Our story
A restaurant built around a fire
We started with the hearth and designed everything else, the room, the menu, the team, around it.
Since 2018
From a backyard grill to Fulton Market
Tomás Reyes grew up cooking over mesquite with his grandfather in Monterrey, then spent a decade in kitchens from Copenhagen to San Sebastián. When he came back to Chicago, he wanted to cook the Midwest the way his grandfather cooked: simply, generously and over live fire.
Ember & Oak opened in a former meatpacking warehouse on Fulton Market in October 2018. The original brick walls and timber beams are still here. So is the hearth, built by a blacksmith in Wisconsin and craned in through the roof before the walls were finished.
Our menu changes with what our twelve partner farms are harvesting. In autumn that means squash, apples, brassicas and game; by spring it is ramps, morels and the first asparagus from Michigan.
Fire is honest. You cannot hide a bad ingredient from it.
- Opened on Fulton Market
- 2018
- Opened on Fulton Market
- Partner farms within 200 miles
- 12
- Partner farms within 200 miles
- Of oak and cherry burned each month
- 4 tons
- Of oak and cherry burned each month
- Bottles on the wine list
- 340
- Bottles on the wine list
The team
Who's cooking tonight
Tomás Reyes
Chef & owner
Formerly of Noma and Etxebarri. James Beard semifinalist, Best Chef Great Lakes 2024.
Hannah Lindqvist
Chef de cuisine
Runs the hearth nightly. Obsessive about bread, butter and whole-animal butchery.
Andre Mitchell
Wine director
Advanced Sommelier with a soft spot for skin-contact wine and Jura chardonnay.
How we cook
Four things we never compromise on
Wood only
Red oak for heat, cherry for smoke. No gas, no electric grills.
Close to home
Every vegetable comes from farms within a day's drive of Chicago.
Whole animal
We buy whole animals and use everything, from bones for jus to fat for candles.
Fair kitchen
Four-day weeks, health cover and a living wage for everyone on our team.
Come see the fire
The best seats in the house face the hearth. Ask for the chef's counter.