Unsure where Washington'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 analyze which restaurants have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month. To find out who made the list, we looked at Washington 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 getting outsize attention right now.
St. Anselm
Open since September, this D.C. counterpart to the Brooklyn tavern of the same name is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "New American" on Yelp.
Citywide, New American spots saw review counts increase by a median of 2 percent over the past month, but St. Anselm saw a notable 103.2 percent increase, maintaining a healthy 4.5-star rating throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the New American category: Prather's on the Alley has seen a 16 percent increase in reviews, and Yard House and Declaration Nats Park have seen 15.8 and 13.7 percent increases, respectively.
Located at 1250 Fifth St. NE (between North Neal Place and North Morse Street) at Union Market, St. Anselm offers a steakhouse-like menu of grilled meats, eclectic wines and classic cocktails.
Union District Oyster Bar & Lounge
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about the nearby Union District Oyster Bar & Lounge, the seafood-specialized lounge is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Seafood" on Yelp increased their review count by a median of 2.5 percent over the past month, Union District Oyster Bar & Lounge bagged a 75 percent increase in reviews within that timeframe, with a slight downward trend from a four-star rating a month ago to its current 3.5 stars.
There's more that's trending on Washington's seafood scene: Hot N Juicy Crawfish has seen a 7.1 percent increase in reviews.
Open at 501 Morse St. NE (between North Sixth and North Fifth streets) since September, Union District Oyster Bar & Lounge offers seafood-based appetizers, mains and even pizzas (see the oyster-and-mozzarella option), plus loads of whisky, wines and craft cocktails.
Union Pub
Capitol Hill's Union Pub is also making waves. The well-established tavern at 201 Massachusetts Ave. NE has seen an 8.2 percent bump in reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 2.2 percent for all businesses tagged "Traditional American" on Yelp. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis review counts increased by more than 770 percent.
Union Pub offers burgers, pizzas and bar bites to go with its beers on tap, which range from mainstream to rare. Over the past month, it's maintained a mixed three-star rating among Yelpers.
Supra
Last up, Shaw's Supra is the city's buzziest bar by the numbers.
The Georgian wine bar, which opened at 1205 11th St. NW (between North M St. and North North Street) in November 2017, increased its review count by 9.9 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median review increase of 1.9 percent for the Yelp category "Bars." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.1 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
It's not the only trending outlier in the bar category: UltraBar has seen a 7.6 percent increase in reviews, and El Centro has seen an 8.5 percent bump.
Supra offers a huge selection of Georgian wine to pair with traditional Georgian food like kebabs, stuffed breads and soup dumplings.
