Wondering 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 analyze which local businesses 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 have the momentum heading into springtime.
Thirsty Crow
Open since November 2019, this bar and Malaysian and traditional American spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (Traditional)" on Yelp.
Citywide, traditional American spots saw a median 1.3% increase in new reviews over the past month. Thirsty Crow 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 traditional American category: Little Pearl has seen a 6.7% increase in reviews.
Located at 3400 11th St. NW in Columbia Heights, Thirsty Crow offers burgers, wings and Malaysian street food-inspired fare such as chicken and paneer satay. It also has 24 beers and wines on tap.
Thirsty Crow is open from 4:30 p.m.–2 a.m. on weekdays and noon–3 a.m. on weekends.
ABC Pony
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Navy Yard's ABC Pony, the bar and Asian fusion and Italian spot is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Bars" on Yelp saw a median 1.2% increase in new reviews over the past month, ABC Pony bagged a 42.1% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a convincing 4.5-star rating.
There's more that's trending on Washington's bar scene: Johnny Pistolas has seen a 1.6% increase in reviews.
Open at 2 I St. SE since December 2019, ABC Pony, by chef Erik Bruner-Yang, features specialty cocktails, including a gimlet with lemongrass-infused Japanese roku gin, a classic negroni made with roasted beet-infused gin and miso milk punch with Japanese whiskey. Beer and wine are also available, as well as dishes like egg drop soup and tagliatelle with arrabbiata sauce.
ABC Pony is open from 7 a.m.–10 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m.–11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 7 a.m.–5 p.m. on Sunday.
Emilie’s
Capitol Hill's Emilie’s is also making waves. Open since since October 2019 by chef Kevin Tien at 1101 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, the New American spot has seen a 30.7% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.3% for all businesses tagged "American (New)" on Yelp.
There's more than one hot spot trending in Washington's New American category: The Berliner has seen a 7.3% increase in reviews, and Eat BRGZ has seen an 8.2% bump.
Menu options at Emilie's include fermented mustard greens, a ranch fried chicken sandwich on Texas toast, scallop crudo with chili oil and a pork blade steak with a peanut sauce. Over the past month, it's maintained a healthy four-star rating among Yelpers.
Emilie’s is open from 5 p.m.–10 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 5 p.m.–11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 5 p.m.–9:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Bacio Pizzeria
Bloomingdale's Bacio Pizzeria is the city's buzziest Italian spot by the numbers.
The popular Italian spot at 81 Seaton Place NW increased its new review count by 0.7% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.8% for the Yelp category "Italian." According to SafeGraph foot traffic data, Bacio Pizzeria saw visits more than double over the past month.
Here's more about the business, from its Yelp page: "Bacio Pizzeria is a family owned and operated business that's been proudly serving delicious pies in Washington, D.C., since 2010. .We don't try and overdo things with our menu: We keep it simple with pizza, calzones, salads and some desserts. This allows us to focus on the priorities, namely making tasty food and giving you the service you expect."
It's not the only trending outlier in the Italian category: Rose's Luxury has seen a 0.4% increase in reviews.
Bacio Pizzeria features 10 varieties of fresh-dough pizzas, including with artichokes, ham or roasted red pepper, among other choices. Customers may also build their own pizza.
Bacio Pizzeria is open from 4 p.m.–10 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.–10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and noon–10 p.m. on Sunday. According to SafeGraph, people tend to visit Bacio Pizzeria on Wednesdays and Fridays, and it attracts a quarter of its total visitors over those two days, with a slowdown on Thursdays.
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.
