Are these trending New Orleans restaurants on your radar?

Are these trending New Orleans restaurants on your radar?Photo: Fire Food and Spirits/Yelp
Hoodline
Published on September 05, 2019

Curious where New Orleans'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 and SafeGraph, a dataset of commercial points of interest and their visitor patterns, to analyze which restaurants have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month.

To find out who made the list, we first looked at New Orleans 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. Then we analyzed foot traffic data from SafeGraph to validate the trends.

Read on to see which spots are on a hot streak, right now.

Fire Food and Spirits

Photo: fire food and spirits/Yelp

Open since 2016, this cocktail bar and Cajun/Creole spot, which offers seafood and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Cajun/Creole" on Yelp.

Citywide, Cajun/Creole spots saw a median 1.6% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Fire Food and Spirits saw a 9.6% increase, maintaining a mixed 3.5-star rating throughout. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis Fire Food and Spirits' review count increased by more than 1,200%.

It's not the only trending outlier in the Cajun/Creole category: Deanie's Sea Food Kitchen has seen a 13% increase in reviews, and Emeril's New Orleans has seen a 0.5% bump.

Located at 5951 Bullard Ave. in Read Blvd. East, Fire Food and Spirits offers seafood platters, crawfish pasta, red beans & rice with smoked sausage and more.

Fire Food and Spirits is open from 5–9 p.m. on Tuesday, 11 a.m.–9 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 11 a.m.–10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. (It's closed on Monday.)

F & M Patio Bar

Photo: marielle s./Yelp

Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about West Riverside's F & M Patio Bar, the well-established 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% increase in new reviews over the past month, F & M Patio Bar bagged a 2.6% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a mixed three-star rating. As for foot traffic, F & M Patio Bar saw visits nearly double in the past month, according to SafeGraph data.

Open at 4841 Tchoupitoulas St. since 2006, F & M Patio Bar offers deluxe cheese fries, burgers, quesadillas and more.

F & M Patio Bar is open from 7 p.m.–4 a.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 7 p.m.–5:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. (It's closed on Monday and Tuesday.) According to SafeGraph, it usually gets busy at 12 a.m., 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., and on Saturdays and Sundays, with a slowdown on Wednesdays.

Sylvain

Photo: ziyan c./Yelp

The French Quarter's Sylvain is also making waves. Open since 2010 at 625 Chartres St., the popular gastropub and New American spot has seen a 1% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.4% for all businesses tagged "American (New)" on Yelp.

Sylvain offers marinated crab claws, pan-fried pork shoulder, steak frites and more. Over the past month, it's maintained a solid four-star rating among Yelpers.

Sylvain is open from 5:30–11 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.–midnight on Friday and Saturday and 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 5:30–10 p.m. on Sunday.


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.