The House
Born of smoke and fire.
A live-fire steakhouse in a former cold-storage warehouse, where the hearth has not gone out since the night we opened.
Everything here is touched by fire.
Ember & Ash opened in 2019, when chef August Wren took over a former cold-storage warehouse on Navigation Boulevard and lit a fire in the middle of it. The conviction was simple: beef, vegetables, even fruit taste truer cooked over open flame than by any other means.
The room was built low and dark to match — oxblood leather, blackened steel, candlelight that never reaches the ceiling. Nothing distracts from the coals and the plate in front of you.
"We don't own an oven. We own a fire that hasn't gone out since the night we opened."August Wren, Chef & Founder
Our Fire
Three things, done completely.
The Hearth
White oak and Texas post oak, burning at 1,100°F, lit at four o'clock daily. The fire is the kitchen.
The Aging
Beef dry-aged in-house, 45 to 60 days, in a Himalayan-salt room two floors below the dining room.
The Char
Finished over binchotan until the crust cracks like glass and the smoke settles into the grain.
August Wren
Chef & Founder
August Wren trained on the asador circuit in Argentina, learning to read a fire by its color and to cook whole animals over hardwood coals. A fine-dining background in New York gave the discipline; the asador gave the conviction.
He came to Houston in 2018 with one idea — to build a restaurant around a single fire — and spent a year turning a cold-storage warehouse into a room warm enough to hold it.
Wine & Whiskey
Kept two floors below.
Fourteen hundred labels and a whiskey library under lock and candle. Our sommeliers pour rare verticals by the glass and pull single barrels you won't find again.
See the cellar
Recognition
What they've said.
"Three Stars."
Texas Monthly"One of the most exciting rooms in Texas."
Eater Houston"The city's definitive steakhouse."
Houston Chronicle"Grand Award."
Wine Spectator