Sarah McIntosh’s inspiration for the meals she serves at Épicerie Café & Grocery comes from the bread, cheese and wine she grew up eating and drinking in Louisiana.

“I’m from a big family of five, so food was always the centerpiece of us all getting together,” the owner and executive chef said.

Four years after opening, McIntosh said her restaurant is having its busiest year.

“We combine flavor profiles of true Louisiana food and true French food,” McIntosh said of the menu. “It’s mostly what I grew up eating, the kind of food that I crave.”

The porchetta sandwich ($12), for example, is similar to Louisiana’s classic muffuletta sandwich but with a few twists: McIntosh uses the French technique of porchetta di testa, which involves rolling pork head meat, and adds frisee, a type of plant not normally found in the muffuletta.

“We’re not trying to do something way outside the box; we’re just trying to do what we know how to do really well,” she said.

McIntosh got her start in the early 2000s, moving to Austin to attend Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. After working at restaurants in California and Maryland, McIntosh moved back to Austin in 2008 to help chef James Holmes open South Lamar Boulevard’s Olivia, now Lucy’s on the Fly.

Épicerie serves up Louisiana- and French-style food, such as a porchetta sandwich ($12) and beignets ($5 each).[/caption]

“[Holmes] made it seem a lot easier than it is,” she said of the culinary business. “He gave me the confidence to [open my own restaurant].”

Épicerie also has a grocery component. McIntosh said the groceries that fill Épicerie’s shelves—including European wines, maple syrup, comfits and chocolates—are products that “basically go well with cheese,” which she also sells.

It has also been a busy time for McIntosh personally. She recently had her second child, Sloan, while also raising her 3-year-old daughter, Finley, with her husband, Jackson.

“I think this is the new American woman,” she said. “I can still be a mom and be a restaurant owner.”