Tongs lifting a seared steak above flames on a charcoal grill

Live-fire chophouse · Capitol Hill, Seattle

Cooked over cherry & alder, served with nerve.

Book a table See the menu

Open tonight 5–11 PM

Bar open until 1 AM

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  • Dry-aged 45 days
  • Washington-raised beef
  • Cherry & alder fire
  • Whole-animal butchery
  • Late bar till 1 AM

01 Our Story

We don't hide steak behind sauce. We put it on the fire.

Cinder opened in 2019 in an old Pike Street garage with one idea: a great steak needs good beef, patience and a real fire. Nothing else.

We buy whole animals from six ranches across Washington and Oregon. We break them down in house, dry-age them in our salt-block room, and cook every cut over a wood fire we light at noon and feed all night.

A knife slicing a medium-rare steak on a wooden board
Raw dry-aged steaks on a butcher's board
The salt-block aging room
Days of dry-aging
45
Degrees at the hearth
1,100°F
Northwest ranches
6

02 The Fire

Three steps. No shortcuts.

  1. Raw cuts of beef with rosemary, garlic and salt
    i.

    Source

    Whole animals from ranchers we know by name, all within 300 miles of Seattle.

  2. Close-up of a dark, crusted steak
    ii.

    Age

    Up to 45 days in our salt-block room, until the beef tastes deep and nutty.

  3. Tall flames rising from a grill
    iii.

    Fire

    Cherry and alder wood, burned down to coals. No gas and no shortcuts.

Chef Elias Varga slicing meat in the Cinder kitchen

04 The Chef

“Fire is honest. It tells you exactly what you got wrong.”

Elias Varga Chef & co-founder

Elias spent ten years at wood-fired grills in Buenos Aires and the Basque Country. Then he came home to Seattle to cook the Northwest's best beef the same way.

He's at the hearth every night. If you sit at the counter, he'll probably hand you something to try.

  • 45-day bone-in ribeyefor two
  • Ember-roasted marrowwith sourdough
  • Alder-smoked carrotswith hazelnut

06 Reservations

Your seat by the fire.

Tables open 30 days ahead and weekends go fast. We hold every table for 15 minutes.

  • Walk-insThe bar and chef's counter are always first come, first served.
  • 13 guests or moreCall (206) 555-0148 about our private cellar room.
  • Dress codeCome as you are. Seattle rules.
Party size
2 guests

Online booking is for 1–12 guests.

We're closed on Mondays.

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