Ten years of cooking over oak
From a grandmother's charcoal grill in Lebanon to a 14-foot hearth on Larimer Street.
It started with a Sunday lunch
Nadia Haddad grew up in Zahlé, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, where Sunday lunch at her grandmother's house ran for four hours and everything worth eating came off a charcoal grill in the courtyard. She left for culinary school in Marseille at 19, cooked in fish restaurants on the Vieux-Port, and spent three years running the grill at a taverna in Athens.
She came to Denver in 2013 to visit her sister and stayed for the mountains. Three years later she signed a lease on a brick warehouse on Larimer Street that had once stored rail parts, and built a 14-foot hearth where the loading dock used to be.
We are not a Lebanese restaurant, or a Greek one. We cook the way the whole eastern Mediterranean cooks at home, with whatever Colorado grows best that week.
Olive & Ember now runs three kitchens in RiNo, Cherry Creek and Boulder, a bakery, a catering team and a crew of 118 people. The oak is still split by hand every morning.
What we will not compromise on
- 01
Cook with fire, not shortcuts
No gas burners on the line. If it cannot be done over oak, in the wood oven or in the embers, we rethink the dish.
- 02
Buy from people we know
23 Colorado farms and ranches, most within 300 miles. We visit every one of them at least once a year.
- 03
Set the table for sharing
Plates land in the middle of the table. We think a meal is better when people pass things to each other.
- 04
Take care of the crew
Health insurance from day 30, a four-day week for salaried cooks and a share of private dining service charges for everyone.
The growing calendar writes the menu.
Every window below is a real one, with the grower named and the distance from the RiNo kitchen. When a window closes the dish comes off the board. We do not buy it in from out of state to keep a menu line alive.
- Mar - MayMarch to early May
Asparagus, green garlic, nettle, first lamb
Ela Family Farms, Hotchkiss and Rocky Mountain Ranch, Craig 212 miles and 198 miles
Grilled asparagus with green garlic toum, and the first spring lamb of the year
The asparagus window is about five weeks and it closes fast. When it goes, the dish goes; we do not buy it in from out of state to keep a menu line alive.
- May - JunLate May to June
Snap peas, spring onion, green almond, soft herbs
Esoterra Culinary Garden, Cedaredge 246 miles
Pickled green almonds for the tasting menu, and the herb-heavy spring fattoush
Green almonds are picked before the shell hardens and last about ten days on the tree. We buy the whole picking and pickle it in one afternoon to use all year.
- JulJuly
Cucumber, zucchini, first tomatoes, apricots
Berry Patch Farms, Brighton 24 miles
Cold cucumber and yoghurt mezze, grilled apricot with labneh
Twenty-four miles means a morning pick arrives for evening service. July is the only month our produce delivery beats our bread out of the oven.
- Aug - SepAugust to mid-September
Olathe corn, Palisade peaches, Pueblo chiles, heirloom tomatoes
Talbott Farms, Palisade and Musso Farms, Pueblo 243 miles and 112 miles
Peaches grilled over the coals, and the Pueblo chile in the muhammara
The busiest six weeks of our year. We take roughly 900 pounds of Palisade peaches and 400 pounds of Pueblo chiles, roast the chiles in one weekend, and freeze what we cannot use fresh.
- Sep - OctLate September to October
Winter squash, quince, figs, pears, wild mushrooms
Ela Family Farms, Hotchkiss and foraged Front Range chanterelles 212 miles and 40 to 70 miles
Wood-roasted squash with tahini, quince in the lamb braise
The chanterelle flush depends entirely on the August monsoon. Some years we get eight weeks, some years we get none, and the menu says so rather than substituting.
- Nov - DecNovember to December
Brassicas, storage onion, beets, goat
Oxford Gardens, Platteville and Buckner Family Ranch, Ridgway 39 miles and 274 miles
Charred cabbage with brown butter, slow-roast goat for the holiday table
Cabbage is the dish the tasting menu leans on all winter. It is cheap, it is local, and cooked cut-side down on a coal bed for fourteen minutes it is better than most things twice the price.
- Jan - FebJanuary to February
Citrus from partners, preserved summer stock, root vegetables, aged cheese
Our own cellar, plus Jumpin' Good Goat Dairy, Buena Vista 0 and 133 miles
Preserved lemon in everything, the winter braise board, aged chevre with honey
Colorado gives you almost nothing fresh in January. This is the month the preserving work pays off: 340 jars of pickles, preserved lemon and chile paste put up between July and October.
- 23Colorado farms and ranches on the book
- 118 milesAverage distance to our produce growers
- 340Jars preserved in last year's summer window
- 31 of 48Menu lines that change with the season
The people at the fire
A small leadership team, most of whom have been here since the first year. Say hello at the pass.
Nadia Haddad
Chef and owner
Grew up cooking with her grandmother in Zahlé, Lebanon, then spent nine years in kitchens in Marseille and Athens before opening Olive & Ember in 2016.
Tomas Reyes
Beverage director
Certified sommelier who built our 140-bottle list around the eastern Mediterranean and the Grand Valley.
Leila Okonkwo-Marsh
Pastry chef
Runs the Boulder bakery and bakes in the cooling wood oven every night.
Marcus Delgado
Chef de cuisine, RiNo
Has run the 14-foot hearth since opening week and can read the coals by sound.
Ana Kowalczyk
Events and catering
Has planned more than 900 private dinners, weddings and office lunches for our guests.
Samir Patel
General manager, Cherry Creek
Keeps the busiest bar in the group calm, warm and quick on Friday nights.
people on the crew
of oak burned each month, per kitchen
private dinners and events hosted
of kitchen waste composted or recovered
Licenses and certifications
The boring details that let you enjoy dinner without thinking about them. Sample credentials for this demo.
Denver Department of Public Health
Inspected and fully compliant, 2026 routine inspection.
Colorado hotel and restaurant liquor license
Held at all three locations, with TIPS-certified bar staff.
ServSafe certified managers
Every kitchen and floor manager, renewed every five years.
Certifiably Green Denver
Composting, recycling and grease recovery at every location.
