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 and SafeGraph, a dataset of commercial points of interest and their visitor patterns, to uncover which local businesses have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we first 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. Then we analyzed foot traffic data from SafeGraph to validate the trends.
Read on to see which spots are sizzling hot, right now.
Gotham
Open since summer 2018, this bar and New American spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp.
Citywide, New American spots saw a median 1.5% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Gotham saw a 21.5% increase, with a slight downward trend from a 4.5-star rating a month ago to four stars today. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis Gotham's review count increased by more than 200%.
It's not the only trending outlier in the New American category: Garrison has seen a 10.6% increase in reviews, and BurgerFi and The Brewer's Table have seen 4.3 and 5.8% increases, respectively.
Located at 1700 E. Second St. in East Cesar Chavez, Gotham offers New York-inspired eats. Highlights include bruschetta Reubenesque, house-made pastrami and fettuccine with smoked lox as well as beer, wine and cocktails.
Gotham is open from 3:30–10 p.m. on Wednesday-Saturday. (It's closed on Monday, Tuesday and Sunday.)
TLC Austin
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Zilker's TLC Austin, the popular traditional American spot, which offers seafood and more, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "American (Traditional)" on Yelp saw a median 1.7% increase in new reviews over the past month, TLC Austin bagged a 7.6% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a sound 4.5-star rating.
Open at 1100 S. Lamar Blvd., Suite 1150, since winter 2017, TLC Austin offers charbroiled oysters, a fried green tomato BLT, seafood boils and Texas favorites like chicken fried steak.
TLC Austin is open from 11 a.m.–11 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.–midnight on Friday, 10 a.m.–midnight on Saturday and 10 a.m.–11 p.m. on Sunday.
Donn's Texas BBQ
West Oak Hill's Donn's Texas BBQ is also making waves. Open since 2007 at 7001 Oak Meadow Drive, the popular breakfast and brunch spot, which offers barbecue and more, has seen a 1.9% increase in new reviews over the last month — matching that of all businesses tagged "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp — but visits to Donn's Texas BBQ increased by more than 50% over the same time frame, according to SafeGraph's foot traffic data.
Donn's Texas BBQ, known for its smoked meats, offers breakfast and dinner. Highlights include a brisket omelet and build-your-own breakfast tacos with brisket. Over the past month, it's maintained a mixed 3.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Donn's Texas BBQ is open from 5:30 a.m.–9 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 5:30 a.m.–9:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 5:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. on Sunday. According to SafeGraph, it's usually busiest at 11 a.m., 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., and people visit Donn's Texas BBQ most on Sundays and Saturdays, with a slowdown on Tuesdays.
Bar Peached
Old West Austin's Bar Peached is the city's buzziest cocktail bar by the numbers.
The cocktail bar and Asian-Southern fusion spot, which offers desserts and more and opened at 1315 W. Sixth St. since January, increased its new review count by 11% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 2.6% for the Yelp category "Cocktail Bars." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.7 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
Bar Peached's menu offers a wide variety of alcoholic beverages, including signature cocktails, spirits, wine and beer. Try the Kyoto kiss with gin, yuzu, shishoto and egg white, The Morelos with mezcal, tamarind and habanero salt or the Kentucky Mule with bourbon, lemon, mint and house ginger beer.
Bar Peached is open from 4–10 p.m. on Tuesday-Thursday, 4–11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 4–9 p.m. on Sunday. (It's closed on Monday.)
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.
