SCHENECTADY — Ember & Cork, an ambitious restaurant with wood-fired cooking as the heart of its menu, is closing Saturday 15 months after opening. The business has been sold, according to co-owner Andy Zheng, and will become a new concept in a few months after renovation.
Zheng and business partner David Ortiz opened Ember & Cork at the end of October 2024 as a successor to their Zen Asian Fusion Lounge after 11 years. He said the new owner has multiple restaurants locally but does not wish to be identified yet.
Ember & Cork was developed for the partners by the chef Marc Alvarez. The Bronx native moved to Niskayuna in 2023 after being chef-owner of Ember restaurant on Anguilla in the British West Indies, where he lived for 13 years in two stints starting in 1996. Alvarez, who was Ember & Cork’s executive chef and operations director, resigned in mid-December for reasons he declined to make public. Before the restaurant opened, he told the Times Union he planned to maintain his independent restaurant consulting business.
Central to the cooking at Ember & Cork are a wood-fired oven and wood-burning grill used to char or fire-kiss dishes from beets to octopus, strip steaks and lamb T-bones. The wine list includes more than 140 labels, and the bar features creative cocktails.
Following a meal at the restaurant two months after it opened, former Times Union restaurant critic Susie Davidson Powell filed a praise-filled review that lauded the assured cooking, writing, “Plates show little sign of opening nerves, instead landing like best hits.”
Through Friday, happy hour starts at 4 p.m., dinner an hour later; the restaurant opens at 5 p.m. Saturday. The address is 469 State St. As of midday Wednesday, Ember & Cork’s social media and website did not mention the impending closure.
This story has been updated.