At Bar ANA, Claudia Martinez Has Created a Dessert and Cocktail Bar with Latin Soul
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When Claudia Martinez opened the doors to Bar ANA, it marked more than just the debut of a late-night dessert bar in Atlanta. For Martinez, it was the culmination of a decade spent in some of the city’s most celebrated kitchens, an exploration of her Latin roots through the lens of travel, and a first step toward creating a space that felt both deeply personal and refreshingly unpretentious.
Bar ANA has found a home in the basement of El Ponce, a landmark on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The space once housed the raucous El Bar, known for late nights, loud music, and sticky floors — but it closed during the pandemic and has been used for pop-ups, a fair trade gift shop, and drinks trade events ever since.
Here’s what to expect at the chef’s long-anticipated dessert and cocktail bar.
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For Martinez, opening Bar ANA is a full-circle moment
Martinez has long been a star of Atlanta’s pastry scene. A Venezuelan-American chef raised in a Southern household, she trained in fine dining and is known for fruit-forward, globally inspired desserts at places like Miller Union, Tiny Lou’s, and Tio Lucho’s.
But after years of running pastry programs for other people’s restaurants, she felt the pull toward something more. “Once you hit your mark at a spot, you need more of a challenge,” she says. A trip to Mexico solidified the decision. A combination of her own personal growth plus seeing how chefs celebrated desserts and flavors there was part of what made her realize she was ready.
“It wasn’t the space I was looking at,” Martinez says of El Ponce’s basement bar. Originally, she thought of using it for a temporary pop-up until a larger buildout elsewhere was ready. But Rosa Thurnher, owner of El Ponce, encouraged her to think bigger: why not take it on permanently, and grow into it?
When Martinez and her business partner, Artie De Los Santos, stepped in, the bar needed some love, for which the duo recruited designers and artists Dallas Dawson and Chris Gravely. The floors were redone, the rock walls covered up, and the vision they had in mind slowly began to shape. Plus, the location made sense: it was familiar territory. Martinez’s career began just down the street, and the opportunity to reimagine the space as something unexpected and their own felt like a full circle moment.
Coffee by day, cocktails and desserts by night.
Bar ANA is designed to shift identities depending on the time of day. In the morning, it will partner with Recuerdos Cafe, an Atlanta roaster. Founder Ivan Solis will run a daytime program featuring drip coffee, espresso, and some specialty and seasonal drinks like cafe de olla, horchata chai, and a mole caramel creation. Martinez has known Ivan for years — he even introduced her to De Los Santos — so the collaboration felt natural.
In the evenings, the room transforms into a moody dessert and cocktail bar. Beverage director Mayim Williams (of El Malo, Girl Bar, and gone-but-not-forgotten Best End Brewing Company and Cardinal ) oversees a rotating menu of cocktails and wine pairings, with signature daiquiris and martinis designed to complement Martinez’s sweets and a major draw in themselves. The team has also built out a thoughtful list of Latin beers and approachable wines, plus a few savory bites like charcuterie boards stacked with pickles, mustard, and grilled bread, and a caramelized onion and goat cheese potato tart.
Meanwhile, Martinez’s pastry philosophy resists the overly decadent. Influenced by European and Japanese dessert traditions, the menu rotates regularly, highlighting tropical fruits and ingredients from across Latin America. Think quesillo tart (a cheffy take on a Venezuelan custard-style dessert) brightened with grapefruit and caramel popcorn, and plated desserts built around citrus fruits like lulo (also known as naranjillo), native to Colombia and Ecuador. Look out for her beloved raspberry-glazed doughnuts with pink peppercorn ice cream, or vanilla bean bavarois paired with lime ganache, basil cake, and guava sorbet.
For those who like surprises, Martinez has a three-course dessert tasting menu ($45) inside Bar ANA’s private VIP room in the works.
The soundtrack: music that feels like home.
If El Bar represents the best kind of chaos, Bar ANA aims for intimate and relaxed. Here, music plays a big role. De Los Santos has designed a program inspired by New York bars like Las’ Lap , where rotating DJs curate playlists that set a vibe without overpowering conversation. “Las’ Lap embodied what every bar and restaurant should aspire to be: community personified. It felt like home away from home — where the food, drinks, and music existed in complete harmony, and everyone in the room seemed to move to the same rhythm,” De Los Santos says.
One of Martinez’s favorite recent travel moments was walking into Handshake in Mexico City to hear “Ms. Jackson” on the speakers. At Bar ANA, diners can expect a mix of Latin beats, Afro rhythms, and nods to Atlanta icons like Outkast, of course.
A sweet spot for friends.
“I want to focus on what might be nostalgic to diverse audiences — a lot of people don’t really know Latin desserts, so the goal is to highlight ingredients and more classic techniques you find in South America but aren’t common here, maybe bringing in açaí and desserts like tres leches and just showcasing them differently.”
For many locals and for Martinez herself, Bar ANA represents something missing in Atlanta: a late-night spot where desserts and drinks are the main event. The bar stays open until midnight on weeknights and 2 a.m. on weekends, giving guests an option beyond loud clubs and pricey dinners. Above all, Martinez wants Bar ANA to feel human. “We’re trying to create a space where you can come in and guests are treated like people; we’ll remember your birthday, host your girls’ night, change things for you as needed — it doesn’t matter what you look like or where you’re from. Anyone can have a beautiful dessert and well-made cocktail without being in Buckhead.”
The goal is a speakeasy-like atmosphere that feels as at home in Atlanta as it could in Los Angeles or Tokyo or Mexico City, rooted in community and genuine hospitality. It’s Martinez’s statement: about Latin flavors, about warm hospitality, and about welcoming a new kind of nightlife to the city.
Allison Ramirez is a bicoastal, Atlanta-based (for now) freelance journalist. She has over a decade of experience writing for publications like Travel + Leisure, the Daily Beast, Liquor, Thrillist, and others. Her recent work spans art, architecture, travel, and food & beverage stories, focusing on diversity within those spaces in the South and beyond. Follow her on Instagram here. Follow Resy, too.
