Wondering where New York City'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 local businesses have been most discussed this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at New York City 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 this spring.
Upside Pizza
Open since February of 2019, this Italian spot, which offers pizza and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Italian" on Yelp.
Citywide, Italian spots saw a median 2.2 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, but Upside Pizza saw a 67.6 percent increase, with a slight downward trend from a four-star rating a month ago to 3.5 stars today.
Located at 598 Eighth Ave. (between 38th and 39th streets) in Midtown, Upside Pizza offers individual slices of classics like cheese and pepperoni, as well as new topping combinations, like the Falcowitz, which features a white wine lemon cream sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms and a lemon zest. (View the full menu here.)
Valerie
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Midtown's Valerie, the bar and traditional American spot is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Bars" on Yelp saw a median 2.3 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, Valerie bagged a 77.5 percent increase in new reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a convincing 4.5-star rating.
Open at 45 W. 45th St. between Fifth and Sixth avenues since January of 2019, Valerie specializes in gin cocktails—try the GM-P Collins, with gin, fennel, lemon, celery, bitters and soda. The spot also offers wine, beer, traditional American bites and live music on Friday nights.
Spicy Moon
The East Village's Spicy Moon is also making waves. Open since January of 2019 at 328 E. Sixth St. (between First and Second avenues), the Szechuan and vegan spot has seen a 71.1 percent bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 3.3 percent for all businesses tagged "Vegan" on Yelp.
Spicy Moon offers fried vegetable dumplings, Kung Pao tofu, vegetable fried rice and more. (Check out the menu here.) Over the past month, it's maintained a strong 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Suzuki
Theater District's Suzuki is the city's buzziest Japanese spot by the numbers.
The Japanese spot, which opened at 114 W. 47th St. (between Seventh Avenue and Avenue Of The Americas) in March of 2017 increased its new review count by 54.2 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 2.6 percent for the Yelp category "Japanese." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.8 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
Suzuki offers grilled eggplant with a ginger soy sauce, a Grilled Wagyu Roll with asparagus, hearts of palm and a spicy teriyaki sauce, a variety of sushi and sashimi and more. (View the full menu here.)
This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
