Live-Fire Kitchen — Est. 2019
Fire is the oldest
ingredient.
No gas. No electricity in the kitchen. Every dish at Ember & Oak is cooked over live wood coal, the way it's been done for ten thousand years — just done better.
Our Philosophy
A kitchen with no plug and no pilot light.
There isn't a single burner in our kitchen. Everything you eat here — the bread, the vegetables, the fish, the dessert — has passed over live wood coal. It's a harder way to cook. It's also the only way that gives food this particular kind of flavor: char on the outside, smoke carried all the way through, nothing masked by a sauce that didn't earn its place.
- Post oak
- the backbone — steady, high heat, clean smoke
- Applewood
- gentle and sweet, reserved for bread and vegetables
- Hickory
- deep and resinous, for anything that needs an edge
- Cherrywood
- fruit-forward, saved for the dessert coals
Around the Room
A look inside the hearth.
Behind the Hearth
Chef Mara Voss
Mara spent six years cooking over open coal across Basque country before opening Ember & Oak. She built the kitchen around a single rule: if it can't be done well with wood and time, it doesn't go on the menu. She's usually the one standing closest to the fire.
“A good coal bed takes four hours to build and about four seconds to ruin. That patience is the whole menu.”
“Every plate arrives smelling like a campfire in the best possible way. The ribeye is the best I've had in this city.”
Local Standard
“Watching the cooks work the hearth is half the show. It's theater, and then it's dinner, and both are excellent.”
The Weekend Table
“Booked for an anniversary, stayed for three hours. The smoked chocolate tart alone is worth the drive.”
Guest review
“No gas, no electricity in that kitchen — just wood and technique. You can taste the difference immediately.”
City Bites Quarterly
“Every plate arrives smelling like a campfire in the best possible way. The ribeye is the best I've had in this city.”
Local Standard
“Watching the cooks work the hearth is half the show. It's theater, and then it's dinner, and both are excellent.”
The Weekend Table
“Booked for an anniversary, stayed for three hours. The smoked chocolate tart alone is worth the drive.”
Guest review
“No gas, no electricity in that kitchen — just wood and technique. You can taste the difference immediately.”
City Bites Quarterly
Reserve
Come sit near the fire.
Tables are held for fifteen minutes past reservation time. For parties of eight or more, call us directly to arrange the hearth-side table.