TV Restaurants

What Happened to Cocina Candela After Food Paradise? (Montclair, NJ)

Food Paradise, Season 19 Montclair, New Jersey Closed December 2021

Current status

Closed

As of October 2026, Cocina Candela has closed — confirmed via themontclairgirl.com, December 2021.

What the source shows: Montclair Girl and Patch both reported in December 2021 that Cocina Candela's Bloomfield Avenue location was closing after its lease was not renewed, and Google Places marks the business permanently closed. How we decide a status →

What happened after Food Paradise?

In 'Global Grub' (S19E32), the show featured Cocina Candela, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Montclair, New Jersey, serving traditional island dishes from a Bloomfield Avenue storefront. According to Montclair Girl, in December 2021 owner Kenny Candelaria announced the closing of the Bloomfield Avenue location after his lease expired and the landlord chose not to renew it. Patch reported the same closure in a separate December 2021 article on the restaurant's departure from Montclair. Candelaria told Montclair Girl he hoped to reopen "bigger and better" in a new location, though no announcement of a reopening has surfaced since. A Yelp listing for the Bloomfield Avenue address, updated in November 2024, still marks Cocina Candela as permanently closed. Google Places also lists the business under a permanently-closed status for the same address.

The episode Food Paradise, Season 19

Episode 32
Air date not confirmed
Title: Global Grub · What was featured: Puerto Rican dishes at Cocina Candela in Montclair
How Food Paradise restaurants have fared: 27% closed →

Also in Season 19 Food Paradise

Season 19: 102 of 146 still open · 6 renamed, moved or under new owners

All 19 Season 19 episodes →

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Sources we checked 4 references

  1. themontclairgirl.com https://www.themontclairgirl.com/cocina-candela-restaurant-closes-montclair-new-jersey/
  2. patch.com https://patch.com/new-jersey/montclair/popular-puerto-rican-restaurant-montclair-shut-down
  3. Yelp https://www.yelp.com/biz/cocina-candela-montclair-4
  4. vamosrincon.com https://vamosrincon.com/uncategorized/cocina-candela-puerto-rican-restaurant-in-montclair-to-close-december/
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Record fp-1661 · checked by Cal Marchetti.