Photography by Bob Coscarelli

Just look at the unlikely homes of this year’s top freshmen: an old printing shop (Sepia). A 1920s mobster’s hideout (Room 21). A former hat factory (The Gage). An erstwhile strip club (Anteprima). Heck, we’ve even got a new restaurant where there used to be only sky (Sixteen). Where ordinary people like us might have seen dilapidated old buildings and clouds, creative chefs and restaurateurs saw potential. As a result of their imagination and talent, we are now 21 terrific dining destinations richer. From Brasserie Ruhlmann, a steak-house stunner in the historic Montgomery Ward building, to Pete Balodimas’s scorching Fahrenheit way out in St. Charles, our 2008 list proves what we’ve known all along: The kitchen is the most important room in the house. PLUS: Restaurants on the radar and best of the rest