Ember & Alma
What do you get when you mix your favorite neighborhood hideaway with a touch of downtown flair?
When you blend South American flavors with American comfort food?
When you combine the soul of a grandmother’s kitchen with the spectacle of a smoking cocktail?
You get Ember & Alma.
“Hi. My name is Luiz Fernandes, and welcome to Ember and Alma.”
Located in Marlborough, Ember & Alma blends Luiz’s Brazilian roots with his Metro-west upbringing to create a space that’s as welcoming as it is unexpected.
“Ember and Alma is a modern craft cocktail bar that is trying to blend the best parts of our two cultures. We're taking some of the best flavors from South and Latin America and blending them with a contemporary kind of American cuisine.”
“It's a really cozy atmosphere where we try to have different environments depending on where you're sitting— And that is just a really good time, no matter what day you come in.”
Dining here is definitely an experience, one that isn’t just dictated by where you sit, but what you share.
“The way that I like to explain our menu is that—. The way that we built it is so that you can kind of come in with a couple of buddies, some friends, grab a couple of cocktails, and just pick a bunch of different things off the menu to sit down and be able to all share that meal… So that's really the idea behind the menu is a shared experience.”
When it comes to shareables, the most popular section is the skewers.
“So one of the most traditional and popular types of food from Brazil is obviously Brazilian barbecue. So we took that inspiration from Brazilian barbecue to do like a street food version of it. And so, you know, we have grilled picanha, we have grilled pineapple, we have shrimp skewers, we have a skirt steak skewer, and the all of these, it's to try to harken back to that idea of like a, street food from Brazil that's still touching upon that barbecue, but in a different way.”
Go beyond the skewers, and you’ll find small plates that push familiar flavors in unexpected directions…
Like the crispy pork belly served over house-made parsley aioli. The tender picanha meatballs stuffed with mozzarella cheese. The short rib loaded fries slathered with four-cheese sauce and the buffalo chicken coxinha.
“So the buffalo chicken coxinha is—a cochine is one of the most traditional Brazilian pastries out there. It's—think of it almost like a chicken fritter. So the outside is very crispy, but the inside the, the dough is incredibly soft, and then you get the shredded chicken with the buffalo sauce up front, and then some of the Brazilian cream cheese helps balance that spice, so it's a really well-balanced bite that you get.”
But if you ask Luiz, the two real must-orders are the bananas bravas, crispy plantains covered in a spicy, smokey bravas sauce and garlic aioli and the grilled octopus.
“I absolutely love our grilled octopus. I think it's one of the coolest things that we have on the menu, the octopus itself. It's, you know, we cook it, we season it. It's incredible. It's grilled. But really, I think the star of that dish is the—it's a cassava milfoy. It's a incredible pastry where it is layer upon layer of baked yucca, and then butter, yucca, butter and then we serve the octopus over the top and I think it's a really unique, special dish.”
Though much of the menu was made for sharing, there are still traditional entrees you can keep all to yourself. Like the grilled ribeye served over a creamy mushroom risotto and the traditional Moqueca stew.
“Moqueca is a traditional Brazilian fish stew. But then we also have mussels, shrimp, and then we serve it with the coconut rice.”
“It's savory, it's creamy It’s really hearty. And it's delicious.”
You can also go with the less-traditional Feijoada risotto, that’s made with black beans and topped with bacon, sausage, and spicy collard greens. Or the Amazon burger that’s so big, it’s served with a steak knife!
“The Amazon burger is a burger that has pretty much everything on it. You have our patty that we make in-house. It then has cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, potato sticks, a house-made parsley aioli, an egg. It's just, it's got everything you could ever want in a burger. It's like the size of your head.”
The inventiveness of the menu of course extends to dessert, where you can have dulce de leche empanadas or a warm chocolate brownie served with Luiz’s homemade passion fruit ice cream. But it’s also poured into every glass to create some truly incredible cocktails.
“I think the thing that makes our cocktails really different is that we try to do everything as fresh as humanly possible so. Everything that we do is to the highest standard of craft cocktail making, and we want to make sure that just because we're out in the suburbs doesn't mean that we can't have an absolutely killer cocktail program.”
One of the most impressive cocktails is what’s known as the Dictator, a rum old-fashioned served in a smoke-filled box.
It’s a funny name, really. Because at Ember & Alma, nothing is dictated. It’s all about choosing your own adventure.
“I absolutely love what I do. I love being able to serve people and it's that high of getting to see people's face light up when they try something unique that you create, that it's one of the reasons why I absolutely love hospitality.”
