Even veteran restaurateurs can't foresee what will happen after they throw the first pitch.For proof, look no further than Punch Bowl - Social Food & Drink, subject of this week's review.
Straight out of the gate, PBS beat owner Robert Thompson's projections by 100 percent. As a result, he says, "We were too busy to handle the size of our menu." More staff had to be hired; the menu had to be refocused. Labor-intensive dishes like spaghetti and meatballs were replaced with easier-to-execute fare, such as braised short ribs.
Thompson isn't alone in making changes several months in. Menus at Ace and Tom's Urban 24 were also tweaked several months after opening to address what was and wasn't working.
A good review should give you a realistic picture of what to expect in terms of food, service and ambience, so you can decide if it's a place you want to go. With so much under scrutiny and subject to change in the opening months, a review written too early simply wouldn't be fair -- not to chefs, not to readers.
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