Tapas bar La Metro opens today at Ponce City Market.
La Metro is chef Hector Santiago’s second Ponce City Market concept, alongside sandwich bar El Super Pan (which also has a location at the Battery at Truist Park). The eatery took over the former Biltong Bar space in the Central Food Hall near Atrium and Spiller Park Coffee.
Inspired by Santiago’s love for Spanish cuisine, wine and culture, La Metro channels “the liveliness and energy of Spanish cities like Madrid, León, Barcelona and Bilbao,” according to a news release. Each day’s menu will feature a variety of small bites displayed from behind a glass partition at the counter. Guests can order at the counter and snag a seat at one of the high-top tables or in the Central Food Hall according to a news release. Eight bar seats will also be available.
Credit: Courtesy of the Imprints
Credit: Courtesy of the Imprints
The menu features fresh, cured and tinned seafood, charcuterie and cheeses, meat and rice dishes and pintxos, or bite-sized snacks. Expect offerings like artichoke spread with bread and almonds, open-faced sandwiches, patatas bravas, croquetas, garlic-crusted little gems and larger plates such as lamb with olives and seasonal paellas. Curated tapas boxes will also be available to-go.
Credit: Courtesy of the Imprints
Credit: Courtesy of the Imprints
Jose Pereiro, previously the beverage director for Storico Fresco, will lead the bar with an emphasis on Spanish cava, wines and local and Spanish beers. Guests can sip on classic cocktails with a Spanish spin, like the Mercado Sour with pisco, raspberry liqueur, amontillado and lemon and egg white; the Adonis with sweet vermouth and amontillado sherry; and the Albarizas with elderflower liqueur, ginger beer and Tio Pepe Palomino Fino sherry.
The space will have lime washed walls, Spanish and Ziellege tiles, reclaimed wood, stained glass and greens, blues and pinks.
Credit: Courtesy of the Imprints
Credit: Courtesy of the Imprints
Later this year, La Metro will introduce a “Tapamakase” experience, according to a news release. Guests will be able to book a chefs table for four with an omakase-style tapas menu.
Santiago has been a fixture on the Atlanta dining scene for more than a decade after he first opened Pura Vida, his now-shuttered Poncey-Highland restaurant. During his tenure there, he was named a James Beard Foundation Best Chef Southeast semifinalist three times, and he appeared as a “Top Chef” contestant.
El Burro Pollo, his food stall at the Collective at Coda in Midtown, closed this summer after about four years of operation.
Opening hours are 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays.
The more than 20 other food and beverage concepts at five-building, three-million-square-foot mixed-use development Ponce City Market, include Atrium, Ton Ton, Umbrella Bar, LaRayia’s Bodega, Pancake Social and Bibi. Boom Boom Bao, Lime Tiger and Uwu Asian Dessert Co. from the team behind Vietvana Boom Boom Bao, Lime Tiger and Uwu Asian Dessert Co.
Check out the La Metro menu below.
675 Ponce De Leon Ave. NE, Atlanta. lametroatl.com
Credit: Courtesy of La Metro
Credit: Courtesy of La Metro
Credit: Courtesy of La Metro
Credit: Courtesy of La Metro
Credit: Courtesy of La Metro
Credit: Courtesy of La Metro
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