The soul of Bar Ana, Claudia Martínez’s sweet, subversive Atlanta pastry bar

Bar Ana had been open exactly two weeks when Dalarie Gonzales visited December 4.

It was already the millennial real estate agent and self-described infrequent drinker’s third time patronizing Ponce de Leon Avenue’s new late-night bar.

“What keeps me coming back? Honestly the delicious cocktails. And I love how the cocktails pair with the desserts,” she said.

The beverage program, overseen by bar manager Mayim Williams, was created specifically to harmonize with the flavors her best friend — owner and celebrated pastry chef Claudia Martínez — creates for Bar Ana’s dessert menu. The combined cocktail-confectionary experience inspired Gonzales, who said she loves sweets, to become a more adventurous tippler.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Gonzales had been most impressed by the Aranguani chocolate dessert, adorned with pomegranate, passionfruit ganache and mole crunch. She took her server’s recommendation and paired it with the Café Correcto, a concoction of Sambuca, vermouth, coffee, reposado tequila and mezcal.

But it’s not just the sweets and sips she loves. Bar Ana’s ambiance, with its warm lighting, peach paint, a garden trellis ceiling and an energetic musical soundtrack ranging from bachata and reggaeton to hip-hop and afrobeats, reminds Gonzales of her family’s homeland.

“This hits all the marks. This takes me to Mexico,” she said, before switching languages. “Yo quiero ablo español todo el tiempo — it makes me want to speak Spanish all the time.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

As Gonzales spoke, Martínez walked through the dining room delivering dessert to a table, smiling as she strolled the floor. Before Gonzales headed upstairs for dinner at El Ponce, the Mexican restaurant above Bar Ana, she gave her new hangout another compliment.

“You know, I don’t want to make it like, political, but in a place where, like, being Mexican is literally a crime, it’s really cool.”

And therein lies the magic of what Martínez and a team of dreamers and supporters have created at Bar Ana. It’s a sweet, subversive escape in the form of a late-night cocktail and dessert bar, led by a master pastry maker of Venezuelan descent. It’s where Atlanta’s internationality, particularly among its Latin, Hispanic and Afro-Caribbean communities, is celebrated and balanced through deliciousness, defiance and determination.

The talented Ms. Martínez

Claudia Martínez, 33, has long wanted a place of her own to prepare pastries.

Her career in kitchens began at former Buckhead restaurant Brio Tuscan Grille, where she worked while attending Druid Hills High School. After graduating she moved to Charlotte to attend culinary school, where she struggled with basic pastry classes but excelled at the advanced level.

In 2015, just after gaining her culinary degree from Johnson & Wales University, Martínez was offered a job at Buckhead’s now-closed Restaurant Eugene as a line cook. She was moved around in different roles and ended up on pastry, working under chef Aaron Russell, who led Restaurant Eugene’s pastry program at the time and today owns Poor Hendrix.

She credits Russell with showing her how pastry could be prepared differently than simple cakes and heavy sweets she’d prepared in culinary school. But with her continuously changing kitchen roles she began to feel burned out.

“I love to cook, but I think some of the jobs I had took that love away, just because it was high-pace and high-demand. My mental health wasn’t great at that time, so I decided to figure out what was next.”

In 2017, Martínez contacted a pastry chef she admired through Instagram, pitching herself to stage — restaurant-industry-speak for working without pay to learn skills — at his restaurant in Sweden. When the chef accepted her offer she immediately quit her job at Restaurant Eugene and left the U.S.

“Sweden just … it’s a different pace,” she said. “They made me like pastry and made me fall in love with the industry again. I learned different things there, like, you know, it’s OK to make mistakes. It’s OK to wing it. It’s OK to take breaks. It’s OK to not work an 80-hour week. I basically came back with clarity and more motivation.”

Credit: Bob Townsend

She then took a job as a pastry cook at Atlas before moving to Tiny Lou’s, where she made a name for herself making captivating desserts. Her work earned recognition at a national level; she was a 2020 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef. She was recruited to become Miller Union’s executive pastry chef in 2021, and was a finalist for the same national award a year later.

As her culinary star rose, Martínez felt the allure of going into business for herself. Two years after joining Miller Union the pull couldn’t be ignored.

“I needed to be challenged, and I’m never satisfied with anything I’m doing. So, I knew I had to make a switch at some point because Miller Union was probably the last restaurant job I would have taken in Atlanta.”

