Built on fire, family, and a stubborn love of good food.

A napkin, a dream, and a wood-fire grill.

Chef Marcus Cole spent fifteen years cooking in Manhattan kitchens — two of them Michelin-starred — before he decided he'd rather cook food that people actually wanted to eat every week than food they photographed once a year.

He and his wife Dana moved to Rhinebeck in 2016, fell in love with the Hudson Valley farming community, and opened Ember & Oak Kitchen in the spring of 2018. The concept was simple: wood-fire cooking, local ingredients, no pretense.

Eight years later, that's exactly what happened. Our dining room fills every weekend with farmers, families, first dates, and regulars who've become friends. That's everything we wanted.