it was awfully good - sauce not overly sweet, lots of shrooms, a really good full-flavored non-greasy sausage, and not too much cheese. One drawback - it was a bit expensive, though, especially considering that there was no delivery charge. With tax, the large, which wasn't very large (14", maybe? The box is in the trash already) was a whopping $18 bucks and change, not counting tip. Yikes! Most of the 'za up here is pretty bad, though, so I'll get it again, no doubt.
I'd rather pay more than suffer through another bad pie.

LOL - I'll keep that in mind, Cathy. Trouble is that my customary dining companion lives at 500 S. Clinton, so it's not easy getting him up here during the week, unless it's to downtown Evanston, so he can just take the Metra home and hoof it from the Madison St. station. But he really liked it, too, and he's pretty easy-going, so maybe we can figure out something workable. He does love leftover pizza...

Thanks!

sundevilpeg wrote: (No delivery service is available at present).

Not true. CandleLite uses a third party company called "Speedy Delivery" (which is somewhat of a misnomer) - "Speedy" also handles delivery for Evanston Chicken Shack - typically they tack on about $5.00 for delivery.

I've had them deliver from CandleLite three or four times, and each time the pizza arrived cold, and twice they screwed up the order.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for "Speedy", I know - your experience may vary.

Speedy Delivery
(847) 328-9106

One drawback - it was a bit expensive, though, especially considering that there was no delivery charge. With tax, the large, which wasn't very large (14", maybe? The box is in the trash already) was a whopping $18 bucks and change, not counting tip. Yikes!

I agree--Candlelite definitely charges too much for their pizza. Except on 2- for-1 Tuesdays. The past couple of times I've been there on bargain night, it has been pretty crowded, so go early if you can.

Re Candelite and Speedy Delivery:

"Not true. CandleLite uses a third party company called "Speedy Delivery" (which is somewhat of a misnomer) - "Speedy" also handles delivery for Evanston Chicken Shack - typically they tack on about $5.00 for delivery.
I've had them deliver from CandleLite three or four times, and each time the pizza arrived cold, and twice they screwed up the order.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for "Speedy", I know - your experience may vary.

Speedy Delivery
(847) 328-9106"

According to the bartender at Candlelite, the fellow who took my order, Speedy Delivery ceased operations about two weeks ago; Candlelite is looking for a new service as we speak. If you call the above number, you are automatically forwarded to a voicemail mailbox, which is full.

Doesn't sound like much of a loss, particularly given the cost of the pizza. 23 clams for a 14" 'za, not including tip, is way too much to fork out for a cold pie!

sundevilpeg wrote:According to the bartender at Candlelite, the fellow who took my order, Speedy Delivery ceased operations about two weeks ago; Candlelite is looking for a new service as we speak. If you call the above number, you are automatically forwarded to a voicemail mailbox, which is full.

Doesn't sound like much of a loss, particularly given the cost of the pizza. 23 clams for a 14" 'za, not including tip, is way too much to fork out for a cold pie!

Thanks for the update. I hadn't called them in about three weeks or so. I must say, however, that I was not surprised to hear of their demise after the kind of service that they gave me....

LTH,

I'm somewhat of a minimalist when it comes to pizza, garlic, onion, sausage is my standard pie. Not sure what happened Friday night at the Candlelite, might have been the Scotch, might have been a full moon, who knows, but of the two pizza's we ordered one was the Bringin' The Heat.

A standard Bringin' The Heat is pepperoni, jalapeno and pico de gallo to this we added garlic, sausage and onion, maybe it was the Scotch. We also asked for the pizza's to be well done/crisp crust, to which our very nice waitress smiled knowingly, seems the register even has a special function key to designate well done/crisp crust.

I'm here to tell you that was one good pizza, the jalepeons were fresh, thin sliced on the round just thick enough to retain a bit of structural integrity after a turn in the oven, and the crust was nicely crisp even with an overload of ingredients. The Heat pizza was demolished well before we gave consideration to our 'standard' pizza.

We got a little carried away, image that , and ordered another Bringin' The Heat, this time with double jalapeno, but even with Candlelite's thin crust 4 adults can not eat 3 large pizzas. This should probably go in the strange breakfast thread, but I had cold slices for breakfast the next morning.

