Our story
A neighbourhood kitchen, built around a fire.
Olive & Ember started with a secondhand oven, twenty-two seats and a stubborn idea: cook everything over wood, buy from people we know, and make everyone feel like a regular.
How we got here
Ten years of cooking over flames
-
2014
A secondhand oven
Inês and Tomás open a 22-seat room on Harbour Street with an oven rescued from a closing bakery.
-
2016
Fire only
We remove the last gas burner. Every dish now cooks over oak and olive wood from Hollow Oak Wood Co.
-
2018
The long table
A 7-metre table, made from reclaimed boatyard timber, becomes the heart of the dining room.
-
2021
The Cellar Room
We open the old bakery cellar next door for private dinners and our monthly winemaker suppers.
-
2024
Restaurant of the Year
Named Restaurant of the Year at the Coastal Food Awards. We celebrate with a very long lunch.
01
Fire
No gas, no shortcuts. Wood gives us flavour you can't fake and keeps us paying attention.
02
Season
We write the menu after the market, not before. If it isn't good this week, it isn't on.
03
Neighbourhood
Fair wages, a shared service charge and a table kept for walk-ins every night.
The people
Meet the team
Twenty-three people cook, pour, wash and welcome at Olive & Ember. Here are four of them.
Inês Duarte
Head chef & co-owner
Trained in Lisbon and San Sebastián, then came home to build the oven herself.
Tomás Reyes
Co-owner & front of house
Runs the room, the music and most of the jokes. Knows every regular by name.
Amara Cole
Sommelier
Visits every winemaker on our list and pours with stories to match.
Theo Marchetti
Pastry chef
Bakes the bread at dawn and the olive oil cake by lunchtime.
Where it comes from
Our suppliers
Most of what we cook travels less than 40 km. These are some of the people who make it possible.
Olive oil
Quinta das Oliveiras
Hand-picked, cold-pressed oil from a family grove 30 km inland.
Daily catch
Harbour Fish Market
Line-caught fish chosen at 6am by Inês, a five-minute walk away.
Lamb & vegetables
Ridge Farm
Pasture-raised lamb and the carrots that made our name.
Firewood
Hollow Oak Wood Co
Seasoned oak and olive prunings from sustainably managed woodland.
Pull up a chair.
The best way to know us is to eat with us. We'd love to cook for you.