A fictional restaurant, designed & built by Greenshields Studio — a demo of the kind of site we craft for hospitality businesses.
Ember & OakStockbridge · Edinburgh
0131 555 0182 Book a table
Ember & OakStockbridge · Edinburgh
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Our story

A fire, a room, and a corner of Stockbridge.

Ember & Oak began with one stubborn idea: that food cooked over live flame tastes more like itself. No gas line, no shortcuts — just oak, beech and the seasons, in a room on St Stephen Street built for long, unhurried evenings.

The warm, candle-lit dining room at Ember & Oak in the evening 27 St Stephen Street, Stockbridge
Soft lamplight and bare timber across the Ember & Oak dining room Built around the hearth
How it started

A chef came home, and lit a fire.

Rory Maclean grew up a few streets from here. After a decade away — cooking in fire kitchens from San Sebastián to Copenhagen — he came back to Edinburgh with one thing in his head: a single open hearth, and a room good enough to build around it.

The old shop on St Stephen Street had been many things over the years, and was tired by the time he found it. But it had the bones — high ceilings, honest stone, light that turns gold in the evening. He took out the gas line entirely, opened up the back wall, and built the fire where the kitchen had always been.

That was a little over twelve years ago. The hearth has been lit before dawn nearly every service day since, and the room has done exactly what it was meant to: held people for hours longer than they planned to stay.

Meat and vegetables charring over the open wood fire Everything meets the flame
Our kitchen

Why we cook with fire.

Fire is harder than a row of induction hobs. It is also, we think, more honest — it gives food a depth nothing else does, and it leaves nowhere to hide.

It asks more of everyone in the kitchen: to read the heat, to tend the coals, to commit to the produce in front of them. That's the point. A fire keeps you honest about the ingredient and the moment.

  • Oak & beech onlyNo gas, no charcoal briquettes — clean hardwood, burned down to embers.
  • Nothing hidesYou taste the smoke, the char and the season — flavour you can't fake.
  • Slower, harder, honestThe fire is lit before dawn and tended all night. It sets the pace.
  • Whole animal, whole vegetableWe buy whole and use all of it — trimmings, bones, tops and all.
“
A fire doesn't let you lie. It gives back exactly what the season hands you — so we stopped fighting it, and started cooking to the day.
Rory Maclean · Chef-Patron
Who feeds us

The people behind the produce

A fire is only as good as what goes over it. We buy from a small circle of growers, farmers and fishers we know by name — most within a short drive of the door.

Border lamb & beef

Grass-reared in the Scottish Borders and hung the proper length, so it stands up to the coals. We take it whole and butcher it ourselves.

West-coast shellfish

Langoustine, crab and hand-dived scallops landed on the west coast and driven east the same day. Briefly over the fire is all they need.

Lothian market garden

Vegetables and herbs from a market garden just outside the city. The menu turns with their beds — when something peaks, it's on the board by evening.

Rory Maclean working at the pass under warm pendant lights Rory Maclean · Chef-Patron
Chef-Patron

Rory Maclean

Born and raised in Edinburgh, Rory trained in classic kitchens before fire took hold of him — first in the asador country around San Sebastián, then in the new-Nordic rooms of Copenhagen, where cooking over wood is treated as a craft in its own right.

He came home to do the same thing here, on his own terms: Scottish produce, a single hearth, and a kitchen that buys whole and wastes nothing. Twelve years on he still lights the fire most mornings and works the pass most nights — because, as he puts it, the fire is the one part of the job you can't delegate.

The Ember & Oak kitchen brigade at work during service The brigade, mid-service
A spread of wood-fired sharing plates leaving the pass Plated to the season
The team

A small brigade around one fire.

Ember & Oak runs on a tight team who've mostly been here for years. There are no passengers around a live hearth — everyone reads the fire, and everyone has their station.

  • Head Chef & Sous ChefRun the pass and the menu alongside Rory, day to day.
  • Fire CookLives at the hearth — lights it before dawn and tends the coals all night.
  • PastryCoaxes the last of the day's heat into embered fruit and warm puddings.
  • General Manager & SommelierKeep the room unhurried and pour low-intervention wines that suit the smoke.
Friends lingering over a shared table at Ember & Oak Built for long evenings
The room

Sixty covers, one open hearth.

The dining room seats sixty, and it's built for staying: low light, bare timber, candles, and acoustics that let a table talk. We turn it slowly on purpose — your table is yours for the evening.

  • The fire counterSix seats at the pass — eat as the chefs cook, an arm's length from the flame.
  • The CellarA private room below the restaurant for up to sixteen, lined with bottles.
  • No rush to turn the tableWednesday through Sunday, lunch and dinner, at your own pace.
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A table is waiting

Come and eat by the fire.

That's the whole of it, really — good produce, live flame, and a room that's in no hurry. We'd love to cook for you. Wednesday through Sunday, lunch and dinner.

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