Credit: Chris Hunt

Friends in New York encouraged her to move there, which she considered but decided to stay put.

“Atlanta’s always been home, and I’ve tried to leave before and I never have, so I went on a trip to Mexico with my friend and that was like a break for me in my head. I was like, ‘I have to do something new.’ I knew I wanted to open a late-night dessert cocktail bar.”

A family affair

“She’s talked about opening her own space since she was little,” said Claudia’s sister Andrea Martínez, who works as Bar Ana’s executive coordinator, keeping operations, financials and administrative duties organized.

“I think my role as her sister takes precedence over any other role or hat I may wear,” Andrea Martínez said. “First and foremost, it represents my sister’s dream, right? Her dream, her goals, coming to fruition — that’s super-exciting.”

It’s a dream that didn’t come easy, and likely wouldn’t have become reality without the support of her older sister and a crew of talented friends who believe in the chef and joined the journey.

Martínez stepped away from Miller Union in January 2024 to go all-in on Bar Ana. She began looking for places, funding and partners and met Artie De Los Santos, a New York City native of Dominican heritage. De Los Santos’ spirits industry background includes working with beverage conglomerates like Diageo and LVMH, marketing brands like Tito’s Vodka, Grey Goose and Casamigos.

Though he ran in similar circles as Martínez, it was Ivan Solis, a barista who ran a pop-up coffee business called Recuerdos, who put De Los Santos and Martínez together.

“One day Claudia was like, ‘I really wanna do this concept but I don’t know who to work with,’ and I was like, ‘Hey, one of my best friends, Artie, is looking to open up a business himself,” Solis said. “Maybe you guys can share some ideas and work together. Lo and behold, now they’re business partners.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Solis and De Los Santos became friends as fellow members of an Atlanta organization called HYPE, or Hispanic Young Professionals & Entrepreneurs, in which both men served in leadership positions. Their collaboration represents what HYPE was meant to do — build community among Atlanta’s young Latin residents — said the organization’s president, Berny De La Garza.

“When I first met Artie, he would mention this bar he wanted to open. He would describe the feel and the energy around it. I think he was able to really encapsulate that into Bar Ana,” De La Garza said.

“And I can’t say enough good things about those pastries because man, they’re just absolutely incredible. I think Claudia is an incredible chef. And then adding Recuerdos to the equation … Maybe I’m a little biased but I think it’s one of the best co-working spots and hangouts in Atlanta.”

“I was looking to jump into the space,” De Los Santos said of his ambition of owning a bar. “Ivan was thinking about opening up a coffee shop and I was gonna partner with him at some point, but he mentioned Claudia was also looking for a space. So that’s kind of where it all kind of started to integrate together, and when we first spoke, it just made perfect sense.”

Martínez brought the element of fine-dining. De Los Santos was an expert at creating a refined vibe. “We met down the middle and figured out that Bar Ana can happen with both of our expertise involved.”

That expertise was only magnified by the inclusion of bar manager Williams and Recuerdos owner Solis. By including De Los Santos, Bar Ana now had representation from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Jamaica.

De Los Santos held onto his day job for months while quietly working on Bar Ana. Martínez supported herself and her dream by moonlighting, making desserts for restaurants like Small Fry, El Malo and Sammy’s, sometimes working at all three in a single day.

“It was hard,” she said of the year leading up to Bar Ana’s November opening. “I had a lot of pressure on me. And I couldn’t even do my personal work because I didn’t have the space to do what I like to do, which is make plated desserts, talk to guests and create relationships.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

One relationship she could rely on was Williams, a seasoned Atlanta bartender and one of Martínez’s lifelong best friends. They attended Druid Hills Middle and High Schools together, and frequently ate dinner at each other’s homes.

“Her and I would cook a lot of things together, and put on little picnics and dining experiences,” Williams recalled. “She always knew that’s what she wanted to do.”

Williams, who is of Jamaican descent, counts Beetlecat, Kimball House and Cardinal among Atlanta restaurants and bars where she’s served cocktails. Knowing Martínez for decades helped make pairing drinks with her friend’s elevated pastries easier. She said Bar Ana’s bar program is about representing flavor profiles they grew up with culturally.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“We both trust each other for what it is that we do, and it works,” Williams said. “Claudia doesn’t make pastries that are overwhelmingly sweet. I don’t make cocktails that are overwhelmingly sweet. We’re sticking to classics that exist in the bar world, but twisting them in a space that is a little bit more refined and reflects tropical Caribbean flavors.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Having friends and supporters like Williams, De Los Santos and Rosa Thurnher was also key when things became challenging.

