Greensboro's Positano Italian Restaurant closes after 25 years

A 25-year Greensboro dining fixture went dark on Lawndale Drive, but its people and customer perks did not disappear with it. Positano Italian Restaurant served its final meal on Thursday, April 30, then announced Friday, May 1, that it was permanently closed.

The restaurant thanked the Greensboro community and its staff in a Facebook post, calling the closure the end of an era after a quarter-century in business. Former Positano employees now work at Elizabeth’s Pizza on Lawndale Drive and Battleground Avenue, and Positano gift cards and rewards will be honored there, preserving at least some continuity for regulars who built their routines around the restaurant.

Positano had operated from 2605 Lawndale Dr. in Greensboro and 130 C S Church St. in Asheboro, according to its website, underscoring that the Greensboro closing was not a chain-wide shutdown. The company’s about page said it had brought “a little bit of Italy” to Greensboro and Asheboro with generations of traditional family recipes, including Neapolitan-style pizza, seafood, chicken entrees, veal, eggplant parmigiana and Florentine ravioli.

The Greensboro closing lands in a restaurant market that has become harder to navigate across the city. Downtown restaurants have faced rising food costs, higher wages, supply-chain disruptions and tariffs, pressures that have made it tougher for owners to keep long-running independents viable. Downtown Greensboro Incorporated vice president Rob Overman has said those rising costs, along with the need to pay employees more than historically, have made the environment difficult for restaurant owners downtown.

Positano’s exit also shows how quickly the local dining map can change even when a business has deep roots. A Triad Business Journal item from January 2015 showed Positano had already opened its Asheboro location by then, meaning the brand had been operating in the Triad for at least a decade and likely longer than the 25-year Greensboro run that just ended.

For Guilford County, the closure is more than one less place for pizza and pasta. It is another sign that the economics of independent restaurants have shifted, with higher operating costs and changing customer habits forcing some familiar names to close, move, or concentrate on a smaller footprint while nearby operators absorb workers and loyal diners.