Ember & Oak was built around a single, simple idea — that dinner should be cooked over a live fire, by people who care, in a room that feels like the best seat in the house. We opened on 12th Avenue South with a wood-burning hearth, a small open kitchen, and a bar built for long, slow evenings.

Our cooking draws on Southern classics, modern American technique, and the seasonal produce Middle Tennessee does better than almost anyone. The menu shifts every few weeks to follow what the farms are bringing in — tomatoes and corn through the summer, root vegetables and game in the colder months — and most of what leaves the kitchen passes through open flame before it reaches the table.

We believe in hospitality the way the South practices it: warm, unhurried, and intentional. Whether you are here for a Tuesday dinner at the bar or a celebration in our private dining room, the goal is the same — a meal that is generous, considered, and easy to remember.