Oak & Ember

Ember & Oak is a full marketing site built for a fictional wood-fired restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio — designed to demonstrate what a premium hospitality brand can look like on the web.

The design leans into the restaurant’s identity: a deep charcoal and warm ember palette, editorial typography, and photography-first layouts that let the food do the talking. Every section was built to convert — from an appetizing menu preview to a press strip that builds credibility to a frictionless reservation flow.

Key Features

• Full dinner menu with tabbed sections (starters, mains, sides, desserts) and individual item pricing
• Chef story section with editorial layout and floating press quote
• Press / media strip featuring quotes from Cleveland Magazine, Scene Magazine, and Eater Cleveland
• OpenTable-style reservation form with party size, date, time, and special requests
• Mobile-first responsive layout with sticky header and hours strip in the hero

Design Decisions

The dark theme was intentional — upscale restaurants rarely run light sites, and the deep charcoal background with aged gold accents creates immediate atmosphere. The display typeface is used loosely, mixing weights and italics the way a printed menu would, while the body type stays functional in a clean sans-serif.

The reservation page uses a multi-field form with inline validation rather than embedding a third-party widget — keeping the brand experience consistent all the way to the final CTA.