Curious where Denver's in-the-know crowd is eating and drinking? It's easy to spot lines out the door, but some underlying trends are harder to see.
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp to discover which restaurants have been getting a noteworthy increase in attention this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Denver businesses on Yelp by category and counted how many reviews each received. Rather than compare them based on number of reviews alone, we calculated a percentage increase in reviews over the past month, and tracked businesses that consistently increase their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared to past performance.
Read on to see which spots are on a hot streak, right now.
Birdcall
Open since 2017, this chicken shop and breakfast and brunch spot, which offers sandwiches and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Sandwiches" on Yelp.
Citywide, sandwich spots saw review counts increase by a median of 2.2 percent over the past month, but Birdcall saw a 44.4 percent increase, maintaining a solid four-star rating throughout. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis review counts increased by more than 180 percent.
It's not the only trending outlier in the sandwich category: Ginginbunbun has seen a 21.3 percent increase in reviews.
Located at 1535 E. Evans Ave. in the University, Birdcall looks to redefine the fast-casual dining experience through a self-ordering kiosk system. Cage-free and antibiotic-free fried chicken serves as the star of almost every meal on the men, according to its website.
For breakfast, look for its Nashville hot chicken in a buttermilk biscuit slathered with hot sauce or the Jamaican jerk chicken tossed in spice and served with grilled pineapple and mayo.
Citizen Rail
Lower Downtown's Citizen Rail is also making waves. Located at 1899 16th St., the New American breakfast and brunch spot has seen an 11.1 percent bump in reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 2.7 percent for all businesses tagged "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis review counts increased by more than 180 percent.
Citizen Rail offers a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu featuring locally sourced ingredients. You can also get a view of the open kitchen and wood-fired grill while dining on a smoked pork belly frittata with roasted Brussels sprouts, caramelized onions, ricotta and sea salt. Look for the lamb chops served with beluga lentils, braised Swiss chard and red wine sauce on its dinner menu. Wash it down with its wide selection of craft beers, cocktails and wine offerings.
Urban Farmer Denver
Lower Dowtown's Urban Farmer Denver is the city's buzziest steakhouse by the numbers.
The steakhouse and traditional American spot, which opened at 1659 Wazee St. in 2017, increased its review count by 7 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median review increase of 2.5 percent for the Yelp category "Steakhouses." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 7.0 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
Urban Farmer Denver offers menus of carefully selected and locally sourced meat. Look for the filet, rib-eye and dry-aged steak, seafood and vegetarian entrées and sides. If you're looking to satisfy your sweet tooth, look for the apple crisp or ice cream and sorbet selections. Pair it with a cocktail or glass of wine.
Yelper Allison H. wrote, "Urban Farmer is really a standout restaurant among other steak places. The effort they put into farm-to-table is unbelievable. The mushrooms are grown in the basement, a butcher is upstairs and bees are kept onsite for honey."
