Our Story
How We Started
Built around one wood-fired hearth
Ember & Vine opened in 2011 in a converted dockside warehouse, with nothing more than a single wood-fired hearth, a short menu, and a promise to cook honestly. What started as an eleven-table restaurant run by two friends has grown into a neighborhood institution — but the hearth is still the center of everything we do.
We buy whole animals from regional farms, bake our own bread daily, and change the menu with what's actually good that week, not what a printed menu says should be there. Nothing about that has changed since our first service.
Our Mission
To cook honest, fire-driven food using ingredients we can trace back to a farm, a boat, or a name — and to serve it in a room where every guest feels like a regular.
Our Vision
To be the restaurant this city points to when it wants to explain what a neighborhood table should feel like — unpretentious, generous, and consistently excellent.
Our Values
Seasonality over sameness, technique over trend, and hospitality that starts the moment you're on the sidewalk looking through the window.
Meet the Chef
Chef Antoine Laurent
"Good cooking isn't about complexity. It's about knowing exactly when to leave a dish alone."
Trained in Lyon before spending eight years cooking across coastal kitchens, Antoine co-founded Ember & Vine to build the kind of restaurant he wanted to eat in himself: unfussy, fire-led, and deeply seasonal. He still works the pass most nights the restaurant is open.
The Team
The people behind the pass
Mira Kowalski
Head Pastry ChefBrings a decade of European pastry training to every dessert on the menu, from tarts to milk bread.
Devon Reyes
Grill MasterRuns the hearth and smoker, and has never once let a brisket rest for less than forty-five minutes.
Priya Nair
General ManagerKeeps the floor running and makes sure every table gets the same warm welcome, every single night.