Food and Drink editor Alyssa and I were chatting earlier this year about places to go in Champaign-Urbana that have a certain vibe — a place you can go with a distinct feeling and can also get great food or a drink. It was actually harder than we thought, but we managed to get a list together and are going to travel around Champaign County this year to find spaces with unique vibes.
— Louise Knight-Gibson, Culture Editor
For our inaugural vibe article, we chose Fire Doll Studio. They have weekly candle making classes, so we grabbed our editors Jess and Julie, and all signed up.
The Vibe
I, Louise, had never been to Fire Doll before. You walk through the retail space and up two stairs to a big open room with four big tables taking up much of the space, a bar to the left, and an empty stage to the right. On the back wall were all of the scents (more on that later). The whole space has dark walls and big floral wallpaper on one wall, but with the windows and ambient lighting it’s a very cozy space. This building used to be the Skins N’ Tins drum shop and there are hints of it all around.
There are four big tables laid out with all the supplies you’ll need for making candles. Once I picked a seat I was handed a drink menu right away. (LKG)
The Drinks
Inside the workspace, there’s a little bar called The Dollhouse. The first drink is included with each happy hour event ticket. The candle shop’s bar menu featured ten cocktails, all offered with zero-proof spirit options in addition to soda, tea, beer (including Triptych’s Dank Meme), wine (with two by Alto Vineyards), and Cloud Mountain Kombucha available. One of us ordered The Dollhouse mule, and three of us had the Bee’s Knees cocktail.
The chandlery’s Bee’s Knees had gin, lemon juice, honey liqueur, and simple syrup in a cute glass with a lemon twisty twist. The Dollhouse’s version of this classic cocktail was solid, hitting all the right Bee’s Knees notes of tart lemon, boozy gin, and sweet honey. We really enjoyed this one.
A group at another table had all ordered the same beautiful, orange cocktail, and the drink was so pretty that it inspired Louise and I to order one, too.
For our second round, we ordered that popular drink, the Barbados sunrise ($8), and also a beetnik lemonade ($8). The Barbados sunrise cocktail was made with light rum, grapefruit, orange juice, and grenadine. The ombre effect was so pretty, and it tasted like orange juice with some extra fruity sweetness. In addition to light rum and beet juice on juice, the beetnik lemonade had “lemonade, mint, and magic,” according to the menu. The flavor of beets can be intense, and this drink had that intensity. The cocktail tasted overwhelmingly of iced beet, which we weren’t loving, but the staff immediately offered to make a different drink instead at no charge. We circled back to the Bee’s Knees with no regrets.
It’s fun that there are drinks served here at all because it’s not needed to make a candle, but it does up the candle-making experience and give it (dare I say) a vibe. I liked the intentionality behind the drink menu; it’s awesome to see local beer and local wine offerings plus so many non-alcoholic options as well. Our happy hour at The Dollhouse was great, but it would’ve been so very cool to see a cocktail or two (or a whole menu) inspired by some of Fire Doll Studio’s 70+ scents — many of which are booze and food aromas. Louise and I were a little nosy and asked what the most popular scent combination was, and they said: sea salt and white tea. Just saying, we would totally drink a white tea and sea salt-inspired cocktail. (AB)
The Process
This wasn’t mentioned on the site but the actual candlemaking didn’t start until six, so keep that in mind for planning purposes.
At six o’clock the owner of Fire Doll, Kayla Brown, started the class. She gave us a quick history lesson on candles, talked about how and why she started Fire Doll. Then she went through the candle making process we were about to embark on. There are different scent groupings — boozy, floral, fruity, clean, food, herbal, and earthy — up to three can be combined to create a unique candle scent. It was fun to waft the various scents and ask my dates for advice on different combinations. In the end, I chose Chardonnay and Lemon Verbena, and Alyssa went for a cozy combination of cardamom and campfire marshmallow.
After picking a scent, it’s time to pick a container. What I enjoyed was that vessels are included but you can also pay to upgrade to a fancier one. There’s no pressure to upgrade which I really appreciated.
Then you take your smells over to the candle counter (I’m sure there is a more official name) to get a bigger bottle of your scent, and head back to your table to mix it all up before Brown comes around with a big metal pitcher of hot, 200 degree wax to fill up your vessel.
Throughout the whole process Brown laid out each step with patience and energy. She kept things fun and encouraged creativity. You pick the scents, the amount of each to put in your vessel, the dried flower petals, and even the name of your candle. You let it cure for a day and are able to pick it up at the store. (LKG)
Vibes: Great for first dates, time with work friends, or when you want to get to know someone but don’t want a lot of awkward quiet time.
Drink: Impressive range of drink offerings for a candleshop. Go for the Bee’s Knees cocktail if you like lemon.
Candle Happy Hour at The Dollhouse
Fire Doll Studio
29 E Main Street
Champaign
Tickets available online, $40
Alyssa Buckley and Louise Knight-Gibson contributed to this article.