Patina Restaurant Group, the folks who operate the dining venues at Epcot’s Italy pavilion, recently opened a newly renovated Tutto Italia, the big,full-service restaurant in the space that used to be occupied by Alfredo’s. They also debuted a new space, Tutto Gusto, a wine bar with small-plate nibbles.

Patina’s founder, chef Joachim Splichal, and CEO Nick Valenti were on hand to help Mickey and Minnie cut the ribbon amid streamers and confetti. Afterwards, invited guests toured the new wine bar and sipped prosecco and sampled some of the eats.

Tutto Gusto occupies a space that was previously part of the larger restaurant’s lobby, which was also where the restrooms were located. (Don't get nervous -- they found another place to put the restrooms.) The design is very grotto-like, with stone walls and a nook with a fireplace. For a comparison, I found it similar to the tequila bar space that was added a few years ago to the Mexico pavilion.

After the reception, I had a chance to sit down in Tutto Italia with Splichal and Valenti for lunch featuring dishes from both Tuttos (Tutti?)

Read more: Tutto Gusto, Epcot Wine Bar Opens

There isn’t a whole lot that’s new at Nou, an Altamonte Springs restaurant touting Venezuelan, Colombian, Puerto Rican and Mexican cuisine on its menu. I guess you could also include American among the Latin American fare as one of the listings is for a hamburguesa. Other items include shredded beef, shredded chicken, ceviche, salmon fillet with teriyaki sauce (?) and arepas. Everything I sampled was good, but ultimately rather modest. 

Read more: Nou Restaurant

Let’s face it, restaurants aren’t known as bastions of energy efficiency. Lights blaze, burners burn, high-powered exhaust fans suck heat and air-conditioning out the vents. And barbecue restaurants like Brian’s BBQ in DeLand have that extra element of burning wood all day and sending smoke up the chimney and into the atmosphere. Yet owner Brian Hill has plans to renovate his barbecue restaurant into the sort of place the Environmental Protection Agency could be proud of.

Going green is a buzz phrase being bandied about by businesses of all types, restaurants included. But most foodservice operations switch from foam boxes to biodegradable and compostable takeout containers and consider the conservation tree fully hugged. Hill believes there is a lot more that can be done, and he’s taking his restaurant to environmental extremes. And he’s getting a chunk of it paid for by a grant made possible by the City of DeLand.

Hill started out just wanting to upgrade the insulation of his barbecue restaurant, which was built in 1985, before energy efficiency was the priority it is today. But as he did his research, he realized that it didn’t make much sense to upgrade the insulation if you would still be losing energy through the windows. And the old roof. And why keep an inefficient air conditioning unit? Conventional lights produce a lot of heat and consume a lot of energy. Switching to LED lighting with solar cells seemed a good idea, too.

Hill soon found that what he thought would be a quick insulation job that might run $8000 was turning into a complete facility overhaul approaching almost 18 times that amount.

Read more: Just How Green Can a Barbecue Restaurant Be?

Here's an event that I know you're going to love. Vibrant Rioja is teaming up with Oceanaire Seafood Room to present an evening of tapas and wine tasting. If you read my account of the recent Supper Club at Oceanaire that featured the wines of Rioja, you'll know this is bound to be another winning combination.

The event is Thursday, May 31, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Oceanaire, Pointe Orlando, 9101 International Drive.

Now, this is going to be different from the standard wine and food pairing dinner. The folks at Oceanaire will set the place up with tapas stations, and guests will roam about to nibble and sip. Think of it as a sort of tapeo, or tapas bar-hop, except you don't have to go outside.

Read more: Vibrant Rioja, Oceanaire Team Up For Tapas and Wine Tasting