Autana, the acclaimed Venezuelan BYOB in Ardmore, has closed, but a new restaurant is on the way

The Venezuelan restaurant Autana, which started as a ghost kitchen during the pandemic and grew to acclaim in a subterranean space across from the Ardmore train station, has closed after four years.

But Maria-José Hernández, who runs the family business, is describing the decision as “a little step back to do bigger things.” She said she and her parents, Levi (the chef) and Maria-Elena, could not come to terms with the landlord.

The Hernándezes are now preparing to repeat the entire process — opening soon in a Philadelphia ghost kitchen and working on collaborative arrangements with other chefs. The goal, she said, is to open a restaurant in the city.

The restaurant closing over the weekend, Hernández said, “was kind of like not planned, but at the same time, life gives you a little bit of a push sometimes.” She acknowledged that because her family had chosen to keep the news of the closing private, “I know my customers were a little bit hurt.”

A pop-up event last weekend at the yet-to-open Baby’s Kusina & Market in the city’s Brewerytown neighborhood was well-attended by fans of Autana’s arepas, tequeños, and empanaditas. “I just feel grateful that even though we don’t have the location anymore, people still follow us and are rooting for us,” Hernández said.

» READ MORE: Craig LaBan's review of Autana (Feb. 1, 2023)

Autana, which plans to announce its next steps on Instagram, will take space next month at the North Center Food Nest, a ghost kitchen that allows pick-ups and delivery through third-party apps, as well as catering. More than one-quarter of Autana’s business was takeout, Hernández said.

Hernández, 34, who left Venezuela in 2015, was an architect in Colombia before arriving on the Main Line two years later to join her parents, who left that year amid the country’s political turmoil. She waited tables at Ardmore Station Cafe. Her father, a civil engineer back home who catered as a side business, got a job at Vernick Coffee Bar. Her mother was a server at Merion Cricket Club.

They were laid off in 2020. Maria-José Hernández scraped together $4,000 and put together a business plan for the entire family to sell Venezuelan meals for takeout out of Ardmore Station Cafe. The name translates as “tree of life.” She calls her father the heart of the business because he’s the executive chef. “I’m the brain because everything that you see out there, I do myself,” she said.

The ideas are coming fast. “I’ve never had time to do all of this, and now I can start pushing the brand in the city,” she said. “I want my culture to be represented the way it needs to be.”