Best of Philly 2006 Opener

You could say that in the past year, Philly had its 15 minutes.

The national media decided to love us, New Yorkers claimed to “discover” us, and suddenly, even those out-of-town friends who always spoke of our city as if it were, ahem, Detroit, reserved weekends in our guest rooms.

All that fussin’ is why reporting this year’s Best of Philly issue was more important to us than ever: We knew we had to bring you the true gems of the city — not the same old places everyone and his mother already knows about. The result? A list of more than 360 insider finds that are worth your time and money. A whopping 260-plus of them are first-time-ever winners.