About

Joy Pierson and Bart Potenza are the husband-and-wife owners of New York City-based Candle Café, Candle 79 and Candle Café West. Potenza has 30 years of experience in New York’s health-focused food industry, and he met Pierson, a nutritionist, when she was a daily customer at his former 500-square-foot New York restaurant. When Pierson’s health dramatically changed for the better once she began eating Potenza’s food, it was only a matter of time until their small empire took form. “People love the quality [of our food] and the flavor profiles,” Pierson explains. “It’s organic; it’s picked within 24 hours; we’ve got great farmers we’ve been working with for a long time. People know good food.”