Café finally has the name it has been called all along
"Let's go to Candi's," has been a familiar phrase for years since Candia Love opened the diner in 2004. The official name had been 35 Country Diner for all that time, but everyone just called it Candi's. Now, after some time of rebuilding and renewing, the diner is officially named Ms. Candia's Café.
On the Friday before the tornado hit the diner on April 12, 2020, Miguel Crespo, Maleigh Crespo's father, called Love and told her he was going to take time off from work and replace the roof on the diner. On Sunday, the tornado hit and ripped the roof off.
Love and Maleigh were not home when the tornado hit. When they returned, Love said she called Miguel and told him she needed him to take that vacation right then.
Love had no insurance on the diner, so Miguel asked her if she wanted to close it or keep it open. Love told him she wanted to keep it open, so they combined their savings, and the family, "the fam" as Maleigh calls it, worked together to rebuild. Maleigh was on spring break from Loyola University and got stuck at home by the Covid quarantine. Love said they were rebuilding and hosted a family reunion all at once.
It took the family 161 days to get things back in place. During that time, the diner lost its staff. So Love reopened with no staff. She cooked and served. She said she had trouble finding people willing to fix plates for customers.
"In October 2020, I couldn't advertise," Love said. "People thought I was closed, but I was running it by myself. There has been a shortage of help. Cooking is a novelty. Nobody knows how anymore. You can't find cooks, so I'm still cooking."
Candia's Café is a self-serve buffet with self-serve drinks now, and there are no servers.
Love still serves liver and onions on Tuesdays and filet and whole fish on Fridays. Breakfast is still served, but there is no menu. It is cooked to order based on what it has on hand that day, but they always have the basics.
Love said that customers who came in would help out by peeling potatoes or answering the phone.
"It took a community effort to keep this place open," she said. "People saw behind the scenes, and they were sympathetic about no help."
Candia's Café, no matter its name, has always been a place for people to gather, to visit and to feel welcomed.
Love said her goal is to make food that will make people feel physically healthy. She plans to decrease preservatives and increase natural foods. She wants to retrain and condition people to work and empower them, mind, body and soul.
"The tornado took off my sign," Love said. "That's why I changed the name. To name it what it's been called anyway."
Ms. Candia's Café is located at 1504 Mississippi 35 South in Foxworth. It is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It can be reached at (601) 736-5717.
