Chef’s pick Burnt Basque cheesecake
Caramelised top, soft centre, sea salt.
$12Wood-fired kitchen · Est. 1998
Cooked over
live fire.
A wood-fired grill and cellar in the old foundry district — dry-aged cuts, open flame and a short, fierce list of natural wine.
The idea
Fire is the oldest way to cook and still the best. We build the coals every afternoon, let the embers settle, and let good ingredients become extraordinary the slow way — with smoke, salt and time.
Our story
A room built around the grill.
Ember began in a disused iron foundry with one wood-burning grill and a stubborn belief that food cooked over flame tastes of something machines can’t fake. Twenty-five years later the grill is bigger, the cellar is deeper, and the belief hasn’t moved an inch.
Everything that can be made in-house is: the bread, the butter, the pickles, the ice cream. The rest we buy from people we know by name.
— Marco Vidal, Chef-owner
1998
lit the first fire
45
day dry-age, minimum
3
woods: oak, cherry, ash
120
covers a night
From the coals
Signature plates
Chef’s pick 
Signature 45-day dry-aged ribeye
Cooked over oak coals, rested on bone-marrow butter. For two on request.
$46
Chef’s pick Wood-oven flatbread
Cultured butter and wild garlic, blistered in the wood oven.
$14
Live fire
Everything touches the flame.
No gas, no induction, no hiding. Just oak coals, cast iron and a kitchen that has cooked this way for twenty-five years.
Book the chef’s counter
“Fire doesn’t forgive shortcuts. That’s exactly why we cook with it.”
Marco Vidal — Chef-owner
The room & the plates
Gallery
Beyond dinner
Events & private dining
Fire Feasts
One long table, family-style, whatever we’re burning that month. Natural wine flows and strangers leave friends.
65ppPrivate Dining Room
The old foundry office, now a private room with its own hearth. Set menus for celebrations, wakes and quiet triumphs.
from 85ppThe Chef’s Counter
Six seats at the pass. Watch every plate leave the fire and eat a bespoke tasting menu built around the night’s best cuts.
95ppIn good company
What they’re saying
Everything touches the flame and you can taste it. Genuinely unforgettable.
A room that smells of oak smoke and a kitchen that never once cuts a corner.
We booked the chef’s counter for an anniversary and left already planning the next one.
The best live-fire cooking in the city — the dry-aged ribeye alone is worth the trip.
Reserve
Pull up a chair by the fire.
Tables for two to eight can be booked below. For larger parties, the chef’s counter or a full buy-out, send us a note and we’ll build the night around you.
128 Foundry Row
East Market, Portland
(503) 555-0148
From the kitchen
Journal
July 10, 2026
Natural wine, in plain words
Our list is short and a little wild. Natural wine simply means grapes grown without chemicals and made…
July 10, 2026
Building the fire: a day at Ember
Every service begins hours before the doors open, with kindling and patience. We light the oak at three,…
July 10, 2026
Why we dry-age for forty-five days
Dry-ageing isn’t a gimmick; it’s time doing the work heat can’t. We hang whole primals in a salt-walled…