Top Ten Posts of 2010

In the spirit of New Year’s Eve, 22nd & Philly is taking a look back at all our restaurant visits, food experiences and other Philly explorations during 2010.  It was a banner year, as we tried more new restaurants than ever before, while also taking on some new endeavors such as the Three Sheets tour, being foodies in Spain and the Summer of Kristy.

Most exciting, we have seen a significant increase in traffic on this blog.  This gives us much anticipation heading into 2011 and we have plans to bring you even more reviews and new features on the blog. Stay tuned.

For  now, let’s look back at 22nd & Philly’s top 10 posts from 2010 (based on page views).

#1. Best of Philly To-Do List... and Yogorino.
Philadelphia Magazine issues a Best of Philly list each year, so we picked off a handful of winners that we wanted to try first, such as Yogorino. Thanks in large part to Twitter, this post drew several hundred visits. We’re still making our way through our short list…

#2.  First Visit to PPL Park for Union Game.
We can thank the power of Google for interest in this post since several searches show it on the first page of results (e.g. “parking at union game”). We should also give ourselves some credit for a good content idea, as people often have questions about parking, atmosphere and the Union and they can find it all in this post.

#3. Q&A with a Philly Beekeeper.
One of the more fulfilling posts of the year for me, I realized many people didn’t even know urban beekeeping existed let alone how popular it is.  Thanks again to Adam Schreiber of For the Time Beeing for participating.

#4. What I Did This Summer.
A recap of Kristy’s legendary Summer of Kristy.  Who would have thought one could accomplish so much in the death march to turning 30 and learn in the process that life is not about age milestones, but the experiences, friends, family and overall good times that life brings us.  As Ferris Bueller famously said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”  That’s the Summer of Kristy in a nutshell.

#5.  Photos: A Night Out in Chinatown.
Pictures, pictures, pictures.  Readers love pictures.

#6. Your Dose of Food Links.
A surprise top ten selection.  Apparently people are interested in learning how to open a wine bottle with their shoe. Or learning how to reduce food waste, understanding the Philly blogging wars and grilling corn indoors.

#7. Review of Brauhaus Schmitz.
Another surprise since we thought this place was average, albeit with potential.  It showcases the power of Urban Spoon and Yelp as many of our visitors found this post through those sites.

#8 Hot Chocolate Wars.  .
Just posted in December, this one grabbed more than 100 viewers right away.  With more time, this would likely be a top five post.  People love their hot chocolate!

#9. Three Sheets 22nd & Philly Style.
One of our biggest Philly adventures of year.  Zane Lamprey would be proud of our Three Sheets tour.  We certainly enjoyed the good times and joy of visiting some interesting places such as the Yard’s Brewery.  It was one of the first posts where we utilized video and pictures.

#10. Barbuzzo!
Another December post cracking the top ten, which speaks to the popularity of the new restaurant.

There you have it.  The top ten posts of the year.  What were your highlights of 2010?