As fans of cronuts and cake pops can attest, food trends come and go. So how can you tell which tastes are trending today?
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp to analyze which restaurants have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Long Beach 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 increased their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared to past performance.
Read on to see which spots are riding a trend, right now.
The Buffalo Spot
Open since January 2019, this traditional American spot, which offers chicken wings and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (Traditional)" on Yelp.
Citywide, traditional American spots saw a median 1.9% increase in new reviews over the past month, but The Buffalo Spot saw a 57.9% increase, with a slight upward trend from a 3.5-star rating a month ago to four stars today. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis, The Buffalo Spot's review count increased by more than 140%.
Located at 5726 E. Seventh St. in Long Beach, The Buffalo Spot offers boneless and traditional chicken wings, chicken tenders and buffalo french fries with a choice of 14 sauces, like pineapple jalapeño or garlic parmesan. Take a look at the menu here.
The Carvery
Long Beach's The Carvery is also making waves. Open since February 2019 at 201 Pine Ave., the New American spot and steakhouse has seen a 29.7% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 2.2% for all businesses tagged "American (New)" on Yelp. Additionally, on a month-to-month basis, The Carvery's review count increased by more than 140%.
There's more than one hotspot trending in Long Beach's New American category: R Bar has seen an 8.3% increase in reviews.
The Carvery offers items like an avocado and grilled street corn sandwich on sourdough, a blackened mahi BLT, crispy fried chicken and ribeye steak. Over the past month, it's maintained a healthy 4.5-star rating among Yelpers. View the menu here.
Philz Coffee
Long Beach's Philz Coffee is the city's buzziest coffee and tea spot by the numbers.
The popular coffee and tea spot, which opened at 4801 E. Second St. in December 2018, increased its new review count by 15% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 3.3% for the Yelp category "Coffee & Tea." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.7 times more reviews than expected based on past performance while holding on to a four-star Yelp rating.
Philz Coffee offers light, medium and dark coffee blends, as well as iced and decaf coffee and a variety of teas. Check out the 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.
