Terre à Terre’s Dave Marrow and Isaac At’s Isaac Bartlett-Copeland have teamed up to open a new restaurant, Embers, in Brighton’s Lanes.
Celebrating Sussex produce cooked over an open wood fire and cutting-edge cocktails, the 42-cover restaurant will open on 5th April.
In a departure from your average eatery, all the dishes will be cooked on a fire cage over local kiln-dried ash and birch wood (the embers!) in the centre of the restaurant, making it a great focal point for all diners. No gas or electricity here – at least not for the cooking!
“It’s always been our dream to open a restaurant together and I’m so excited that this dream has finally been realised. Dave has always been the BBQ king and has always cooked over wood fire, so opening a restaurant focused on fire and friendship just makes so much sense!” said Isaac (pictured on the right, below)
So what about the food? The pair say the focus is on creating big, bold flavours from locally grown ingredients using a pared-back, accessible cooking style. The concise menu features playful snacks, small plates, centrepiece dishes and some unique desserts, all served sharing-style in keeping with the restaurant’s ethos.
Start salivating because these are the kinds of inventive dishes we can expect:
- Glazed lamb ribs, candied ginger, kimchi, furikake;
- Smokey chicken leg, crispy skin, n’duja aioli, honey butter;
- Wagyu Denver steak, Roscoff onion, coffee hollandaise;
- Miso celeriac, koji soaked engiri, fresh spring truffle, pickled sea vegetables, mushroom XO;
- Shiitake and cashew larb, bitter herbs, charred Hispi cabbage; and
- Banana split, parsnip and rosemary ice-cream, toffee sauce, praline
The two classically trained chefs have got one hell of a Brighton pedigree and they go way back, but this will actually be the first time they’ve teamed up. The long-term friends first met 15 years ago when Dave mentored Isaac in the latter’s first kitchen role at The Grand.
“He’s one of my closest friends and also taught me most of what I know about cooking,” Isaac wrote in an Instagram post.
And it’s not just about the food. Cocktails will also play a major role in the restaurant’s offering with a range of classic cocktails and expertly crafted drinks designed to showcase smoky flavours, the restaurant’s calling card. There’s the Smoking Sazerac (cognac, whiskey and bitters, served with a bubble of smoke aromas) and the Flaming Zombie (rum, orange juice, pineapple juice and Velvet Falernum, served with a flaming sugar cube), for starters.
In keeping with the stripped-back cooking style, the restaurant’s aesthetic (a joint venture of Dave, Isaac and his wife, Hannah, and local carpenter Paul Bethell) is simple but inviting, keeping the focus on Dave cooking up a storm at the blazing fire cage. Large discs of burnt wood will decorate the walls while food will be served on sliced slabs of grey rock in lieu of traditional plates.
They’ve also got an eye on energy efficiency and sustainability as the fire cage will be used to heat the main dining room with the wood locally sourced from Sussex.
As well as the 42 covers inside the main restaurant, al fresco-dining lovers will be able to enjoy the eight seats at the front of the restaurant, while a back room with a further 18 covers will open in June.
Opens to the public on Wednesday, 5th April
Then will open Wednesday – Friday; 5pm – midnight and Saturday and Sunday; midday – midnight
42 Meeting House Lane, Brighton, BN1 1HB
embersbrighton.co.uk
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