Positano Putsch

Avona heads restaurant changes; Secrets of the wine wizards

Comments (0) By Mark Stuertz Thursday, Mar 23 2006

After just a few months in operation, Positano, the Italian restaurant in the spot once occupied by Mediterraneo, has a new owner: chef Antonio Avona, who, with Luciano Cola, created Antonio Ristorante in Addison and La Trattoria Lombardi in Dallas. Will anything change? Not much. "I love the name Positano," Avona says. "I love the area over there. It's right up my alley." The menu will be tweaked, but the staff won't. Positano chef Matthew Provencher (Mercury Grill), who replaced founding chef Rino Brigliadori (Modo Mio and the defunct Rino's Ristorantein Plano), will remain in place, as will general manager Pamela Ward, wife of Mercury Grill chef Chris Ward. Together with an unnamed partner, Avona bought out investor Eric Brauss to clutch Positano's reins after Avona shed his interest in Antonio Ristorante. Brauss was once a backer of the ill-fated FoodStar Restaurant Group, which owned Mediterraneo.

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Positano

18111 Preston Road
Dallas, TX 75252

Category: Restaurant > French

Region: Richardson & Vicinity

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Becoming a Master Sommelier is torturous, entailing a rash of intensive study, a little humiliation and gobs of cash. The wine examination and certification process is about as onerous as the California Bar. Hell, it's a lot tougher. Consider this: There are only 120 Master Sommeliers in the world, 72 of whom reside in North America (Guy Stout of Glazer's Distributors is Texas' only Master Sommelier). The recommended textbooks alone can set you back $5,000, and the range of wines one must become familiar with through repeated tastings costs thousands more. To pass the exams, one must have an unassailable grasp of the global maze of winegrowing parcels, command a memory bank of scents, flavors and visual cues and perform a perfect wine service exercise while simultaneously being quizzed and insulted by test examiners.

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