There's been a lot of hootin' and hollerin' in the Chicago food world in the past few weeks about proper protocol for reviewing new restaurants. A lot. Some believe media should wait to write a review until a few weeks after a restaurant opens, to give the chef and management time to work out the kinks. Some think a restaurant is fair game from the minute it flips that "Open" sign.

No matter what you think, the fact remains that media often have to go in straight away anyway, because it's their job, by definition, to be on top of the news.

My approach to opening nights is different, likely because I am not a journalist. Me, I like to go in opening night and form an opinion because I pretty much think you can guess how long a restaurant will be in business on Night One. And it doesn't have a thing to do with whether the servers auction off food, if the food runners actually know what's in the dishes they are delivering, or even whether the chef manages to get all the bits of food together on the plates properly.

It has nothing to do with those things, because if it did, Blackbird would have been a colossal failure. For realz. My first meal at Blackbird could only be labeled a disaster — and I won't go into details, because you need to focus on this blog message, not dwell on idle gossip.

And the message of the blog is this: review ... don't review ... it don't matter.  What does matter is that, even with a laundry list of out-and-out failings, it was obvious to anyone who could hold a fork that Blackbird would soar. And, eleven years later, it is still soaring.

So far, my track record on guessing how long a restaurant will remain open has been scarily spot-on. Maybe I am off six months when there are extenuating circumstances such as a rich uncle leaving the chef a pot o' gold in his will. But for the most part, little details of a review aside, I pretty much think we all know when someone has stumbled on greatness or if they are on a train to Siberia.

So, what is the defining characteristic? What is that certain something that makes it immediately apparent, Night One, whether a restaurant will thrive — or crash and burn?

If I were to pick one word, it would be clarity. But I am going to pick two, because this is my blog, and I get to pick two if I want. So I'll go with clarity and humility.

But you'll have to come back to read my thoughts here, clarity tomorrow and humility on Friday, and in the meantime, really, don't you secretly think the same way?