So he visited on opening day! And blogged about it! Apparently Dolinsky believes rules were made to be broken, and simply because …for some reason, I’ve been drawn to Bill Kim’s personal project since he announced it several months ago. Typically, a wait of a few weeks is standard, and most of the big time critics will visit at least twice, if not three times, before they’ll print a review.Ĭough cough, Pat Bruno. Dolinsky alleges that he understands that too: It’s more common courtesy on the part of food writers to cut the owners some slack when they first open. TOC delivers real, thoughtful reviews of restaurants that are designed to help readers of the magazine decide where to go for dinner, and rightfully recognizes that a true assessment of a restaurant’s value cannot be made in one visit, let alone on the day a place opens. I try to stay away from the arms race in food coverage currently being waged by Time Out, Metromix and a host of other bloggers, all of whom seem to be descending upon restaurants as soon as they open.ĭavid Tamarkin of Time Out: Chicago takes issue with Dolinksy’s accusation that TOC is among those noveltyphiles who descend on a restaurant while the buzz is still warm on the blogs, and that’s cool. When I heard Urban Belly was opening this week, I was a little skeptical, and frankly, worried I wouldn’t have a good experience. Without regard to the post-punch status of the bones in our hand. But oh goodness gracious, Steve Dolinksy, we would like to punch you in the mouth.
We realize that we are subtle and quick to anger.* Except without the subtle part - we work in broad strokes, and we are superficial, and we might be the sort of person who snarks first and examines the nuances of the situation later. In our standard Monday roundup of restaurant reviews on the various blogs, we peeked at our RSS history for ChuffPo (we’ve capitulated) and wiggled our brains into Steve “Hungry Hound” Dolinksy’s writeup of the brand-newly-opened Urban Belly (3053 N California, 7).