Expect Vegan Cocktails Served in Ferris Wheels at This Ponce City Market Bar

Bar Vegan, from Slutty Vegan founder Aisha “Pinky” Cole, opens in February at Ponce City Market. The bar takes over the space formerly occupied by the Mercury, which closed in 2019 after three years on the second floor of the market’s central food hall.

Expect vegan cocktails from the bar, including vegan riffs on classics like the margarita, cosmopolitan, old fashioned, and lemon drop martini, along with vegan beer and wine, non-alcoholic cocktails, and over-the-top tableside drinks served in a fire extinguisher, Ferris wheel, or a gas can “complete with musical sound bites.” The Foreign Fruit Punch comes served in an “active smokey volcano.” It’s all part of what’s being described as “bar theatre” at Bar Vegan.

Food featured on the menu should include a selection of vegan sandwiches and salads, egg rolls, cauliflower wings, and some customer favorites from Cole’s wildly popular burger restaurant Slutty Vegan. Bar Vegan plans to open for lunch daily at the bar and dinner in the evenings, with brunch on Sundays.

Madelynne Ross

Madelynne Ross

Madelynne Ross

Cole founded Slutty Vegan as a food delivery service in 2018, with people contacting her via Instagram to place orders for provocatively named vegan burgers like the One Night Stand and Ménage à Trois. She quickly amassed a large following, eventually leading to a food truck and late night pop-ups around Atlanta University Center — home to Spelman, Morehouse, and Clark Atlanta University (Cole’s alma mater.) Cole opened her first restaurant in the Westview neighborhood of Atlanta in January 2019.

A second Slutty Vegan opened last summer in Jonesboro, Georgia, followed by a third location on Edgewood Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward in October. Cole is currently working on opening her fourth Slutty Vegan restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama.

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Ponce City Market owner Jamestown announced a 500,000-square-foot expansion of the property last fall to include a 400-unit tower and 100,000-square-foot building featuring office, retail, and restaurant space. Part of the planned expansion includes new restaurant kiosks and a bar at Ponce City Market’s central food hall.

Billion-dollar salad chain Sweetgreen announced plans to expand to Atlanta with at least two new locations opening this year. Sweetgreen, based in Los Angeles, will open restaurants slinging its vast array of salads and grain bowls and celebrity chef-collaborative dishes at Ponce City Market and Lenox Square Mall.

Eleven TLC, an organic and herbal beverage shop owned by Hea Won Chun Harris and Charles Harris, is now open at the central food hall. Located across from Batter Cookie Dough at the market, the shop offers a variety of tea, latte, and caffeinated (TLC) drinks as well as matcha and vanilla bean soft serve ice cream.

Open Monday - Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday - Sunday, 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. Masks required.

• A Bar From the Team Behind Slutty Vegan Is Opening at Ponce City Market [EATL]
• Ponce City Market Cocktail Lounge and Restaurant the Mercury Is Closing [EATL]
• A Neighborhood Breakdown of Atlanta Restaurants Opening in 2021 [EATL]