Tristan Simon sold his successful nightclub, Candle Room, last week to Candle Room general manager Tommy "D" Dondlinger (formerly of the allegedly terminal Hard Rock Cafe) and bar manager Shawn Egerton. Simon did not disclose a price. "I just made the decision to get out of the nightclub business," says Simon, who closed his upscale nightclub, Sense, late last summer because of disappointing financial performance. But wasn't Candle Room a cash cow? "The company's grown, and we have a number of cash cows now," he assures. "We're basically choosing to focus on our core business, which is the restaurant business." To that end, Simon's firm Consilient Restaurants (named for a book by famed Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson) is expanding Fireside Pies to Grapevine and, if real estate can be found, the Park Cities after the Shops at Legacy edition opened late last year. He's also opening The Porch next month, after it slipped a year behind schedule, and sketching out a new restaurant concept plus lining up ducks for another potential project—possibly outside Texas.
