Unsure where Austin's insiders are 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 deduce which local businesses have been seeing especially high review volumes 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 increased their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared to past performance.
Read on to see which spots are sizzling hot this summer.
Sugar Pine
Open since April, this coffee, ice cream and and Asian fusion spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Coffee & Tea" on Yelp.
Citywide, coffee and tea spots saw a median 2.1 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, but Sugar Pine saw a notable 222.7 percent increase, with a slight downward trend from a five-star rating a month ago to 4.5 stars today.
Located at 8578 Research Blvd. in Wooten, Sugar Pine offers housemade ice cream in flavors like green tea and black sesame; lunch items like bento boxes and Japanese onigiri; and drinks like coffee, wine and beer.
Eurasia Sushi Bar & Seafood
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about West Oak Hill's Eurasia Sushi Bar & Seafood, the popular sushi bar, cocktail bar and seafood spot is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Seafood" on Yelp saw a median 1.9 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, Eurasia Sushi Bar & Seafood bagged a 4.8 percent increase in new reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a healthy 4.5-star rating. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.0 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.
There's more that's trending on Austin's seafood scene: Deckhand Oyster Bar - South has seen a 3.9 percent increase in reviews.
Open at 7101 W. Highway 71, Suite C-13, since March 2017, Eurasia Sushi Bar & Seafood specializes in Japanese, Indonesian and American fusion. Its offering range from deep fried oysters to spring rolls to black mussels as well as desserts like a banana tempura topped with ice cream and chocolate sauce.
Pluckers
St. Johns's Pluckers is also making waves. Open at 6406 N. Interstate Highway 35 Frontage Road, Suite 2949, the sports bar and traditional American spot has seen a 9.8 percent bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 2.1 percent for all businesses tagged "American (Traditional)" on Yelp.
Pluckers offers baskets of bone-in and boneless wings, with your choice of 25 dipping sauces that range from sweet Dr. Pepper BBQ to the fiery, garlicky Vampire Killer to Ginger Peach Sriracha. Over the past month, it's maintained a 2.5-star rating among Yelpers.
40 North
Downtown Austin's 40 North is the city's buzziest sandwich spot by the numbers.
The pizza spot, which offers salads and sandwiches and opened at 900 W. 10th St. in May 2018, increased its new review count by 7.6 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 2.3 percent for the Yelp category "Sandwiches." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.6 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
40 North offers Neopolitan pies ranging from kale and sausage to the Hot Honey (made with spicy coppa, ricotta and Mike's Hot Honey) and another made with dandelion greens, onion jam and pancetta. New sandwich offerings include fried chicken, pork and a classic cheeseburger.
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.
