EDIBLE: Iconic Southwestern chef Cy Yontz moves from Rio Grill to Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

There is good news, which often come with a side dish of bad news.

Fortunately the good comes in many courses: Chef Cy Yontz will have a more normalized schedule, great pay, more time to play dad and, conceivably, some resort benefits in his new spot as executive sous chef at Monterey Peninsula Country Club.

He quoted George Michael as part of a recent Facebook post: “Well there ain’t no point in moving on/ Until you’ve got somewhere to go.”

His last day at Rio Grill is Nov. 11; his first at MPCC comes later this month.

Other good news: He will have a gifted collaborator in longtime Exec Chef Colin Moody – quietly one of the most respected and generous hospitality forces in the area – and vice versa.

“We’ve admired the consistency and quality at Rio Grill for so many years,” MPCC General Manager Mike Bowhay says. “We hope to have more of that here It’s really going to let us refine what we do.

“He determined it would be a good fit for him. We knew it would be a good fit for us.”

Yontz’s legacy at Rio in the Carmel Crossroads will enjoy a lasting and flavorful finish.

He walks away after steering one of the region’s most revered restaurants for 13 years as head chef and eventually partner, through its Return-of-Saturn stage, with none of the sudden life switches.

He navigated Rio’s non-negotiable favorite plates with aplomb, adding excitement with the likes of poblano pesto-crusted sturgeon (over braised-pistachio-sweet-potato hash) and slow-smoked, apple-cider-vinegar-and-brown-sugar-glazed “Jolly Ranchero” pork belly.

The Coyote Café alum’s repertoire is often simplified as an interplay of fresh California product and Southwest chili pepper-driven inspiration. A closer look reveals it enjoys a lot more range and depth, building from painstakingly sourced ingredients, flavors drawn from across the West (he grew up in Denver), clever details and a lot of combinations not seen elsewhere.

Flagship dishes like his memorable (and towering) crispy pork shank and pumpkin-seed-crusted salmon (on red pepper-potato cake) display his penchant for bold and rustic flavors well, and his special dinner inventions do it better, making eaters like me hungry for as many of his most creative conjurings as I can get.

Some of the intuitive plates arriving at special events and across new menus have included rajas-chili-and-Oaxaqueño-cheese empanadas; molé-sauced seared duck with a duck-confit tamal; diver scallops wrapped in hoja santa leaves with chorizo and smoked corn crema; tequila-cured salmon tostadas; pear tomato-corn-jalapeño-pigweed salad with double-smoked Baker’s Bacon; and beer-braised red chili short rib with green chili-cheddar mashed potatoes and Mexican street corn.

More good news: Yontz cultivates staff along with the creativity.

The chef stepping into his shoes is longtime right-hand man Eduardo Coronel, who has spent 16 years with Rio, and whose own intuition was very much on display at a Del Maguey mezcal dinner in 2015 that exploded with magnetic items like a quail “tamale” reimagined as a tower with layers of roasted bird, Oaxacan red molé and black bean epazote masa, crowned with cornmeal-crusted chayote (a Mexican pear squash also known as chuchu).

A recent menu tasting at Rio bodes well for Coronel, known by many simply as “DiCaprio” for his slick look. It rolled out discoveries like smoked pumpkin bisque, pan-roasted scallops with jalapeño pesto and a “caprese” quinoa cake and – hold onto your huarache – a fire-roasted ancho pepper filled with guava mousse, accented with fresh guava and candied guava on top and accompanied by a bacon-dusted churro.

When asked what he’s learned from Yontz over 11 years working together, Coronel sums it up tidily.

“Pretty much everything,” he says. “He’s my teacher and my school.”

Coronel’s goal going forward is to balance the expected and the adventurous – a la Yontz – via gradual changes rather than major overhauls.

“I want to make our customers happy and give them what they’re looking for,” Coronel says. “Change is not going to happen fast; it’s gonna take time. “

Now the bad news: The members-only, golf-centric MPCC requires an invite from a guest for members of the public to eat there.

Bowhay does point out MPCC’s open-to-the-public events and Moody-led contributions to community-wide fundraisers will allow some bites for the rest of us.

And it bears mentioning that Yontz has demonstrated an unflagging willingness to contribute to a wide expanse of area benefits and tasting events.

(Some tangential good news there: There are some excellent restaurants at public golf courses across Monterey County, including Carmel Valley Ranch,Pacific Grove Municipal, Quail Lodge, Pebble Beach and Poppy Hills.)

Tony Tollner has run Rio Grill, part of the Downtown Dining family of restaurants that includes Tarpy’s Roadhouse and Montrio Bistro, for 34 years, so he’s qualified to provide some perspective on the change.

“It is the end of an era, that’s for sure,” Tollner says of Yontz’s departure. “He’s an amazing guy, and a great chef.”