Wood-fired vegetarian, Mill Bend
Cooked close to the flame.
An independent kitchen in Mill Bend, Denver, built around one hearth. Oak, burned down to coals, and a short menu that all meets the fire.
- One hearth, Mill Bend
- All of it vegetarian
- Pickup only
What we cook
Vegetables are the point, not the compromise.
There is no mock anything on this menu. We are not making vegetarian versions of other people's food.
What we have instead is corn left in the coals until the kernels catch, fresh cheese taken close enough to the flame to blister, and flatbread that spends ninety seconds on the hearth stone and comes off freckled. Heat and salt do most of the work. Almost everything is finished with acid.
“If it cannot be cooked over wood, it is not on the menu.”
The hearth
One fire, four temperatures.
Oak, burned down to coals before anything goes near it. Nothing is cooked while the fire is still climbing. After that the whole service is a slow walk down the heat, and every dish is placed where its temperature is.
- 900°F
At the flame
Flatbread, ninety seconds, turned once with a peel.
- 700°F
The hearth stone
Pizza. Blistered at the edge, still soft under the middle.
- 500°F
The mouth
Cheese on the skewer, peppers, whole heads of cabbage, corn in the husk.
- 250°F
What is left
Onions that sit overnight, and cream smoked for the brownie.
This week
The menu follows the season.
Colorado gives a short bright growing season and a long cold half of the year, so the board moves. High summer is tomatoes, corn and peppers, barely cooked at all. The rest of the year is roots, brassicas, grains, alliums and whatever was preserved while it was cheap.
We do not pretend it is August in February. When something stops being worth cooking it comes off the board.
Pickup
Order ahead. Collect at the counter.
The whole menu goes out for pickup. There is no delivery, nothing is charged online, and you pay at the counter when you collect.
Start an orderOrder
Pick what you want from the menu and send it through.
We cook it
Everything goes on the fire when your order lands.
Pick it up
Give the name on the order at the counter, and pay when you collect.
Visit
Find us in Mill Bend.
One long room with the hearth at the far end, brick on one side and plaster on the other, and a counter of eight facing the fire. Pickup orders are handed over at the front counter, just inside the door, in the same warm room as everyone else.
- Where
- Mill Bend, Denver
Ember & Fork is a demonstration site, so there is no physical address to visit and no hours to publish. The ordering flow works end to end.
