Poeta in Motion

THE FOUNDERS OF INTERO DEBUT NEW RESTAURANT ON EAST 11TH

WORDS BY NATHAN MATTISE | PHOTOS BY MONIQUE THREADGILL

At this point, it’s hard to believe that there is something chefs Ian Thurwachter and Krystal Craig haven’t done in the Austin culinary scene. Due to their mastery of all things savory (Thurwachter) and sweet (Craig), the two native Austinites have been industry fixtures here for their entire careers. Thurwachter spent time as a chef at staples like Vespaio, Lamberts and Jeffrey’s, while Craig co-founded her first dessert company at 21-years-old and then produced delectable creations for some of Austin’s top establishments. But most notably, together, they opened Intero in 2018. Within a year, Texas Monthly identified it as one of the state’s best restaurants. Today, it sits among the city’s iconic modern establishments.

As Intero approached its fifth birthday last year, however, Craig and Thurwachter weren’t ready to settle. They had ambitions to expand, both to try something new and to create new opportunities for the Intero team to advance their careers. Originally, Craig was toying with a more dessert-focused concept (she mentions Intero’s past amaro-chocolate pairing events as inspiration), but then she met Vicki Faust, founder of The Frances Modern Inn in East Austin.

“We were looking to expand, but originally it wasn’t Poeta,” Craig explains when detailing the origin of her and Thurwachter’s new all-day hotel cafe. “I had done a concept that was very centered on desserts and dessert pairings, but when looking for a space, we met Vicki and they were in the middle of looking for a restaurant partner. We started talking and I said, ‘You know, in the back of my head I’ve always wanted to do an all- day Italian place.’ I never wrote a business plan as fast as that in my life.”

In May 2023, the Poeta team started work in earnest. Roughly half a year later, that idea in the back of Craig’s head was actualized. That December, the restaurant opened in The Frances Modern Inn.

Craig had once worked at an all-day cafe — managing at the now closed RJ’s Cafe in West Lake in the early 2000s — but her passion for this style of restaurant really grew out of her love of the cafés she enjoyed in places like New Orleans or Italy.

“I like places where you can go and it’s casual and you want to hang out, whether it’s having a coffee or getting an easy lunch,” Craig says. “I think in so many books I’ve read or movies I’ve watched, there are scenes at the hotel lobby restaurant and there’s a fun feeling to it. The one thing I still remember from The Catcher in the Rye is he’s always hanging in the hotel lobby bar. There’s something about it that inherently has a casual, relaxed feeling. I just love the sound of a daytime restaurant — clinks of coffee cups and silverware — and you lose that at night with dinner a bit. I also love breakfast food and I wanted to do simple and easy things, casual fare, and we couldn’t ever do any of this stuff at Intero because it’s just dinner.”

Despite that affinity for all-day cafes, running one was still a test for Craig and Thurwachter. While Intero only serves dinner six days a week, Poeta offers brunch, happy hour and dinner every day of the week. Craig notes just perfecting the basic logistics has been different — a need for more staff, to optimize the placement of various kitchen elements, and to navigate things like shift changes.

At Poeta, Craig and Thurwachter have menu sections devoted to eggs, paninis and sweets and pastries. The brunch starters include Craig’s and Thurwachter’s takes on classics like a house yogurt served with roasted apple and granola. It’s light but immensely flavorful with the textures and acidity of the apples. Their Italianesque take on avocado toast, Avo Bruschetta, is topped with marinated beans and will have you wondering why that’s not a fixture on all avocado toast.

Poeta also offers some of Craig and Thurwachter’s beloved pastas such as trottole with pesto genovese. Available all day, it’s downright Intero-esque, indulgent for both the eyes and the tongue with eye-catching pea-green noodles and a light, nutty flavor. But when conceptualizing what pastas to offer, they aspired to do something slightly different.

“Intero is about the concept and idea behind Italian cooking. We take those techniques and styles, but then we use all local, Texas ingredients,” Craig says. “Here, we’re highlighting dishes from specific regions — every preparation that you can use to highlight a region, we’re doing it. So, Poeta has a bit of a wider scope. It’s not an exact ‘travel through Italy’ dinner menu, but it kinda is.”

Between Craig’s work on sweets and pastries and Thurwachter overseeing the savory, there are standouts up and down the daytime menu that couldn’t exist at Intero, from an eggplant and zucchini panini with a fingerlicking chili pesto to the can’t miss wafflegato. A single bite containing that waffle, the housemade gelato, and the espresso-maple syrup might be the most delectable bite in town this side of a burnt end.

“A long time ago, I would’ve thought, ‘Meh, a waffle and gelato? That’s not very Italian, but I’ll eat it anyway,’” Craig says. “I love affogatos, absolutely love it. So trying to differentiate Poeta, we don’t have a standard one on the menu like we do at Intero, where we rotate them. But I don’t think I realized how popular it’d be. Our celiac friends have said our gluten- free one is the best gluten-free waffle they’ve had in town.“

The reception from both customers and the restaurant-hotel team itself has been so strong, there are now plans to open a gelato truck — potentially with waffle-inspired pizzelle ice cream sandwiches — this summer on the street behind the hotel. A vehicle has already been acquired and Thurwachter has been doing handy work on it himself. Based on how well Craig and Thurwachter have handled the new challenges of Poeta so far, what’s one more new culinary experience? After all, Craig did originally have a small dessert-focused concept in mind.

Poeta is located at 1123 East 11th. Plan your visit and learn more at poetarestaurant.com.