Our story
Old brick. New fire.
The same harbour.
Ember & Tide lives in an 1890s warehouse on Wharf Street, the kind of building that once held rope, salt and ship's chandlery for the boats in the harbour below.
A great steakhouse is honest. Great beef, cooked over real fire. Great seafood, served cold or barely touched. Then get out of the way.
Executive Chef
Nadia Ferreira
Raised in Tofino and trained in Lisbon and Buenos Aires. Nadia spent a decade cooking over open fire before coming home to the island.
“In Argentina I learned patience with fire. In Portugal I learned respect for fish. Victoria gave me both at once: cattle country an hour's drive away, and the best shellfish in the world across the street. Ember & Tide is simply me cooking where I'm from.”
— Nadia Ferreira
Quietly obsessive
The hearth
Built around a fire
The kitchen's centrepiece is a four-metre, hand-cranked Argentine grill fed with Vancouver Island alder and Garry oak offcuts.
There is no gas on the line. Our cooks raise and lower each grate by feel, reading the coals the old way. It's harder and slower, and every steak tastes of it.
“Some nights the fog rolls in off the Strait and the whole room smells of cedar smoke and salt.”
Ember & Tide
The people behind the pass
A small crew, mostly island-born, cooking and pouring like it's their own place.
Theo Marchand
Chef de Cuisine. Runs the fire. Has never once used a thermometer on a steak and never will.
Ines Kaur
Wine Director. Built a four-hundred-label list around one question: what tastes best with smoke and salt?
Sam Okafor
Head of Raw Bar. Shucks around nine hundred oysters on a Saturday, and knows every grower by name.