Unsure where Washington'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 discover which restaurants have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we first looked at Washington 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 closing the year out strong.
Emilie’s
Open since October, this New American spot is trending, compared to other businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp.
Citywide, New American spots saw a median 1.3% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Emilie’s saw a significant 314.3% increase, with a slight downward trend from a five-star rating a month ago to 4.5 stars today.
Located at 1101 Pennsylvania Ave. SE in Capitol Hill, the business offers ranch-fried chicken, whole grilled branzino and pork blade steak. A number of dishes, including fermented mustard greens, marinated eggplant and chicken liver pate, are delivered by carts.
Emilie’s is open from 5–10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 5 –11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. (It's closed on Sunday and Monday.)
Present Company Public House
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Mount Vernon Square's Present Company Public House, the pub is a hot topic, according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Sandwiches" on Yelp saw a median 2.5% increase in new reviews over the past month, Present Company Public House bagged a 92.3% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a sound 4.5-star rating. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.7 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.
There's more that's trending on Washington's sandwich scene: Grazie Grazie has seen a 14.9% increase in reviews, and Kenny's has seen a 1.7% bump.
Open at 438 Massachusetts Ave. NW since August, the restaurant features sandwiches, such as Nashville hot chicken and house-smoked pastrami. It also serves brunch.
Present Company Public House is open from 11 a.m.–2 a.m. Sunday- Thursday and 11 a.m.–3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Duke's Grocery
Duke's Grocery in Foggy Bottom, its third location in the District, is also making waves. Open since May at 2000 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, the gastropub and bar has seen an 18.3% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.1% for all businesses tagged "Bars" on Yelp.
There's more than one hot spot trending in Washington's bar category: Sushi Hachi has seen a 5% increase in reviews.
The menu features red beet curried salmon, roasted chicken with heirloom carrots, burgers and brisket and pork belly sandwiches. It also serves beer and cocktails. Over the past month, it's maintained a sound four-star rating among Yelpers.
Duke's Grocery is open from 11 a.m.–2 a.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m.–3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
District Commons
Foggy Bottom's District Commons has seen a major increase in foot traffic recently.
While District Commons stayed in line with the median 1.3% increase in new reviews for businesses categorized as "American (Traditional)" on Yelp over the past month, the business saw visits nearly double, according to SafeGraph's foot traffic data.
There's more abuzz in the world of Washington traditional American: CIRCA at Navy Yard has seen an 8.3% increase in reviews, and Little Pearl has seen a 6.5% bump.
Open for business at 2200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW since September, District Commons serves Cajun slow-roasted duck, jumbo lump crab cakes, shrimp and grits and catch of the day.
The business is open from 11:30 a.m.–11:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.–midnight on Friday, 11 a.m.–midnight on Saturday and 11 a.m.–10:30 p.m. on Sunday. According to SafeGraph, it usually gets busy at noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. , and on Fridays and Tuesdays, with a slowdown on Sundays.
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.
