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« Go ahead and open it | Main | In fear of faux pas » Tuesday, October 17, 2006Letting in a little light
In the last decade or so, votive candles, those little flickers of flame in cute glass holders, have taken over the restaurant table. There's almost no place without them -- cozy neighborhood to fancy steakhouse. Cheap to buy, short enough not to get in the way of people talking, and cute; they seem the perfect solution. But to those of us who walked in Catholic church processionals carrying votives, they invoke mixed emotions. For one thing, I associate them with Gregorian chants and long lines of little girls in white, not with steak frites or tuna tartare. Then there's a memory of the girl in front of me in one long-ago ceremony getting the flame too close to her tulle veil. Her uncle vaulted over the back pew, and put the blaze out before she was injured. That was the last time we ever carried live flames. And to tell the truth, it's been a close call at restaurants when the servers move the votive candles around to find room for a dish, practically shoving them off the table. Or someone leans over to pour wine and nearly flambees his or her sleeve. So I've been happy to notice that these flameless votives (these are from Ambria) seem to be catching on. It seems a good way to light up the night without burning it to ashes. Posted by Alison Arnett at 05:15 PM
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