Houston-based Landry's Restaurants, Inc. had issued a letter to New York-based Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, Inc. in an atttempt to purchase the steak house chain. Houstonist can only say "wow". The offer of $7.50/share, or approximately $64.4 million, is about 50% over Smith & Wollensky's current price (which price increased approximately 44% in trading yesterday). Enough of the math, it gives us a headache. Word is that the offer to consume Smith & Wollensky was unsolicited and possibly unwelcome. Houstonist is happy to see someone from our fair city make it big, we are, for real. Here's where the butt "but" comes into play. This action just begs the question "When is enough, enough?". The answer seems to be strictly business-minded, and never.
Houstonist has watched the small guys we loved be consumed by Corporate America or just close, like the venerable Pig Stand. As more chains merge, the diversity and uniqueness of our restaurants (and we have an abundance of them - being one of the fattest cities, and all) will probably diminish. Beginning with Landry's, which first opened in Katy in 1980, Tilman J. Fertitta took over controlling interest of the two locations in 1986 and became CEO. The company went public in 1993. 1998 brought the Kemah Boardwalk project, and much ado over the "taking-overness" that was ensuing. The chain has grown by leaps and bounds ever since.
Houstonist is not really one to fully-boycott any restaurant (well, not normally - except places with arches, Olive in their name, or referred to as Casa No Way, to name a few), and the meals at any of Landry's restaurant range from serviceable to pretty darned good, as has been our experience. The price-to-quality ratio, from our perspective, does seem to be slightly out of whack, and not in the way of "what a bargain" (the steaks at Smith & Wollensky are in the $40 range and the menu is a-la-carte, so not a bargain themselves). We just don't actively seek out those places owned and operated by the restauranteur (Inc.) and typically opt for the more locally-owned (and by that we mean more "unincorporated") places to dine. Besides, if we can achieve the same results, for a fraction of the cost by visiting our grocer's freezer, that just increases the BWB (Beer, Wine, Booze) portion of our dinner budget. If we intend to drop a bunch of clams on dinner, it needs not be mundane-ish and uber-pricey (that is just a bad combination).
Local eateries/entertainment complexes owned by Landry's include, The Kemah Boardwalk, Rainforest Cafe, The Aquarium, Vic & Anthony's Inn at the Ballpark, La Griglia, Cadillac Bar, Pesce, Grotto, Willie G's Seafood & Steak House, Saltgrass Steakhouse, Brenner's, Joe's Crab Shack, and Harlow's, to name a few. Like we said, it's not that we don't necessarily "dislike" most of these places, we just prefer to support the individual, or the "mom and pop".
Mr. Fertitta does have a concept that works and makes money, as Landry's operates across the United States, and owns the Golden Nugget casino chain. Houstonist is not lamenting the acquisition of "also chain" Smith & Wollensky, just the taking over and homogenizing of restaurants in general, especially when it impacts our dining choices. We guess it is all about "Go Big, or Go Home!". We, for the time being, will go for a bacon-cheeseburger, or "stray taco" and a cold beer, cheaper and tastier.
P.S. We do like Cafe Expense - but, we are far from perfect.
Photo by Flicker user eschipul
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