A Contemporary Fine Dining Experience
Nestled in the heart of the city, Ember & Gold was born from a love of ancient cooking techniques and modern artistry. Our open-fire kitchen is the soul of every plate.
Discover MoreOur cellar is a personal collection — assembled over fifteen years to complement the nuance and depth of our kitchen. Every bottle tells a story of terroir and craft.
"We believe wine should elevate every dish, not overwhelm it. Our selection spans the old world and new, united by a commitment to producers who farm with integrity and bottle with restraint."
— Marco Delacroix, Head SommelierFrom intimate degustation evenings to exclusive producer lunches, our events calendar is a celebration of food, wine, and community.
An eight-course journey through the season, each dish paired with wines selected by Head Sommelier Marco Delacroix. Chef James Harlow will guide you through the inspiration behind each plate.
A rare celebration of the winter truffle at its seasonal peak. Six courses built entirely around the Périgord black truffle, paired with aged Burgundy and premium Oregon Pinot Noir.
A rare Sunday lunch with three of our most trusted producers — a pastoralist, a market gardener, and a winemaker — each sharing the philosophy behind what lands on your plate.
Ember & Gold offers two stunning private dining rooms for corporate events, milestone celebrations, and intimate gatherings. Each room features bespoke menus, dedicated service, and our full wine programme.
Seats up to 14 guests. Exposed brick, an open fireplace, and direct views into the kitchen pass. Ideal for intimate dinners and board gatherings. Available Tuesday to Sunday from 6pm.
Seats up to 28 guests in theatre-style or 22 for seated dining. Floor-to-ceiling velvet drapes, a dedicated wine service station, and AV facilities. Available any evening by arrangement.
Fifteen years of fire, flavour, and friendship — a restaurant built not from ambition, but from love.
Ember & Gold opened in 2010 with a single woodfire grill, two gas burners, and a team of four. Chef James Harlow had spent a decade in kitchens across London, Lyon, and Tokyo — accumulating techniques, but searching for a singular voice.
He found it in fire. The primal simplicity of cooking over coals — the Maillard reaction, the smoke, the char — became the philosophical anchor of every dish that followed. Today, the open-fire kitchen remains the centerpiece of the dining room.
We cook with restraint and precision. Every element on the plate has a reason to exist. We believe the best meals are built on great produce treated with respect — not obscured by technique.
All seafood is sourced from certified sustainable fisheries. Meat comes from single-origin farms within 300km. We compost all kitchen waste and operate a zero-landfill programme in partnership with local growers.
We partner with three urban farms that employ people transitioning out of homelessness. Every meal at Ember & Gold contributes $2 to the Chicago Food Relief Collective.
Trained at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck and Michel Bras in Laguiole, James returned to Chicago in 2010 with a reverence for produce and a passion for open-fire cooking that defines Ember & Gold to this day.
Yuki brings precision and a deep knowledge of fermentation from her years in Tokyo's three-Michelin-star kitchens. She oversees the degustation menu and the restaurant's extensive house ferment programme.
A Master of Wine with 20 years across Burgundy négociants and Chicago's top dining rooms, Marco curates a wine list of over 800 labels — always with the food at its heart and the guest in mind.