For more than a decade, a Friday- or Saturday-night table at Vetri—when the kitchen lets its muse loose for the grand tasting menu—has been the toughest reservation in town. A skeptic could say it’s because the restaurant has just 35 seats; anyone who’s snagged one of those seats knows it’s because the restaurant has Marc Vetri. His distinctly un-­Philadelphian approach to Italian food wooed us from our red-sauce roots and made dishes like foie gras pastrami, sweet onion crepes and even baby goat the new standards.

Vetri | 1312 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA | 215-732-3478