Popovers and Candlelight: Patricia Murphy and the Rise and Fall of a Restaurant Empire

by Marcia Biederman

What would you do with your last sixty dollars? If you were Patricia Murphy you'd turn it into a fortune by buying a rundown Brooklyn diner. On the cusp of the Great Depression, the diner became an overnight sensation, the first of nine popular Patricia Murphy's Candlelight Restaurants that opened over the course of four decades in New York and Florida. Popovers and Candlelight recounts how Murphy bucked Mad Men -era sexism in a male-dominated field and created remarkable dining experiences with solid American fare, a talented staff, and eye-popping décor. Dripping in diamonds, she transcended ethnic prejudices to become a socialite and built a brand that sold fragrance as well as food. Mutinous siblings, a desperate manager, and a typhoid outbreak brought it all to an operatic end, but Marcia Biederman restores Murphy and her contributions to their proper place in women's and culinary history. This book will delight readers with its rags-to-riches story and fascinating view of class, gender, ethnicity, and food culture during much of the twentieth century.

256 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2018

About the author

A mystery-writer-turned-biographer, Marcia Biederman is also a journalist who has contributed more than 150 pieces to The New York Times. Her work has also appeared in New York magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, and the International Herald Tribune.

Reviews

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about Patricia Murphy whose Candlelight Restaurant and its popovers were a favorite place for my family to dine when I was growing up on Long Island. I had known nothing about her life. She was an amazing woman, starting from nothing and attaining deserved reputation as an entrepreneur in a time when women were not known for their business acumen.