To my taste the pico de gallo did not contribute greatly to the mix, and I can take or leave pepperoni, next time out I'll simply add fresh jalapeno to my standard sausage, garlic and onion. As an aside, I've had pickled japapeno, peperoncini, and many varieties of hot peppers on pizza before, just never fresh sliced japapenos. Fresh seems to suit my taste more than pickled.

Enjoy,
Gary

Candlelite Chicago
7452 North Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60645
773-465-0087

G Wiv wrote:To my taste the pico de gallo did not contribute greatly to the mix, and I can take or leave pepperoni, next time out I'll simply add fresh jalapeno to my standard sausage, garlic and onion. As an aside, I've had pickled japapeno, peperoncini, and many varieties of hot peppers on pizza before, just never fresh sliced japapenos. Fresh seems to suit my taste more than pickled.

When I'm not in the mood for meat, I normally go for mushroom, onion, green pepper. A little while ago at candlelite, a voice in my head said "jalapeno" just before i was going to say the word "green pepper". I'm glad I did. Something about the fresh slices of chile go great on candlelite's crispy crust. It's my new favorite topping.

Best,
Michael / EC

eatchicago wrote:A little while ago at candlelite, a voice in my head said "jalapeno" just before i was going to say the word "green pepper". I'm glad I did. Something about the fresh slices of chile go great on candlelite's crispy crust. It's my new favorite topping.

Best,
Michael / EC

Agreed re: Jalapeños @ Candlelite. Try them paired with Bacon sometime. That's my Candlelite standard.

Stopped in at Candlelite Friday night. The garlic fries were outstanding with the requisite red wine vinegar splash. The pie (sausage, onion, fresh basil) was decent, though not spectactular.

The star of the night was the chocolate chip cookie sunday. I figured it would be some hot fudge concoction with vanilla ice cream with a few chocolate chip cookies crumbled over it.

Instead, think fresh baked chocolate chip cookies from the oven. They took a small cast iron skillet and covered the bottom with cookie dough and baked a fresh cookie in the bottom. When it came out, they topped it with three scoops of vanilla and whip cream with a cherry on top. The cookie was tollhouse gooey good with about 100 chocolate chips per square inch.

And I was just at candlelite saturday. Pizza very tasty and yes the garlic fries were fabulous! I'd love to know what garlic "essence" they used, as there's a lot of tang in there that isn't present in regular garlic.

Hi,

I believe the 'tang' comes from a sprinkle of red wine vinegar. Unfortunately, the one time I ordered fries there the shot of red wine vinegar was missing in action.

Regards,

Every time I've been there there's been a liberal dose of red wine vinegar and a lot of fresh garlic. Absolutely wonderful fries.

-ed

G Wiv wrote:To my taste the pico de gallo did not contribute greatly to the mix, and I can take or leave pepperoni, next time out I'll simply add fresh jalapeno to my standard sausage, garlic and onion.

And that's exactly what I did.

Jalapeno, sausage, onion, garlic, make it well done please.


There were 5 of us so we also split a Tree hugger (mushroom, roasted veggies and baby spinach), w/sausage.


And a Fungus Among Us. (Wild mushroom & sausage).

Fungus in middle.


We asked for all three well done and rounded out the meal with a bottle of Argentinean cabernet. General consensus was these were some of the best pizzas any of us ever had the pleasure of eating.

Enjoy,
Gary

Found these elsewhere online:
3 p.m.-2 a.m. Sunday-Friday; 3 p.m.-3 a.m. Saturday

Does the kitchen close earlier than that? Is it 2 for 1 the entire night on Tuesdays?

I'm considering 2 for 1 pizza after 2 for 1 Sox tickets tomorrow...

Don't think I've mentioned it before, but one of the things I like best about Candlelite (other than the pizza, the garlic fries, and the cool neon sign) is the service. Every time we've gone, we've had a great waitress, as in anticipating what we need before we even ask, and timing the arrival of everything perfectly, in addition to being sweet as sugar. Makes going there twice as nice.

I realize some of the "most interested" on this site recommend Candlelite, but Mr. Food Nut and I visited, but I found it disappointing enough "never" to return. I liked the crust, but that's the only thing interesting about this pizza. I'm a purist in the fact that I like a sausage pizza, thin crust. The cheese on the Candlelite pizza was gummy, flavorless, as was the sausage.