Thurnher owns El Ponce. She first bought into the property in 2006 by purchasing El Bar, a small nightclub venue behind and beneath the restaurant, Ten years later, she bought the entire building.

El Bar closed in 2020. The venue, which could fit around 100 people, was known for high-energy dancing inspired by music played by popular Atlanta DJs like Speakerfoxxx, who died in 2018.

Some, like DJ Sean Falyon who also spun records at El Bar and met his children’s mother at the club, see the loss of El Bar as bittersweet.

“I felt like Norm from ‘Cheers’ in there,” Falyon said. “I connected with so many different people from so many different places. El Bar was just a gem in the city that everybody from every walk of Atlanta could be in on one night.”

Thurnher said Speakerfoxxx’s death, along with incidents outside the club and concerns that the venue could become a COVID superspreader, motivated her to close El Bar and try different businesses.

Credit: Brittany Wages

She met Martínez in 2021 and they first collaborated in 2024 for a dinner at El Ponce celebrating women in food and beverage. Thurnher had previously invited Claudia to host pastry pop-ups in the vacant space, but the pastry chef was looking for permanence.

“I didn’t know at the time she wanted to open her own thing,” Thurnher said. Once she knew Martínez’s goal, the two kept talking, sharing advice and ideas. One day in March, Thurnher asked, “What if you did your spot downstairs?”

Martínez accepted the offer, and Thurnher joined as a partner. They began changing the space, hoping to have Bar Ana open earlier in the year, but were delayed.

“We had no corporate backing. We didn’t have an investor outside of, you know, just him (De Los Santos),” Martínez said. “We ran out of money at some point. Some people on the team lost family members at the time. People were saying they’re going to do things for us and they didn’t. Just, you know, normal business stuff I had to learn, so things got pushed back.”

Thurnher, who is white, stuck with her partners for personal reasons. “For me, it’s very intentional. Like, I am not going to give this opportunity to a white man,” she said.

“I owe a lot to a culture that I’m not a part of. Owning a Mexican restaurant, I do feel like if I make my living off that, I have an obligation to push things forward, create a safe space, create community. It’s right, and that’s how it should be.”

Among other challenges, Bar ANA’s carpenter and designer Dallas Dawson suffered a loss of his studio when fire destroyed the South River Art complex a week before opening. The wood used in Bar ANA’s ceiling trellises is the only material that survived the blaze. He was able to salvage it to finish the construction.

Credit: Natrice Miller

Dawson insisted on pushing through the tragedy so that Bar Ana could open. “It was too important for me to make sure they accomplish what they’ve been trying to accomplish because they’ve been so good to me,” he said. “Claudia was like, ‘You don’t have to be here. We can push our opening.’ I’m like ‘No. Let’s get this finished.’”

“I need you to put yourself first,” Martínez told Dawson. “Our families come first. We will not get upset over anything when it comes to like us as humans. It’s OK to take a break.”

The family dynamic is something that’s on display at Bar Ana, whose name is an abbreviation of the names of Martínez’s three immediate family members: her father Aquiles, her mother Nora and sister Andrea. Inside and across from its small red waiting room, where customers have drinks while awaiting tables, are photos of Martínez’s mother, grandmothers, and the staff’s family members. Arranged in a collage, they symbolize unified pride in their ancestries and ongoing legacies.

They’ve also been there for each other in a time where immigrant communities feel attacked by changing U.S. policies toward deportation. It’s particularly close to home, since U.S. immigration enforcement has recently targeted Afro-Caribbean groups as well as Mexican and South American people.

Before the fire, Martínez and the staff also visited Mexico City together, spending days tearing through restaurants and bars for inspiration. The temporary escape from opening stressors also helped the group connect deeper with each other.

“After that trip we all got really close,” she said. “We all aligned on what’s going on in the world, and that was important to me. “We’re gonna be in this together for a long time, so we need to figure out how to communicate and speak about things that are going on, because it’s affecting all of us in different ways.”

