Dallas' Food Friends Noodling Around With P.F. Chang

Jack Baum, chairman and CEO of Food, Friends and Company, is adding another eatery to the portfolio.

Dallas' Jack Baum has plenty of eateries under his Food Friends and Company banner, among them Wapango and Cozymel’s Mexican Grill. And he's had his hands in plenty of other plates: He turned Sam's Cafe into the Canyon Cafe chain and founded Hampton’s and Newport’s. Today, Baum -- a partner in the Dallas private equity firm 2M Companies with the two-M'er hisself, Morton Meyerson -- hop into the sack with P.F. Chang's China Bistro.

Food Friends is getting a piece of P.F. Chang's lone Taneko Japanese Tavern outpost in Scottsdale, Arizona, no doubt with the intention of turning the single spot into a chain -- hence, the "development and growth" part of the media release this a.m. P.F. Chang will maintain a minority interest in the eatery. Suddenly, I'm wondering if anyone's interested in going to Oiishi for lunch. Takers? --Robert Wilonsky