ARLINGTON -- After Alan Petsche bought the old Candlelite Inn restaurant on Division Street in Arlington at auction last year, he knew he'd use the property for parking for events at Cowboys Stadium a few blocks to the north.
Lacking restaurant experience, he wasn't ready to commit to reopening the once-popular eatery. But his wife, Bonnie, forced the issue by telling him that she didn't want to be married to the guy who tore down the Candlelite Inn.More than 15 months later, work is well under way for the restaurant to reopen in the spring. Diners who once loved the Candlelite Inn will fall in love with it all over again, Petsche said. The name will remain and the same eclectic menu of Tex-Mex, steak and Italian dishes will be used, he said."Customers will walk in and say, 'Here's my old Candlelite Inn,'" Petsche said.Petsche, 55, an Arlington native who now lives in Fort Worth, paid $407,000 for the 3,500-square-foot building on nearly an acre. He is spending about $1 million more to rebuild it.And rebuilding he is. The 55-year-old white building now has no roof, no kitchen, no interior walls, no restrooms and nowhere to sit.The structure was gutted to the concrete block walls and the slab. Rebuilding will bring the property up to code. For example, the wood door and stained-glass windows at the entrance are being kept, but a vestibule will go up around it, an energy code requirement.Petsche said he could have simply scraped out the old and put in new things, but that would have been a Band-Aid.Instead, he's expanding by 2,000 square feet and installing a new kitchen and restrooms and all-new plumbing, electrical, and heating and air-conditioning systems.But fans of the old Candlelite Inn shouldn't fret. When crews tore out the interior, they saved as many fixtures and furnishings as they could, and all will go back in, cleaned and refurbished, he said."I can't let somebody tear this place down," said Petsche, co-owner of the Aaron Ave. Records label. "It's a link to old Arlington. We're using everything we absolutely can."The restaurant, at 1204 E. Division St., was started in 1957 in a house by Robert Keith and his wife, who moved it from Denton. Over the years, the restaurant expanded and the original eatery became the kitchen. The Keiths sold the restaurant in 1993 to Bill Testa and Chris Odell. They had tried the sell the place for three years before deciding to auction the property. The economic downturn took its toll on the business, they said.Brandon Allen, the lead architect working with TMA-CHA Architects in Fort Worth on the project, said that many interior details of the old restaurant are being kept but that a banquet room is being added."The new restaurant will reveal the history of the house and the restaurant," said Allen, also a former Candlelite Inn patron. "I never knew the restaurant was built around a house."Passers-by can still spot the restaurant's iconic neon sign on Division Street, but the restaurant is hidden behind a huge plastic barrier, partly to keep people off the construction site.Greg Hunt with Petsche Commercial Properties said the barrier is also keeping the Candlelite Inn faithful from getting upset about seeing the restaurant torn apart.About this time last year, when Petsche first thought he'd reopen in a few months, a sign was hung at the property that said it would be open in the fall and another said "opening soon."Workers took the signs down because they were defaced. Someone wrote, "Fall's over," Hunt said.Petsche, whose family sold an Arlington-based aircraft parts business a few years ago, will hire a restaurant management team and has said he is rehiring two former Candlelite Inn cooks and several of the old staff."There's not a day that goes by that someone doesn't ask me about the Candlelite Inn," Petsche said. "We get so many people thanking us."Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727Twitter: @SandraBakerFWSTHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
