It started as a serious offer, one that Rosa Thurnher admittedly didn’t take seriously at first. The idea that she and a partner could not only manage but also own a restaurant felt far‑fetched. After all, she was already co‑running a tiny basement speakeasy, El Bar, tucked beneath El Ponce on Atlanta’s Ponce De Leon Avenue.
But, cliché or not, the rest really is history. And quite a journey.
As Thurnher reflects on a decade of running El Ponce, she calls it a leap of faith. She told “Closer Look” host Rose Scott that nearly everyone tried to talk her out of it.
“My sister is a chef, and she said, ‘Don’t do it,’ Thurnher recalled. “It’s hard work…hard work for very little payback.”
Still, Thurnher had her reasons. After college, she lived around the corner and says Ponce De Leon was her block. She watched the neighborhood shift and felt she had a bit of foresight about where it was heading. And she had a vision for the space, one shaped by a woman’s touch.
