As fans of cronuts and cake pops can attest, food trends come and go. So how can you tell which tastes are trending right this minute?
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp to discover which local businesses have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Phoenix 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 worth exploring, right now.
Flint By Baltaire
Open since August, this bar and New American and Mediterranean spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp.
Citywide, New American spots saw a median 1.4% increase in new reviews over the past month. FLINT By Baltaire only recently appeared on Yelp, but while many new businesses struggle to gain reviews, it has seen strong initial popularity.
It's not the only trending outlier in the New American category: Vecina has seen a 56% increase in reviews, and EarlyBaker and The Collins Small Batch Kitchen have seen 7.7 and 5.3% increases, respectively.
Located at 2425 E. Camelback Road in Camelback East, FLINT By Baltaire offers entrees such as wood-grilled lamb chops, served with Lebanese tomato salad, hummus and herbs, a Baja striped bass that comes with Persian cucumber tzatziki, fennel and grilled lemon, as well as wood-fired signature pizza. (Click here to view the menu.)
FLINT By Baltaire is open from 11 a.m.–10 p.m. daily.
The Buffalo Spot
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Paradise Valley's The Buffalo Spot, a franchise of the famous chain, the traditional American spot, which offers chicken wings and more, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "American (Traditional)" on Yelp saw a median 1.6% increase in new reviews over the past month, The Buffalo Spot bagged a noteworthy 433.3% increase in new reviews within that time frame, with a downward trend from a four-star rating a month ago to its current three stars.
Open at 18450 32nd St., Suite 110, since this past summer, The Buffalo Spot has locations in Arizona, California and Texas and features fried chicken in a burritos, wraps, salad, as tenders and traditional and boneless wings. Also, look for its "famous" buffalo fries that come in Cajun, garlic parmesan, honey barbecue and various levels of spiciness. (Check out the full menu here.)
The Buffalo Spot is open from 10:30 a.m.–10 p.m. daily.
Boba Day
Paradise Valley's Boba Day is also making waves. Open since December 2018, at 4839 E. Greenway Road, the spot to score juices and smoothies, bubble tea and coffee and tea has seen a 31.9% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 2.9% for all businesses tagged "Coffee & Tea" on Yelp. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis Boba Day's review count increased by more than 1,500%.
Boba Day allows customers to create their own bubble tea drink through a four-step process. It includes selecting a base, flavors such as mocha and fruit and finally toppings. Over the past month, it's seen its Yelp rating improve from four stars to 4.5 stars.
Boba Day is open from 10 a.m.–9:30 p.m. on Monday-Thursday and Sunday and 10 a.m.–10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Press Coffee - The Roastery
Paradise Valley's Press Coffee - The Roastery is the city's buzziest breakfast and brunch spot by the numbers.
The coffee roastery and breakfast and brunch spot, which offers coffee and tea and more and opened at 10443 N. 32nd St. in July, increased its new review count by 15.6% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.6% for the Yelp category "Breakfast & Brunch."
It's not the only trending outlier in the breakfast and brunch category: The Bread and Honey House has seen a 15% increase in reviews, and Hash Kitchen has seen a 11.3% bump.
Press Coffee - The Roastery includes a menu of burritos and hot and cold sandwiches and more. When it comes to beverages, you'll find coffee from around the world.
Press Coffee - The Roastery is open from 6:30 a.m.–8 p.m. on Monday-Saturday and 7 a.m.–6 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.
