The People Behind the Fire
Our Story
It started with one fire pit, a borrowed folding table, and far too much food for a backyard.
Founders
Mara Ellison & Theo Vance
A line cook and a farmer who decided dinner should happen outdoors, around a flame.
Mara spent a decade on the line in restaurants from Charleston to Asheville and grew quietly tired of cooking food that nobody got to watch happen. Theo ran a small produce farm up the Blue Ridge and was tired of his best vegetables disappearing into other people's walk-in coolers.
They met at a Saturday farmers market, argued about the right way to char a tomato, and threw a dinner that weekend to settle it. Forty friends, one fire pit, a folding table that nearly collapsed. By the end of the night people were asking if they could hire them. Oak & Ember has been answering yes ever since.
How It Burned Down to Now
A short history of the fire
The Backyard Supper
That first accidental dinner for forty. Two weeks later, the first paying booking — a friend's anniversary, cooked entirely over a borrowed grill. Oak & Ember was officially, if barely, a business.
Built the Rig
When indoor gatherings paused, open-air fire cooking became exactly what people wanted. We built our first mobile kitchen — a wood-fired oven and a real coal pit on a trailer — and never looked back.
The Riverside Kitchen
We took the lease on 88 Riverside Drive: a prep kitchen, a tasting room, and a yard big enough to test fires year-round. Tastings by the fire became a standing part of every wedding booking.
Forty Farms Deep
Our grower network crossed forty partner farms across Western North Carolina. Today nearly everything we cook is named on the menu — the farm, the field, the week it was picked.
By the numbers
What We Won't Compromise
The things we keep
Fire, always
If it can be cooked over flame, it will be. No banquet steam trays, no chafing dishes warmed in a back room. The fire is the kitchen and it cooks in front of your guests.
Named, local, seasonal
We buy from farms we can drive to and people we know by name. If a vegetable isn't in season here, it isn't on your menu. Honesty tastes better than convenience.
Abundance over restraint
Nobody should leave our table hungry, and nobody should feel rushed. We cook for the kind of long, generous evening where the food keeps coming and the fire keeps people close.
Hospitality, fully staffed
You hired us so you could be a guest at your own party. Our crew handles the fire, the floor, the bar, and the cleanup — so your only job is to sit down and stay a while.
Pull Up a Chair
Come sit at our table.
We'd love to cook your next gathering. Tell us a little about it and we'll start a conversation by the fire.