“I know that the fact we exist is of itself resistance,” said Solis. “I’m very passionate about community. I’m very passionate about resisting what’s been going on. Us continuing to be excellent and make our businesses successful is a form of resistance. We’re a place where we can make people feel safe, have fun. Let it be a place where people are like, ‘Yeah, no one will be able to take my joy away.’”

Martínez said the escalating tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela, where her family is from, has been personally sad to watch.

“That’s been on my mind constantly,” she said. “Creating this space, we would all touch base about what’s going on in the world. And I think it was harder because this is a bar that doesn’t have backing. We don’t have a rich white guy funding us. We’re all just like taking a chance, knowing we don’t really have much to fall back on.”

She said they plan to work with groups like HYPE on community events for Latin and Hispanic people, now that they have a venue.

“I wanted people who are dealing with stuff like that to be able to come in the bar and feel welcome … a place to step away from all the craziness,” she said.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

The sweet escape

The same interior design that gives Bar Ana its seductive evening allure gives entirely different energy at Recuerdos, the coffee residency open mornings to mid-afternoon.

Thanks to sunrays entering from small windows near the ceiling, the peach-painted walls seem to have a new purpose in the early hours. It becomes a space not just for caffeination but community and culture.

Solis, a 29-year-old Lithonia native, said he fell in love with coffee while attending Georgia State University and working at Kaldi’s Coffee Shop on Emory University’s campus.

“I just love the attention to detail, the latte art … Like, people always dream about love while watching the barista.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Solis later worked as a barista at Gilly Brew Bar, a Black-owned coffee business in Stone Mountain. He credits Gilly co-owner Daniel Brown’s approach to the coffee business — specifically creating a seasonal drink menu inspired by changing storytelling themes including James Baldwin and the Bible — with influencing him to see java differently.

“Making specialty drinks could be rooted from my ancestry, my, my heritage, what I’m thinking about in the moment,” Solis said.

He launched Recuerdos as a coffee pop-up in 2022 and began selling bottled coffee drinks inside chef Maricela Vega’s Chico tortilla and masa tent at Grant Park Farmers Market. One of his first pop-up collaborations was with Claudia at a dinner at Mexican restaurant Patria Cocina.

Recuerdos exclusively serves single-origin Mexican coffee, sourced from roasters around the world. Solis enjoys educating customers who aren’t familiar with the quality and deliciousness of Mexican cafe.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Recuerdos’ menu also features seasonal specialty drinks like the Café de Olla, a cappuccino-style beverage with unrefined piloncillo brown sugar, baking spice and orange peel, and the horchata chai made with warm oat milk. It’s what Tom Miller, a Reynoldstown resident, had when he visited Recuerdos on December 4.

Miller has followed Martínez’s career since 2020 and considers himself a fan. He also donated to a crowdfunding campaign created to help Dawson recover financially from his studio’s fire damage.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“I remember during the pandemic she was selling stuff to keep moving things along — cookies and brownies and stuff,” he said. “It’s pretty awesome to see how much she’s grown.”

Despite the makeup of Bar ANA’s crew, Martínez maintains it’s for everyone — not just Latin, Hispanic and Caribbean people, but people like Miller, a Generation X white man. She insists that Bar Ana feels welcoming and accessible to all, but especially minorities and Atlanta’s working class.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

When asked who she wants as customers, it’s “People like us, who feel comfortable going into a space like this but not having to spend $100 on two cocktails and one dessert,” she said.

It’s not unusual to find cocktail bars with prices often above $20 per drink, yet the most expensive cocktail on the opening menu was the Dirty Pineapple, which rings up at $17.

Williams said given the background of the people involved in the restaurant, many being children of immigrants, it’s important that Bar Ana is represented as a welcoming and familiar place.

“It’s really important to me that what we’re presenting is unpretentious,” Williams said.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

On Bar Ana’s first friends and family night, Martínez said she kept the front door closed an extra 10 minutes so the staff could have Champagne together.

“I don’t know how we did it, but we did it, and it felt kind of crazy,” Martínez said. “Still, even to this day, already I feel like we should be celebrating more, but we’re still in this.”

De Los Santos, while preparing to open the restaurant on the first Monday of December, reiterated the thrill of Bar Ana being open to the world but said he’s not yet comfortable celebrating. He admitted it being scary enough to feel in his stomach.

“But I know that we did it together, De Los Santos said, ”and I think that alone makes it a win for all of us.”

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