FORMER CHEF TURNS TO CANDLES FOR SELF-EXPRESSION
The Santa Fe New Mexican - Santa Fe, N.M.
Author: CINDY BELLINGER
Date: Apr 10, 2001
Start Page: D.1
Section: BUSINESS
It is like walking into, well, a big candle. Nearly every kind of candle you've ever imagined is displayed: floating candles, tapered candles, votives. Even French hand-blown oil lamps.
"I have a candle obsession," said Greg Menke, 30, who two years ago left a promising career as a high-end chef to make and sell candles. "I just had to make them."
His wife, Chana Siefkin, 26, who is an equal partner in the venture, recalls their tentative beginning. "We went to Hobby Lobby and bought wax and wicks. We didn't know what we were doing."
"I made the ugliest candle you can imagine," said Menke. "But after a few more tries, I took them to Nambe. I offered to make them a special line." Menke left with a pre-paid order for $7,000, and Sacred Fire was born. The couple began scouring the Internet and catalogs for equipment they needed. They began making four sizes of candles in four different scents in their home and soon found other outlets for their wholesale business.
Last October they opened a retail store in DeVargas Center. "We took out a temporary lease for three months," said Menke. "But we did so well we decided to stay."
In February, after passing a fire inspection, Menke and Siefkin moved the candle-making part of the business to the back of the 3,000- square-foot retail space. They have hundreds of molds, some of which they make themselves. They also came across some antique round molds, which they are experimenting with.
They hope at some point to install a plexiglass wall so customers can watch as the candles are made.
Menke said candle making is one of the oldest art forms and that part of the pleasure in Sacred Fire is to take his Delaware Indian heritage and pass it on in the form of natural scents. Their five special sizes come in 13 different scents.
"We use all essential oils," explained Menke, who used to be executive chef at Corn Dance Cafe. "Candle making is like making Jell- O. Fancy Jell-O. We use high quality ingredients."
Menke graduated from the Baltimore International Culinary College and still uses the language of cooking for Sacred Fire. Their menu is their brochure. They use fine packaging. The store is their presentation. "I'm finding it easier to express myself through candles than through food," he said.
But Siefkin said she is amazed at another side of her husband that she is learning about. "He can sell anything," she said. She said the two of them only met five years ago, and it's been a whirlwind of activity -- getting married, traveling and working in Europe, having two children and now owning a store -- with another enterprise on the way.
This spring they plan to open Sacred Elements, a high-tea house on Canyon Road. Menke's mother is Irish, and the "tea thing" is naturally part of his family, he said. Besides tea, the small cafe will sell affordable gifts for tourists who can't afford the higher prices on Canyon Road but want to take home a little something. Of course, some of those gifts will be candles.
Following the initial $100 they spent to make that "ugly" candle, the couple then invested another $2,000 in a computer, oil, wax and wicks. They use all cotton wicks and don't put the wicks in first, then pour the hot wax around them, as most candlemakers do. Instead, the candles are made first, then a hole is drilled and pre-cut wicks are slipped inside, the end crimped over on the bottom and stapled.
Besides candles, Sacred Fire sells gift boxes, candelabras, fruit- shaped candles, candle holders and bobeches, the little dishes placed on tapers to keep the wax from dripping onto tables. One line of candles, Creative Candles, is the same one used in the White House and includes a wide variety of beeswax tapers.
Though running a house, and soon two businesses, and raising two children is a lot to juggle, Siefkin says life couldn't be better. "We got to the point where we said, `OK, are we going to go for it?' The answer was a resounding yes.
Siefkin had worked in retail management for years and her father and grandfather owned their own businesses. "It just seemed logical to have our own business," she said. She says the downtime cycle of one business will happen during the uptime for the other. The candle business and the cafe should dovetail easily.
"It all just feels like it's meant to be," she said.
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