It’s been over a decade since 33 year old first Candace Delaine entered the bartending industry. After gaining an interest in bartending during high school, the Alabama native jumped right in at the legal drinking age.

I started out working in clubs at 21 and never left. My uncle had been running bars for as long as I can remember and I would always be like “hey he’s making a pretty good life off of this”.. He enjoys what he does and he was a HUGE people person with the gift of gab like myself.

Starting out, Candace sold adult Capri Suns, Jell-O shots, and infused strawberries from home. She would also do pop-up shops, car shows, and HBCU homecoming events.

Things really got serious in 2021 when she began contemplating leaving her job as a delivery driver at FEDEX after being there almost 6 years.

I was ready to give it all up and step out on faith. On November 13, 2021 Kandi Bar was my full time job. The best thing about working for myself is I was able to finally enjoy holidays with my family. I always had a job where holidays were automatic working days so this was new to me. The biggest challenge while working for yourself is working for yourself. There are days when I just want to be lazy and not do any work, but there is no one I can call to do it for me. So that means I gotta get up whether I want to or not. My bartending career has been quite successful but this job is not for everybody. It’s alot of late nights, long days and dealing with a lot of intoxicated people who don’t know their limits so they may say anything or have lewd behavior.

What has been the highlight of your bartending career?

Something that stick out as a highlighted moment for me is the first time I saw my business on a screen for a comedy show. My logo was on a vendor photography board where you couldn’t help but see it and it was in everyone’s photo. Also in December of 2022, I had a customer appreciation party on the COLDEST day of the year. It was an awful day and I sold so many tickets. The weather prevented a lot of guests from coming, BUT I ended up still having a great crowd and we had a TIME!

When was The KandiBar officially established?

Technically although I got the business really rolling in 2021, The Kandi Bar was established on December 4, 2018. It started from always making drinks at family events and I would use them as my test tasters ao one day Tiffany Flowers-Hurst said “you should make this a business and sell your drinks” I wasn’t too hip on it at first but the more we talked about it, the more it sounded good to me and we came up with the name Kandi because my parents called me “Candy” quite often. I talked to my uncle about it on our last outing and I ran the idea by him and he was super excited, gave me great advice and sent a text afterwards with words of encouragement, unfortunately he passed away unexpectedly on 10/10/2020. He was unable to see me step out and make this happen, but I like to think that he is with me at every event.

The Kandi Bar is a mobile bartending service for any event. Events such as weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties, corporate events, and more. Candace offer different packages from showing up and just serving to providing everything you would need for a party so you and your guests can just show up and party. Specialty menus, specialty cocktails, his and hers drinks, champagne walls, or personals to have at home. Candace have assistants that work with her as needed. Bartending training, business launches, and more services are also available. Traveling is available, as Candace have clients in Atlanta, Georgia and Houston, Texas as well.

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