{"id":180728,"date":"2026-02-26T04:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/180728\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T04:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:58:07","slug":"lubbock-restaurant-featured-on-americas-best-restaurants-roadshow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/180728\/","title":{"rendered":"Lubbock restaurant featured on America\u2019s Best Restaurants Roadshow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211; Less than two years after opening, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.candlebarlbk.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.candlebarlbk.com\/\">Candle Bar on south Slide<\/a> has been selected for a feature on America\u2019s Best Restaurants Roadshow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The marketing company takes filming of the internet show across the country to bring national attention to locally-owned restaurants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Owner Shane Blum said Candle Bar is honored to be the first Lubbock restaurant featured by the show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThey\u2019re all over the place. And somebody just said, oh yeah, this little random place in Lubbock, let\u2019s go check it out. So yeah, I guess we\u2019re getting good word of mouth, right?\u201d Blum said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Restaurants can apply for a feature, but host J Russell said recommendations drive selections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cA lot of times people will be like in Nebraska, but they\u2019re from Lubbock and they\u2019re like, you got to get out to the Candle Bar,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Russell said the show was created as a more affordable marketing option for independent restaurants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cJust bring in more local business. It\u2019s hard for these local business owners to compete with the national chains. And so, with their marketing efforts in terms of social media, it\u2019s very difficult for them,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Blum and his wife also own the Gas Light and the Lantern Tavern in Lubbock. They describe Candle Bar as a higher-end Italian restaurant, which opened in August of 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cA lot of people come in and they\u2019re like, oh my gosh, this is so different and not Lubbock. Lubbock\u2019s a great place, but they\u2019re like, wow, this is really cool,\u201d Blum said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Candle Bar episode is set to release in May on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@AmericasBestRestaurants\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@AmericasBestRestaurants\">YouTube<\/a> and will be posted to the restaurant\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61553261092387\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61553261092387\">Facebook page<\/a>. Candle Bar plans to host a watch party when the episode comes out and will keep customers updated on its social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Russell said he expects Lubbock to see more attention from the show, after its large van with a QR code to apply has been seen around town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cBecause right now, I bet you there\u2019s some other Lubbock restaurants that scan the code, we\u2019re going to be out here again next year,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211; Less than two years after opening, Candle Bar on south Slide has been selected&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[72498,5907,46424,8812,7990,67432,72497,5589,8813,5893,1492,20369,25536,72505,168,170,169,2981,72500,4491,14016,67,354,72499,72502,72503,72501,72504,8802],"class_list":{"0":"post-180728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-americas","9":"tag-bar","10":"tag-best","11":"tag-brittany","12":"tag-brittany-crittenden","13":"tag-by","14":"tag-candle","15":"tag-company","16":"tag-crittenden","17":"tag-facebook","18":"tag-featured","19":"tag-first","20":"tag-hub-city","21":"tag-j-russell","22":"tag-lubbock","23":"tag-lubbock-headlines","24":"tag-lubbock-news","25":"tag-marketing","26":"tag-marks","27":"tag-national","28":"tag-on","29":"tag-restaurant","30":"tag-restaurants","31":"tag-roadshow","32":"tag-selected","33":"tag-shane-blum","34":"tag-spot","35":"tag-tracey","36":"tag-youtube"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}