We came up with the idea for Embers last October back when the energy crisis had just started.
“Let’s open a restaurant where we only cook over a wood fire, no electric, no gas, just wood.”
At first, I thought Dave had gone a bit mad but the more we thought about it the more we fell in love with the idea!
Wood is a carbon-neutral source of heat with the exception of transport which is why it was so important to us to find a local wood supplier. A couple of months later we met this charming chap, Mark Salanson who has a lumber yard based in Hassocks and will be supplying us with all our logs. He is a true old-school perfectionist when it comes to logs, using only ash & beech which he kiln-dries on site. This process takes around 4 to 7 days depending on the weather and Mark prides himself on not letting a single log leave the yard until the moisture content is perfect.
It was really important to us to find the perfect logs that create the perfect embers, delivering a consistent heat and a delicate yet distinctive aroma to everything we cook!
To increase efficiency we have also designed the restaurant to make the most of the energy produced by the fire by using it to heat all the plates and also using it as the main source of heating in the main dining room.