The pinot by the glass impatable.

The tonic fizzless....and removed from the check.

I told Mr. Food Nut, I see the direction of this "Lincoln Park" wannabee,,,

Food Nut wrote:I told Mr. Food Nut, I see the direction of this "Lincoln Park" wannabee,,,

OK. I'll take the bait here. What exactly does this sentence mean? Is the implication that you believe that Candlelite will either close up shop due to inadequate product or move to Lincoln Park?

Personally, I doubt either would happen considering Candlelite has been in that spot for nearly 75 years and serving the same pizza for at least 30 of those years. It was a few short years ago that the owners closed the doors and a group of regulars re-opened them, remodeling and expanding the interior but keeping the pizza pretty much the same. I was glad to see the remodeling since it really allows a non-smoker to come in and enjoy a leisurely pizza with friends.

The bar at Candlelite has never been one of my favorite features of theirs. The beer selection doesn't quite work for me and I usually go with a glass of Big House Red to go with my mushroom, onion, jalapeno (extra crispy).

I'm sorry you didn't like their pizza, it's one of my favorites (As they say: different strokes....)

Best,
Michael / EC

eatchicago wrote:OK. I'll take the bait here. What exactly does this sentence mean?

Michael,

I'm not quite sure either, but, no matter, not even the best of restaurants appeal to everyone. As I've said more than a few times, that's why Baskin Robbins makes 31-flavors of ice cream.

In my opinion Candlelite's pizza is one of the top 3 thin crusts pizzas in Chicago. Pretty much everyone I know who's tried it wants to go back, and soon.

Food Nut, either you caught them on an off night, doubtful, or you just don't like their particular pizza. Lucky for you Chicago has a heck of a lot more than 31 pizza parlors.

Enjoy,
Gary

I guess it was the atmosphere I was questioning. The new owners, though I don't know for sure, have created a cookie cutter version of many other bars available in the near/north area.

All I'm saying is it's nice to have the cheesy atmosphere along with a great pizza, not to mention a decent drink. I can get this at Marie's, use my Entertainment Book coupon, appreciate the service and the care taken in cooking the pizza(the Candlelite pizza was severely undercooked in my opinion). The product they offer shouldn't have to be doctored or corrected to be good.

This is coming from someone who was raised on Vito & Nick's, so...I really like the atmosphere there, too. It's not trying to be something other than what it is: a bar that serves a darn good pizza. In other words, it's not the "hip" place to visit. It's a better deal with good food and an interesting atmosphere.

Enough people like Candlelite to keep it going.....just one dissenting opinion.

Loading up a pizza with many different ingredients isn't really my style either, so if that's what is good at Candlelite, I wouldn't really like it in the first place.

Overall, we were both disappointed with the undercooked, flavorless(sauce and sausage) product. Plus, the cheese was gummy. I felt it was not a quality mozzarella or was not mozz at all, but I don't know what they put on it.

I wanted to like it, that's why I went. Perhaps it's in the top three of north side thin crusts, but on the south side I feel there are numerous places that beat the overall experience of Candlelite.

I'm not trying to start a war here(as the pizza discussion often does), I will say an off night might be the answer. The beer product suggested to Mr. Food Nut also was unavailable because they hadn't change the tap before opening.

It was an off night for sure.

I count myself in the Candelite likers camp, however I will say that ordering the pizza well done and crispy is necessary to avoid undercooked cheese. It's a standard part of my order, regardless of the toppings.

When ARE we doing the thin-crust-athon

If you build it, they will come.

If you guys DARE do a Chicago thin crust sausage pizza-thon without me, I'm...I'm...I'm...gonna be VERY bummed. Here in SoCal good pizza can be found but it ain't easy, and like Mr Food Nut, I'm a sausage guy...nothing else. I finally got to sample Vito & Nick's last Christmas, but there are a lot of places I'd like to try, and I could suggest more than a few as well (mainly western 'burbs).

Hmm, thinking I may be visiting Chicago for 10 days in early-mid August...

FWIW,

count me (and the wife) in on the not wowed by candlelite crowd, While I wanted to like it quite a bit (I enjoy watching sports while visiting the urinal) I found it really really bland, nothing to compare with say, vito&nicks or even caponie's

You may want to take this, however, with a grain of salt