The entrance doesn’t give anything away. A narrow stone passageway on the second floor of Ponce City Market’s Central Food Hall glows burnt orange at the far end, warm light bleeding through sculpted rock walls that press close on both sides. As you walk through, the food hall hums and the Beltline crowd falls away. Then the passage opens, and you’re somewhere else entirely.
“La Cueva is designed to feel like a discovery,” says co-founder Robert Hopper, who is also behind The Commodore barbershop, which just opened its fifth location at PCM. He and co-founder Peter Terrones spotted the space while scouting for the barbershop and recognized the potential immediately.
La Cueva, Spanish for “the cave”, opened on the second floor of PCM’s Central Food Hall (675 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE) in June, and is unlike anything else in the building—or even the neighborhood. The entrance, tucked into the elevator hallway, is easy to miss. As it should be.
Designed by Maison Maluee, the 2,700-square-foot room commits fully to its slot canyon premise. Curved rock-textured walls in deep terracotta continue from the entry passage into the main space, where bright orange velvet banquettes are tucked into alcoves carved directly into the stone. The bar counter glows from within, while warm uplighting illuminates the entire space in a way that feels geological rather than designed. Your eyes need a minute to adjust, but that’s all part of the experience.
Seventy-five seats are distributed between plush lounge areas, the bar, and a flexible side section that can be closed off for private events. A small stage anchors the room. The music program leans jazz Tuesday through Friday—mostly instrumental at a volume still conducive to conversation, Hopper says. DJs take over Saturdays and Mondays.
The beverage program was shaped by two people with complementary expertise. Bar Lead Francis Coligado developed the initial cocktail program, and Beverage Director Alexander Holender brought his authority on pisco from a background working in Lima, including Maria Mezcal, Lima’s first mezcaleria. Mezcal was always part of the direction. Pisco followed. Together, they form the backbone of a program that pulls widely across Latin American and international spirits without losing focus.
The cocktail list is titled “Keeper’s Remedies,” a name that fits the space’s mythology of refuge and restoration. The Buford Highway is the obvious conversation starter and probably the most Atlanta cocktail on the menu: Mi Campo Tequila and Nikka Days Japanese whisky meet tepache liqueur, five-spice, and citrus, clarified and stirred into a sip that tastes as multicultural as its namesake corridor. The Bandolero—mezcal, Rhum Agricole JM, creme de cacao, mole spices, lime, and chili oil—is smoky and slow-burning. The Nomad pairs 400 Conejos mezcal with Pisco Barsol, vermouth, and Campari for something more robust and unapologetically spirit-forward.
For those who want the classics done straight, the Timeless Originals section covers a Pisco Sour built on Pisco Demonio de los Andes Italia—bright and properly foamy—and a Chilcano, the Peruvian highball that deserves more recognition in Atlanta than it currently gets. A zero-proof menu rounds things out with three options, including a Not a Negroni that the menu notes Count Camilo Negroni himself might have ordered “if non-alcoholics had been a thing back then.”
The food menu came together through a connection as organic as the space itself. Terrones’s family friend, Caesar Hernandez, owner of Oaxaca in Chamblee, made the introduction to consulting chef Luis Damian, whose Atlanta résumé also includes El Valle in Midtown, and Casa Balam in Decatur, a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant.
“Luis enjoyed the creative freedom of developing our menu, which is loosely Latin-inspired but not defined by a specific cuisine,” Hopper says. “Luis understood perfectly what we were trying to achieve with dishes that work well for a bar format.”
Start with the tuna tostada, stacked with fresh ahi, avocado, macha sauce, citrus, fresh herbs, and nori over a crispy tortilla. The nori provides a quiet nod to the same Japanese-Latin crossover running through the cocktail list. The goat cheese croquettes, filled with creamy goat cheese and guava, are a balance of salty and sweet, while the ceviche is the cleaner, brighter option and Damian’s most direct expression of his Latin American roots.
For something more substantial, the Birria Tortellini is the standout: slow-braised birria folded into fresh pasta, finished with birria consommé foam and Oaxaca cheese. For those who arrived properly hungry, the short rib with mole verde, gnocchi, and crudite is a solid option, and the 24-oz bone-in prime ribeye with salsa de pipicha is the plate for those looking to indulge.
La Cueva is now open Monday through Wednesday, 5 to 11 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday, 5 p.m to 1 a.m. Follow the signs, or follow the sound. Reservations are recommended, particularly on weekends.
La Cueva, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE, Second Floor, Atlanta; lacuevaatl.com
