Over at City Eats, Drew Lazor has assembled a list of 10 up-and-comers in the food business who bear watching–not because they’re sneaky, but because he’s betting that they’re going to be the Next Big Thing in this town.

It’s a solid list, and does include lots of names that you should know–especially if you’re one of those coup-counting food nerds always trying to score points with your friends by being the first to know about everything. Of course, now that this list is out, your friends will know about these people, too, so now is the perfect time to start practicing your whole “Yeah, but I knew about Marcos Espinoza back before his beef jerky was cool…” speech in front of the mirror. You want to impress everyone even more? Tell them that Marcos was a male stripper before he became a dried beef impressario, but that he was only doing it to scrape together the cash to buy his first Jerk-o-Tron 9000.

That’s not true, of course (Marcos was actually a professional killer and part-time water polo handicapper), but it does make for a damn fine story.

Check out Drew’s picks over at the City Eats blog right now.

The Ten: On The Rise In Philly [City Eats]