As fans of cronuts and cake pops can attest, food trends come and go. So how can you tell which tastes are trending at this very moment?
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp to discover which restaurants have been seeing especially high review volumes 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 extra hot this winter.
DC Pie Co.
Open since October, this bar, which offers pizza and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Bars" on Yelp.
Citywide, bars saw review counts increase by a median of 2.4 percent over the past month, but DC Pie Co. saw a 31.2 percent increase, maintaining a strong 4.5-star rating throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the bar category: Brightmarten Restaurant & Bar has seen a 12 percent increase in reviews.
Located at 2223 E. Colfax Ave. in City Park West, DC Pie Co. offers freshly made Brooklyn-style pizzas with choice of toppings like red bell peppers, artichoke hearts and sausage. Customers can also dig into beef meatballs, blue cheese wings and berry and ricotta calzones. (Check out the full menu here.)
Citizen Rail
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about LoDo's Citizen Rail, the New American breakfast, lunch and dinner spot is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp increased their review count by a median of 1.8 percent over the past month, Citizen Rail bagged a 12.5 percent increase in reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a convincing four-star rating. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.8 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.
Open at 1899 16th St. since 2017, Citizen Rail serves up grill-centric eats like its wood-grilled oysters with cilantro-garlic butter and its hickory-grilled flat iron steak, smothered in Parmesan grits, spring pea, mushroom and Parmesan broth. (Take a look at the full menu.)
Blue Pan Pizza
Congress Park's Blue Pan Pizza is also making waves. Open since August at 3509 E. 12th Ave., the popular Italian spot, which offers pizza and more, has seen an 8.7 percent bump in reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 3.4 percent for all businesses tagged "Pizza" on Yelp. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis review counts increased by more than 270 percent.
Blue Pan Pizza specializes in Detroit-style pizzas like the Mountain Top, a pie covered in two types of pepperoni, sauteed white button mushrooms and Sicilian oregano. (View the full menu here.)
Over the past month, it's maintained a solid 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
