Theme Restaurants, taverns & inns

Cobble & Candle

Restaurant · tavern · inn

Cobble & Candle is a WordPress block theme for restaurants, taverns and inns. Guests see live “open now” hours, menus they can filter by diet, and book a table or a room. Owners set it up in a five-step wizard, import a menu from a spreadsheet, and confirm bookings from the dashboard. It is not in the shop yet.

28 custom blocks
4 style directions
WCAG 2.2 AA tested

Live demo Ask about this View code

matthummel-pa/wp-cobbleandcandle This is sample work I built in public. It is not a client or employer site.

Screenshots

What it looks like

Home page with live “Closed · opens 5:30pm” status, location switcher and lamplit hero

What you get

Everything in this build

Restaurant, tavern and inn owners who want menus, hours and bookings that stay right without a developer. Agencies that ship hospitality sites. Hiring managers who want to see a full WordPress product: theme, plugin, booking engine, setup wizard, docs and tests.

Cobble & Candle block theme (28 custom blocks, 4 style variations)
Cobble & Candle Core plugin (bundled, one-click install)
Room booking engine with iCal import and export
Messages inbox, Status & logs screen
Owner guide (11 pages), FAQ, developer hook reference
Screenshot, readme, licences and changelog
Live “open now” and holiday hours per location, correct on cached pages
Menus with tabs, section links, diet filters and an allergen key
Table bookings three ways: native request form with real time slots, OpenTable / Resy, or call-to-book
Rooms with an availability calendar, weekend pricing, minimum stay and a running total

Show all 20 features Show fewer

Two-way calendar sync with Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo
“Add dinner on your first night” when a guest books a room
Five-step setup wizard with one-click demo import: no WP-CLI
Menu import and export from Excel or Google Sheets, with a preview
Every guest request saved in the dashboard even if email fails
Status page with health checks, test email, error log and a system report
Four style directions, including a bright café style
Restaurant, Menu, Event and HotelRoom structured data for Google
WCAG 2.2 AA tested, right-to-left support, translation-ready
No page builder, no ACF, fonts bundled locally

Story

How it came together

Why I built it
Hospitality sites go stale fast. Hours change on holidays, menus change weekly, and most restaurant themes are page-builder demos with static text. An inn with a restaurant downstairs usually needs a second booking plugin and a calendar sync service on top.
What I did
I built it as a block theme on Sage 11 with a companion plugin that owns the data: locations, hours, menus, events, rooms and bookings. “Open now” is worked out in the visitor’s browser so cached pages stay right. Rooms get a real availability calendar with two-way iCal sync. Everything is edited in WordPress itself: the Site Editor for design, short field panels for prices and hours.
What you can use
A restaurant, bar or inn gets a site that tells guests whether it is open, what is on the menu, and lets them request a table or a room in under a minute. The live demo is at cobbleandcandle.matthummel.com with fiction content. It is not for sale yet; say hello if you want it for your place or want me to set it up.

Under the hood

Stack, architecture, and handoff

Specs

Stack Sage WordPress Gutenberg Full Site Editing Alpine.js Tailwind
Languages PHP · Blade · CSS · JavaScript · HTML · Shell
Compatible WordPress 6.6+, PHP 8.3+ (tested up to 7.1)
License GPL-2.0
Release 0.1.0
Updated October 3, 2026
Topics wordpress-theme, restaurant, bar, inn, bed-and-breakfast, booking, block-theme, sage
Repository matthummel-pa/wp-cobbleandcandle (opens in a new window)
Live demo cobbleandcandle.matthummel.com (opens in a new window)

Architecture

Sage 11 block theme (Acorn, Blade, Tailwind v4, Vite, Alpine.js) with 28 server-rendered blocks and four Site Editor style variations (Lampwright, Ember & Arch, Ashlar & Iron, Daylight).
Cobble & Candle Core plugin (bundled, one-click install) holds locations, menus, events, rooms, bookings and messages as custom post types with REST-registered fields.
Booking engine: availability endpoint, pending → confirmed requests, hourly iCal import and a private export feed per room.
Restaurant, Menu, Event, HotelRoom, Organization, WebSite and BreadcrumbList schema, joined to Yoast or Rank Math when present.
WCAG 2.2 AA, right-to-left languages, translation-ready.

Handoff

Upload the theme, click once to install the plugin, and the setup wizard asks for your name, style, currency and clock, imports the demo or your first location, and builds the pages and menus. Hours and holiday hours are set per location; menus import from a CSV. A Status page checks the setup and gives a system report for support.

Palette

Lamp-black #15110D
Smoke #201A14
Brass #C79A55
Parchment #F2E6D3
Oxblood #5C2A22

Questions

Common questions

Is Cobble & Candle a WordPress restaurant theme?

Yes. It is a WordPress block theme for restaurants, taverns and inns, with menus, live opening hours, table bookings, events, private dining and rooms to stay, built without a page builder.

Can I buy Cobble & Candle?

Not yet. It is finished and running on the live demo, and I am getting it ready for the shop. Say hello if you want it for your restaurant, bar or inn sooner, or want me to set it up.

Does it handle rooms for a B&B or inn?

Yes. Rooms have nightly and weekend prices, a minimum stay and an availability calendar. Guests send a booking request, you confirm it from the dashboard, and the guest gets an email. Calendars sync both ways with Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo.

Does it take payments?

No, on purpose. Table and room bookings are requests you confirm, so there is no card handling or refund process to manage. Link your online-ordering system for takeaway.

Will my hours be right for Google?

Each location publishes Restaurant structured data with opening and holiday hours, address, map coordinates, cuisine and price range. It works alongside Yoast SEO or Rank Math.

Can I import my menu?

Yes. Food & drink → Import / export takes a CSV from Excel or Google Sheets, shows a preview of what will be added or updated, and never deletes anything.

Is it accessible?

It is built and tested for WCAG 2.2 AA: keyboard paths, screen-reader labels, contrast in all four styles, 44 px touch targets and reduced motion. It also supports right-to-left languages.

What do I need to run it?

WordPress 6.6 or newer and PHP 8.3 or newer. Caching plugins such as LiteSpeed Cache and WP Rocket are supported.