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 uncover which local businesses have been most discussed this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Austin 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 worth exploring, right now.
Uncle Nicky's
Open since January, this cafe and Italian spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Italian" on Yelp.
Citywide, Italian spots saw a median 3.6 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, but Uncle Nicky's saw a 35.5 percent increase, maintaining a solid 4.5-star rating throughout.
Located at 4222 Duval St. in Hyde Park, Uncle Nicky's offers salads, sandwiches, antipasti and cocktails.
Sam's Boat
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Sam's Boat, the well-established sports bar and Cajun/Creole spot, which offers seafood and more, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Seafood" on Yelp saw a median 2.6 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, Sam's Boat bagged a 3.3 percent increase in new reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a mixed three-star rating. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.2 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.
Open at 10931 Stonelake Blvd. since 2006, Sam's Boat offers burgers, Tex-Mex and seafood baskets.
Holy Roller
Downtown Austin's Holy Roller is also making waves. Open since 2017 at 509 Rio Grande, the popular bar and breakfast and brunch spot, which offers desserts and more, has seen a 5.9 percent bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 2.2 percent for all businesses tagged "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis Holy Roller's review count increased by more than 210 percent.
Holy Roller offers shrimp and grits, yellow cake pancakes and brisket fries. Over the past month, it's maintained a solid four-star rating among Yelpers.
Chispas
Downtown Austin's Chispas is the city's buzziest taco spot by the numbers.
The Tex-Mex spot, which offers tacos and more and opened at 214 W. Fourth St. in early 2019, increased its new review count by 32 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 3.9 percent for the Yelp category "Tacos."
Chispas offers a variety of Tex-Mex appetizers, tacos and margaritas.
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.
