FUCK. NO. PERIOD. You open, you do it right. Last I checked, I'm not at a soft opening if I'm paying full menu price and picking up my own bar tab. That shit better be ready to go day 1, and as good that day as it is a year later.
Yeah, doesn't work like that. Years ago, I got hired as a waiter and room service porter for a new hotel, restaurant, banquet and convention center. We were training while the carpet and wall treatments were still going in. Panes of glass and exterior doors were not installed yet (plywood covering). Restaurant was very upscale but not truly high-end. Our first two days of service (at least in the restaurant) were by invitation only, on a Friday and Saturday night. There were a dozen professional athletes (active and retired). There were several state senators and representatives (or former). Several local celebrities and a few nationally known ones. The owners were fairly well-heeled and connected.
We got three days of training, one was mostly classroom type stuff, going over policies, food safety, the menu, and shit. The other two were only about five or six hours each, frequently interrupted because the restaurant manager would have to go and take a call about some equipment that hadn't showed-up yet, calling around to rent equipment like an ice machine because the new one they purchased already broke down, et. al. And then training on the new touch screen ordering/POS computer system (again, from 1990). Big learning curve and some unexpected behaviors to get worked-out on that.
For the most part it went fine but we had some problems in the first week, mostly with wait staff timing, communication with the kitchen, inconsistent timing of the kitchen in putting out orders, the damned computer. We just hadn't worked enough with each other at service volumes to get that refinement and communication down. Every day for the first week, there was a new waiter or cook starting, who was learning everthing on the fly. And the restaurant manager, head chef, and sous chef were all experienced with excellent credentials (e.g. chef and sous were both ACI graduates, restaurant manager had a BA in hospitality from a reputable public university, all had 10+ years of experience).
They only hire enough staff to handle a fraction of the slated capacity at first. e.g. if the restaurant will eventually seat 300, they do NOT expect to be filled to capacity for at least a couple weeks, so they don't bother hiring a full staff. They gradually hire more staff as business warrants. But if business comes in, you seat and serve them, even if you're really stretching your staff way too thin. With each new group hired, they don't get much more training than we did. So on and so forth...
I agree that two months is a little long for anyone to still be pinning their slip-ups on but your expectation of everything always done right on Day #1 (or even Week #1) just doesn't exist in the restaurant world. Or is exceptionally rare. Oh and the menu often changes during the first few months, as you identify what is not selling or being received well.
