Ember & Salt
A wood-fired kitchen and bar on Larkin Street in downtown Fullerton. Everything on the menu comes off one hearth of almond wood and oak.
Fire lights at 3:40 · Bar 4:30 · Dinner 5–10
A note from the chef
We light the hearth at 3:40 every afternoon (2:40 on Sundays), with almond wood from orchard removals outside Kerman and white oak from a mill in Paso Robles. By five the oven floor is close to 900 degrees. Next to the oven the grate burns under open flame, the middle sits over a bed of coals, and toward the edge the coals spread out into embers. Every plate on our menu comes off that one fire.
So the menu below is laid out the way the hearth is, with the oven on the left and the banked coals on the right. Each dish sits where it cooks. The cheesecake is next to the bread because they both bake in the oven. Order in whatever order you like.
Nora Castellanos, chef and owner
The grate
The whole hearth from above, hottest on the left. Every dish sits where it cooks. Point at one to see it.The whole hearth from above. Swipe from the oven to the banked coals and tap a dish to see it.
Oven mouth about 900°F
Sourdough from our own starter, baked on the oven floor. Cultured butter and smoked salt. Oven floor · 900°F · 90 sec.
Baked in the oven’s falling heat after the first seating. The top burns and the middle stays soft. Oven, falling · 450°F · 22 min.
Open flame 700–800°F
Over open flame for under two minutes. Chili oil, lemon, parsley, crushed almonds. Open flame · 800°F · 2 min.
Skin-side down over the flame, turned once. Fennel, charred lemon, green olive oil. Open flame · 750°F · 11 min.
Brined for a day, started over flame and finished over coals. Salsa verde, burnt lemon. Flame to coals · 700°F · 28 min.
Coal bed 500–650°F
Sixteen ounces, dry-aged in the cabinet by the bar, over almond coals, sliced at the pass. Béarnaise. Coals · 650°F · 14 min, then 8 to rest.
Watch it cutFourteen ounces, bone-in and brined, over coals. Apple mostarda. Coals · 600°F · 16 min.
Four hours in the oven as it cools, finished over coals. Yogurt, mint, hearth flatbread. Oven, then coals · 550°F · 4 hr.
Charred hard. Anchovy, chili, lemon. Coals · 500°F · 4 min.
Embers 300–450°F
Buried in the embers for forty minutes. Whipped feta, za’atar, dill. Embers · 400°F · 40 min.
A cast-iron pan set into the embers. Crushed, crisped, finished with our salt. Embers · 350°F · 35 min.
Whole sweet onions cooked in the ash for an hour. Sherry vinegar, thyme, whipped ricotta. Ash · 300°F · 60 min.
Banked about 160°F
Smoked over the banked coals all night. A jar to take home, at the host stand. Banked coals · 160°F · 11 hr.
Cut at the pass
Our 28-day New York strip is dry-aged in the cabinet by the bar and cooked over almond coals, which hold about 650 degrees at the grate for hours. Steady heat is what a thick steak wants.
28-day New York strip · 16 oz · $58
The crust About fourteen minutes over the coals, turned four times. Above 300°F the outside browns hard, and the knife meets it first.
The gray band Just under the crust, the meat cooked past pink. Turning often and resting long keeps it to about 3 mm.
The center, 128°F Eight minutes of rest bring it to 128°F all the way through. Sliced here, at the pass, with béarnaise.
“The strip came out exactly how I asked, with a crust you could hear under the knife. We sat at the counter and watched them slice it.”
The salt in the name
When the last plates go out, we rake the coals into a mound and bank them under their own ash so they last until morning. Twelve trays of Pacific flake salt go on the grate above them, and by morning the salt has taken on the smoke. It goes on every table and into almost everything we cook.
A jar to take home is $12 at the host stand.
The long table
Behind the kitchen there’s a room with one white oak table for fourteen and a window onto the hearth. It’s ours to give for birthdays, rehearsal dinners and the kind of work dinner people actually want to go to.
“We did my dad’s 70th at the long table. Dana handled every detail, and the kitchen came out to carve the lamb at the table.”
- Seats
- 14 at the table, or 22 standing
- Menus
- $85 or $110 a person, served family style. The $110 menu adds the strip and the lamb shoulder.
- Minimum spend
- $1,200 Tuesday to Thursday, $1,800 Friday and Saturday. That’s food and drink, before tax and the 20% service charge.
- To book
- Ask for Dana Whitfield, who runs the room. Call (714) 555-0173, or choose “Long table” below.
Your table.
- Tables open 30 days ahead, every morning at 10. We keep about a third of the dining room and every bar seat for walk-ins, so it’s worth coming by.
- The eight counter seats face the hearth. Book those if you want to watch the cooks. Thursday to Saturday the counter has its own menu at 6 and 8:30, eight courses for $95 a person.
- Running late? Call and we’ll hold the table for 15 minutes.
- Cancel up to 24 hours ahead at no charge. For six or more, later cancellations are $25 a person.
- Everything cooks on one shared grate. If you have a serious allergy, tell us when you book and we’ll clean a section and cook yours first.