Below is a photo of one of the many dining rooms at Patricia Murphy’s Candlelight restaurant in Manhasset (Long Island) NY. In addition to the candles lit at all of Patricia’s restaurants, even at lunchtime, there was also exquisite electrical lighting. It was designed by Richard Kelly, who later lit Manhattan’s Seagram building and its famed Four Seasons restaurant. Kelly listed his collaborations with Patricia among the top projects on his resume, along with his work at Lincoln Center.
Patricia and the architect of her two suburban New York restaurants, Nathalie Rahv, encouraged Kelly to experiment with dimmers, a novelty at the time, uplights and downlights. Approaching the dining rooms as if they were museums, Kelly artfully drew attention to architectural features, like the towering fireplace in Manhasset, flattered the faces of restaurant patrons, and highlighted floral displays both inside the dining rooms and outside in the gardens. A Yale-trained architect as well as a lighting expert, Kelly had worked in theater. At Patricia Murphy’s Candlelight Restaurants, he set the stage for memorable dining experiences.
So remarkable was the lighting at Patricia’s eateries that General Electric ran two features about it in Light, its magazine for interior designers and lighting professionals.
