Sicilian grub from a well-schooled chef

A pioneering spirit and the willingness to venture outside one's comfort zone are the top two necessary traits for any trailblazer, followed closely by the ability to tolerate Greg Oden tousling your hair and “magically” finding quarters behind your ear as he passes time on the bench. He old! Blazing a trail to a new Philly food territory: Zeppoli

Situated in Collingswood, whose recent culinary explosion means it's about two flash mobs away from being Philly East, Zep's a 35-seater commandeered by a cred-heavy chef who worked under Vetri, Perrier, Solomonov, and Garces, and featuring plentiful old-school touches like farmhouse tables, swirly bentwood chairs, and pendant lights from a Depression-era schoolhouse, in which everyone learned that you shouldn't watch Blue Valentine on a first date. Plates steer Sicilian, with plenty of seafood offerings like the Gamberetti e Fagioli (shrimp sauteed with garlic and lemon, served over cannellini beans) and a Fisherman Stew packed with various unfortunate fishermen shell- and shell-less fish and couscous, plus game like the Coniglio Pizzaiola made with stewed rabbit, who’s probably just pissed he couldn’t grow that mustache in Super Troopers. Other offerings include Finocchi Salsiccia (housemade fennel sausage with broccoli rabe), Gnocchi alla Argentiera (spinach and sheep's milk ricotta gnocchi covered in caciocavallo), and the Pesto Trapanese: an almond-pistachio sauce over strozzapreti, or what folks in the old country say about sexier bendy drinking tubes.

Zep's BYO, so feel free to haul over multiple cases of Zima, and dessert's delivering an ever-changing list of gelatos, Cannoli Siciliano, and, of course, the delicious namesake, which don't require nearly as much dough as Greg Oden does to sit on his cannoli on the bench.