The Autumn Number — Vol. IX, No. 34

Ember & Oak

Est. 2016Portland, OregonWood-Fired Kitchen

No. 01

The Story

A restaurant written in seasons, read by firelight.

Before Ember & Oak was a restaurant, it was a wood pile. In the winter of 2015, Mara Ellison spent four months splitting Oregon white oak behind a borrowed farmhouse in Yamhill County, learning how long each species held its heat and what it gave back to whatever cooked above it. The dining room came later. The fire came first.

We opened on Ankeny Street the following autumn with a single hearth, eleven tables, and an agreement with six farms within an hour of the city. That agreement still stands, and it still works the same way: the farms tell us what the valley is doing, and the menu listens. Nothing is flown in. Nothing is rushed. When the chanterelles end, they end, and we let them.

Dinner here moves at the speed of the wood. Oak burns down to a steady bed of coals over two hours each afternoon, and everything that follows — the bread, the beets, the duck for two — takes its temperature from that slow arithmetic. We think of each night as an issue of a small magazine: dated, seasonal, never reprinted.

“A menu is just a letter to the valley, asking what it did all year.”

A composed plate on white linen at Ember and Oak, garnished with herbs and set beside silver cutlery — The first course of the autumn menu, plated at the pass, October.

No. 02

Set weekly. Printed nightly. Cooked over oak, always.

Starters

Hearth Sourdough & Cultured Butter 9

Day-old levain baked on the coals, ember salt, house plum preserves.
Charred Delicata Squash 16

Maple-brined, hazelnut dukkah, brown-butter yogurt, fried sage.
Coal-Roasted Beets 15

Buried in the embers overnight; chèvre mousse, rye crumble, elderflower vinegar.
Smoked Chanterelle Tartine 17

Coast Range chanterelles, over-wintered leeks, cured farm-egg yolk.
Oregon Bay Shrimp Toast 18

Fennel soubise, pickled shallot, chervil, grilled brioche.

Mains

Cedar-Smoked Columbia River Salmon 38

Parsnip cream, charred cabbage, apple mostarda, smoked roe.
Wood-Fired Half Chicken 34

Brined overnight, preserved-lemon jus, grilled escarole, pan drippings.
Squash-Ash Cavatelli 29

Hand-rolled, sage brown butter, aged gouda, toasted pumpkin seed.
Painted Hills Ribeye 54

Dry-aged forty days, bone-marrow butter, ember-roasted cipollini.
Dry-Aged Duck for Two 86

Carved at the table; spiced honey glaze, roasted plums, duck-fat potatoes.

Desserts

Burnt-Honey Custard 13

Meadowfoam honey, bee pollen, olive-oil shortbread.
Hearth-Roasted Pear 14

Smoked caramel, buckwheat crumble, bay-leaf cream.
Dark Chocolate & Rye 13

Warm rye cake, espresso ganache, ember salt, crème fraîche.
Quince & Almond Galette 14

Baked in the wood oven through service; whipped mascarpone.

A short, opinionated wine list follows the menu each night — mostly Willamette Valley, always by the glass. Menus change with the weather; allergies gladly accommodated with a day’s notice.

No. 03

The Chef

A profile of the woman who keeps the fire.

Portrait of Executive Chef Mara Ellison — Mara Ellison, executive chef and founder, photographed at the hearth.

“We cook the way the valley writes its seasons — slowly, in long sentences, with smoke for punctuation.”
— Mara Ellison, Executive Chef

Ellison came up through the bread ovens of San Francisco and the farm kitchens of Piedmont before a rented cabin outside McMinnville convinced her that Oregon was the argument she wanted to spend a career making. She cooks with two woods — oak for steadiness, fruitwood for sweetness — and hires cooks the way editors hire writers: for patience, and for an ear.

Her kitchen keeps a handwritten ledger instead of a printed prep sheet. Every entry records the day’s weather, the farms’ deliveries, and the night’s single change to the menu. Nine years in, the ledgers fill a shelf — a complete, slightly smoke-scented history of the restaurant, one dinner at a time.

No. 04

From the Dining Room

Plates and rooms, photographed through one autumn.

A rustic plate of roasted meat and vegetables served on dark ceramic — *Sunday supper: the wood-fired half chicken, escarole still hissing.*

Small seasonal plates arranged on a wooden table before service — *The five-o’clock line-up, tasted before the doors open.*

A bright composed dish with greens and soft herbs beside a fork on linen — *First chanterelles of October, dressed in elderflower vinegar.*

Warm bread and pastry on a cooling rack in the restaurant kitchen — *Levain out of the oven at four; butter churned that morning.*

An elegantly plated dish with a swept sauce on a white plate — *Burnt-honey custard, finished with bee pollen from Sauvie Island.*

No. 05

Private Dining & Events

The Hearth Room, and the whole house besides.

Behind the kitchen, past the wood store, there is a second, smaller room with its own fireplace and a single long table of reclaimed white oak. We call it the Hearth Room, and it holds eighteen people the way a good book holds an evening — closely, and without hurry.

Private menus are written with you, three weeks out, around what the farms will have. The room comes with its own server, its own fire, and no clock on any wall. For larger occasions — weddings, long anniversaries, the retirement of someone genuinely loved — the whole restaurant can be yours on Sundays and Mondays.

18seats at the Hearth Room table
6stools at the chef’s counter, facing the fire
64guests for a full buyout of the house

Enquire about the Hearth Room

The warmly lit dining room of Ember and Oak set for evening service — The main dining room, laid for a Friday seating.

A quiet corner table beside a window, set with glassware and candles — The window table in the Hearth Room, an hour before guests.

No. 06

Notices & Reviews

Clipped, kept, and pinned to the kitchen wall.

The Willamette Ledger

★★★★★

“The hearth is the heart, and everything else at Ember & Oak arranges itself around it like family. A restaurant that reads like a well-worn novel — you know how it ends, and you never want it to.”

— Marianne Kellner, Dining Critic · November 2025

Portrait of restaurant critic Theodore Vance

The Oregon Epicure

★★★★★

“I have eaten the duck for two alone, twice, and I will defend both evenings in court. Ellison’s kitchen is the most patient in the Pacific Northwest — and patience, it turns out, is delicious.”

— Theodore Vance, Editor-at-Large · September 2025

Cascadia Table Quarterly

★★★★★

“Restaurant of the Year. No river of foam, no tweezers in sight — just oak smoke, valley produce, and a dining room that treats three hours as the only civilized length for dinner.”

— The Editors · Winter 2025 Issue

Rose City Gastronome

★★★★★

“Order the coal-roasted beets even if you believe you dislike beets. Especially then. Ember & Oak is where Portland goes to be quietly, thoroughly convinced.”

— Priya Raghunathan, Columnist · October 2025

No. 07

Hours, Location & Reservations

Find us on Ankeny Street. Write ahead; the room is small.

The Particulars

1834 SE Ankeny Street
Portland, Oregon 97214
(503) 555-0147
table@emberandoak.com

Wednesday – Thursday: 5:00 – 10:00 PM
Friday – Saturday: 5:00 – 11:00 PM
Sunday: 4:30 – 9:00 PM
Monday – Tuesday: The fire rests
Hearth Bar: From 4:00 PM, walk-ins only

Street parking on Ankeny and 19th; the No. 15 bus stops at our corner. The dining room seats parties of up to six — for more, ask after the Hearth Room.

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We reply by hand, usually within the hour during service days.