Greatest Hits and What You Missed: Year In Review Edition

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is not generally one of the most exciting in the restaurant world. For the most part, restaurant crews are either preparing for Christmas service, recovering from Christmas service, preparing for New Year’s Eve parties or worrying over all of the million things that can go wrong when huge crowds of champagne-soaked revelers are thrown together in a crowded room which, by nature, buzzes with a kind of end-of-all-things vibe. New Year’s Eve in a restaurant can often be one of the weirdest, wildest nights of the year–kind of like St. Patrick’s Day with a little bit of Christmas Eve, a little bit of 4th of July and a little bit of Armageddon thrown in just for kicks.

In other words, it’s usually a week where the restaurant business turns inward with a siege mentality. Which was why we spent much of the past few days looking back over the year-that-was and forward into the future of 2012. Here’s what we found.

2011 Year in Review All the best of the past year in news, all in one place
Philadelphia’s Hottest Restaurant Neighborhoods Think you live in the restaurant Hot Zone? Check out our guide and find out
Exploding Churros A lesson in modern journalism
G-Ho, Poplar and the Main Line What it would take to make them hot
Philly and the Chocolate Factory Shane Confectionery brings the sweet stuff
The World On You Doorstep Philly’s Best ethnic eats, neighborhood by neighborhood, and all in map form!
Predictions for 2012 Art makes his bid for the Nostradamus hat
(More) Food Predictions for 2012 In which I chime in with a few guesses of my own

And that, my friends, is the year that was–2011 in all its glory and ridiculousness. So all of you out there have a safe and happy New Year, and we’ll see you back here on Monday with all the news, all the rumors and all the gossip you’ll need to get 2012 started right.

Oh, and don’t forget: If you’re still looking for some place to go on New Year’s Eve, check out our Flyer Flow for all the best events this weekend.