The numbers are in: Philadelphia’s restaurant scene is definitely having a moment.

Our restaurants are winning more awards than every city besides New York and L.A.

Everybody in Philly knows it: The food in this town is really good. From gut-busting hoagies at places like Angelo’s to seasonal produce at Vedge, our city has long been something of a diner’s paradise.

Now it seems that the secret is out.

We at The Inquirer got the sense that everybody suddenly seemed to be oohing and aahing about the excellent cooking happening in this city (Michelin’s absence notwithstanding).

So we decided to measure exactly how much everybody loves our food. Spoiler alert: It’s more than ever before.

When confronted with this, critics we talked to weren’t afraid to gush.

“We're looking for places that tell a captivating story and offer something original — restaurants with a distinctive point of view,” said Jeff Gordinier, contributing food and drink editor at Esquire, which has put together an annual list of Best New Restaurants in America since 1984.

“We see that again and again in Philadelphia.”

Unprompted, he added, “You could spend a month eating your way through Philadelphia and, if you did decent research in advance, you wouldn't have a single bad meal.”

But then, being Philadelphians, we started to get suspicious. What if we’ve always been great, and for some reason, tastemakers are only just paying attention now?

The cynic’s take: Philly learned to market itself

One school of thought holds that the last five years aren’t terribly groundbreaking — after all, as our own Craig LaBan and Mike Klein will tell you, the conditions that make Philly a great food city have been in place for ages.

Instead, the theory goes, it’s just that nobody figured all that out until recently.

“Certainly, all the press we have received is well deserved,” said Ben Fileccia, who leads strategy and engagement at the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association.

“But why did it start about five years ago?” said Fileccia, “it’s really simple — and I hope this doesn’t negate your article: it’s Mike Traud.”

A decade ago, Traud, a former attorney, then chef, and now educator, founded Philly Chef Conference at Drexel. According to Fileccia, Traud’s popular, one-of-a-kind event, a forum for chefs to meet one another and interact with the national press, was the catalyst that got national food journalists to spend time in and rhapsodize about the city.

Although he demurred from taking too much credit, Traud acknowledged that Chef Conference (as it’s now simply known, and now independent of Drexel) filled a niche.

“It was about building a network of chefs — and journalists, too,” said Traud. “And then having them here within our city for three to four days gives ample opportunity for them to come and to strategize where to eat.”

Some take an even more cynical view: It’s not so much that journalists have ignored Philly. It’s just that they need something new to rave about.

“Back in the ’80s, Philadelphia had a great food scene,” said John Mariani, who compiled Esquire’s Best New Restaurants list for three decades. “Le Bec-Fin, Susanna Foo — these restaurants were like NFL teams, the best of the best.”

“Now, journalists are going out of their way to review college- and high school-level restaurants, just for some variety. They may be interesting, but they’re not the NFL.”

The booster’s take: Philadelphia has a secret sauce

Another school of thought holds: not so fast. Let’s not think so little of our neighbors to the north. They may be onto something.

Many industry hands The Inquirer spoke to said that there is in fact something different about what’s going on in Philadelphia right now: Longstanding excellence is colliding with ideal conditions.

“It’s not ‘Philadelphia’s having a moment,’” said Ellen Yin, a 25-year restaurateur who runs High Street on Market, Fork, and a.kitchen + bar, among others. “It’s ‘Philadelphia has arrived.’”

Part of that alchemy should come as no surprise to gourmands in this city. Philadelphia boasts good taste, an establishment of fine restaurants like Vetri Cucina for young chefs to train in, and the double blessing of proximity to cities like D.C. and New York, which are close enough to radiate excellence while costly enough to give Philly-area chefs reason to come back home. Yin and others said that’s been particularly true at times when other cities have felt less livable — like during the pandemic, the Great Recession, and after 9/11.

Returning chefs find a plethora of small restaurant spaces, many occupying the ground floors of rowhouses, where with gumption and minimal funding, new eateries can be born.

That’s more or less how Alexandra Holt came to open Roxanne, a whimsical and much-lauded prix fixe BYOB on Christian Street, after stints in Chicago and Europe.

“NYC and Chicago offer similar venues for expression, but at a much higher price point,” wrote Holt in an email. She opened Roxanne alone in 2022, after spending just $60,000 of her own money, an unimaginable feat in other major cities.

But Holt and many others also touched on another, perhaps less obvious reason to set up shop here: Philly’s uniquely supportive and collaborative restaurant culture, which stands apart from other cities’ dog-eat-dog culinary scenes.

“I have had a much easier time finding mentors here than I have in other cities,” wrote Holt. “The camaraderie is par to none.”

Or maybe it’s just that Philly’s diners have always demanded great food without pretension, and the times are such that chefs can deliver as never before.

“Back in the ’90s — it’s not to say Philadelphia didn’t have great restaurants,” said chef Tod Wentz, who operates Townsend EPX on Passyunk, as well as Oltremare, Oloroso, and A Mano. “But they were all a particular genre. And there weren’t a ton of them.”

Now, said Wentz, Philadelphia’s more vernacular values have the room to reign supreme.

“Philly is a no-nonsense town,” said Wentz. “You could never make it because you were part of the scene, or part of the cool kids.”

“Here, you gotta deliver the goods.”

How many award-winning Philadelphia restaurants, past and present can you name?

Remember, we included awards for new restaurants and chefs only, going back to 1989. That means prominent recent James Beard winners like Friday, Saturday, Sunday (2023, Outstanding Restaurant), which has been around since the 1970s, aren’t included, despite the enormity of those honors.