It’s here! On newsstands this week, you’ll find our annual look at the city’s top restaurants. But this year, we rank them: The best restaurants in the region, numbered from one to 50. Which of your favorites made the list? Check out the rankings here — and get the full story on what wowed us in the February issue.

Compiling the list was an argument- and calorie-filled endeavor. You can hear all about the process at phillymag.com — and you can join the debate. Which restaurants are in your Top 10?

Photo by Jason Varney

After five years confined to her miniature Blue Bell restaurant, Alison Barshak is expanding. Barshak signed a lease yesterday on the second spot — no name yet — slated for a spring 2008 opening on Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington, just four miles from her Alison at Blue Bell.

What you’ll be excited about: the 100-plus seats, a private dining room, a full bar and a credit card machine, plus Barshak’s signature seafood-centric globe-trotting menu. (Expect influences from Barshak’s recent travels in Scandinavia and Vietnam.)

What Barshak is excited about: Nationally known kitchen designer Mark Stech-Novak and a kitchen large enough for a chef’s table and — gasp — a walk-in refrigerator. “We’ll make ice cream,” she says. “We’ll have tasting menus. This is a chance for us to stretch. To do more with the food.”

Photo: Alison Barshak (left) and pastry chef Amelia Dietrich in the Bethlehem Pike space that will become Barshak’s second restaurant. © 2007 Courtney Grant Winston.