About Us

The Story

Ember & Grain opened in 2019 with a simple conviction: that the most compelling food in New York doesn’t have to come from a kitchen chasing novelty. It can come from a kitchen chasing something harder — the perfect expression of an ingredient at its peak, cooked over fire that adds rather than obscures.

Executive Chef Nadia Voss spent eight years cooking in Lyon, the Loire Valley, and a small trattoria outside of Siena before returning to her native New York. What she brought back wasn’t a technique — it was an orientation toward ingredients that has defined every menu we’ve written since.

The Kitchen

The heart of our kitchen is a custom-built white-oak hearth, constructed by a metalworker in Red Hook and commissioned specifically for this space. It operates at sustained temperatures between 700° and 950°F. Every protein we roast, every vegetable we char, every piece of bread we warm — it passes through this fire.

The wood-fire isn’t a concept. It’s our primary tool.

The Sourcing

Every morning, our sous chef or a member of the kitchen team visits the Union Square Greenmarket before service prep begins. In spring and summer, we work directly with Bodhitree Farm and Madura Farm in the Hudson Valley. In fall and winter, we lean into root cellars, preserved goods, and the steady rhythm of what endures.

We don’t have a fixed menu. We have a seasonal framework that changes based on what arrives and what excites us.

The Room

The dining room seats forty-two. The private dining room seats up to twenty. Both were designed by Sasha Okonkwo, who stripped the original 1920s plaster walls down to their brick and left them there.

We are not a fast table. We are a room where you can settle in, eat slowly, and let the evening develop.