A pie on the oven floor under the flame-licked dome of the beast, the oak fire roaring across the ceiling
214 Atwells Ave · Federal Hill, Providence

Ember & Oak

Neapolitan, 90 seconds, over oak.

Two of us, one oak-fired dome we call the beast, and a room that seats thirty-four. That is the whole restaurant.

Opened
2016, Federal Hill
The bakers
Marco Ruiz & Nadia Ferro
The oven
Oak-fired, 905°F
The table
One communal white oak
Open
Tue–Sun, 5–11pm
Hands pressing a floured round of dough, minute zero
The leopard-spotted cornicione, ninety seconds out of the oak fire
90seconds

The beast does not wait.

The oak fire holds nine hundred and five degrees. A pie goes in pale and slack and comes out in ninety seconds, the crust blistered into leopard spots you can only get from live flame.

DoughChar
A charred margherita with basil and blistered tomato, plated on wood at the oak table

One board, milled from a fallen oak.

There is a single communal table in the room, cut from a white oak that came down in a storm in Marco's parents' yard. You sit next to whoever is next to you. Most nights that turns into the point.

“The char on that crust tastes like a campfire you can eat.”

Rhea P.

“We came for one pie and stayed three hours at the oak table.”

Dominic & Sara

Natural wine, poured by the glass.

Nadia keeps a short list of low-intervention bottles, mostly Italian, all open and ready to pour. It rotates when a bottle runs out, so what is on tonight is on tonight. Ask her what drinks well with the clam pie.

Poured by Nadia Ferro, by the glass or the bottle

On tonight, by the glass
Lambrusco, pet-natEmilia-Romagna, frizzante red 13
FrappatoSicily, light and floral 12
Trebbiano, skin-contactAbruzzo, amber, a little grip 14
Nerello MascaleseEtna, ash and red fruit 16

Come sit at the oak table.

We hold a few tables for walk-ins every night, but the room is small. Reserve ahead and we will confirm by text. Kitchen runs 5 to 11, closed Mondays.