Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar in Aspinwall served its last meal and poured its last glass of wine on Saturday.

After three years, owner and chef Matthew Porco decided to close and sell the restaurant. He announced his decision two weeks ago, citing the demands of a new business, Mio Pizza, and his belief that a fine dining restaurant requires the full attention of the executive chef.

Mr. Porco is turning his focus to a casual, high-volume pizza shop just a few minutes down Freeport Road from his old restaurant. If the shop is successful, he plans to open more in the Pittsburgh area, and possibly franchise the concept.

"I was able to achieve a lot of the success I'd hoped for [with Mio]," Mr. Porco said. "I think we've helped lead the way for other great restaurants."

After his years of running Mio, Mr. Porco realized that he had become more interested in the business aspects of selling food and less interested in being in the kitchen every day.

While this switch in focus appears extreme, it's somewhat consistent with current culinary trends.

Edward Leonard, vice president and corporate chef for Le Cordon Bleu North America and a certified master chef, sees opportunities for culinary school graduates that simply didn't exist before.

"Years ago it was a restaurant or a hotel, but now there are so many options. Research and development, opening up a food truck, a little stand, being a chef in a supermarket."

In the recent past, running or owning a fine dining restaurant was the ultimate dream for most chefs-in-training. The growing public interest in restaurant food helped make cooking for a living a respected profession.

Now culinary professionals are finding that they can ditch the fine dining scene but hang on to the respect. They can also continue to cook creative, high-quality food -- which a much larger segment of the population can afford.

That population has, in turn, embraced the availability of these businesses. "They want a great price point, they want food that's better then average," Mr. Leonard said.

Cafes, food trucks and even casual restaurants have lower barriers to entry, because start-up costs are much lower; and as they've grown in popularity, they've opened up opportunities for a new generation of culinary talent.

In 2008, Millie Gregor and Jajean Morgan decided they wanted to sell desserts for a living, but they couldn't afford to rent a storefront. Instead, they bought a truck off eBay for $5,000 and got a vendor's license from the city. Decked out in bright red paint, the Goodie Truck moves from location to location, seeking out cookie-craving crowds. The summer menu includes delectable treats such as fancy-pants snow cones in flavors such as blood orange ($2), bags of chocolate-dipped tortilla chips ($3), mini-pies ($3) and chocolate-dipped strawberries ($1).

Franktuary, the popular Downtown hotdog shop, recently expanded to a food truck. It got off to a relatively slow start this summer, but its location can now be scouted on Twitter (@Franktuary), and just last week, actress Katherine Heigl bought out the contents of the truck for cast and crew filming "One for the Money," according to the Franktuary Twitter feed.

Of course, food businesses don't have to be mobile to emphasize quality and value. At Pastitsio, a new Greek deli in Lawrenceville, owner Stamatis Bournias offers authentic Greek flavors at very reasonable prices.

Mr. Bournias graduated from Johnson and Wales University's highly respected culinary program in 2003, and went on to work in contract dining for universities and other large food-service providers. But after seven years, he was ready to do something a little different.

He came to stay with his sister in Lawrenceville, and his brother-in-law pointed out the open storefront that would become Pastitsio. His menu includes freshly prepared sandwiches, salads and entrees, such as beet salad with orange-rosemary vinaigrette, rice and herb-stuffed grape leaves, lamb gyro and specials such as roasted peppers stuffed with ground beef, herbs and rice.

Mr. Bournias is working to build up his delivery business, especially at lunch, since there are only so many people in Lawrenceville, and he knows people have a limited amount of time for lunch.

Perhaps there's a truck in his future?

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