Patina buys Smith & Wollensky

Superchef Joachim Splichal is getting into the chain steakhouse business. Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group Inc. is being acquired by Patina Restaurant Group for about $80 million - a 12.8 percent premium over S&W's closing stock price on Friday. It's a little confusing because as part of the deal, S&W CEO Alan Stillman is buying back from Patina the chain's NY restaurants. In doing the deal, S&W is turning down an unsolicited offer from Houston-based Landry's Restaurants Inc. Splichal, who made his name with the highly regarded Patina (now at Walt Disney Concert Hall), sold off his group of L.A.-area restaurants in the late 1990s but he and two partners repurchased the expanded operations last year. (Splichal is one of the more astute chefs when it comes to running a business, especially in recognizing the value of catering operations.) The closest S&W to Socal is Vegas, but maybe that will change with this deal. For the uninitiated, we're talking lots of steak and seafood - at expense account prices.