Curious where Los Angeles' 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 deduce which eateries have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we first looked at Los Angeles 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 getting plenty of attention, right now.
Old New York Deli & Bakery
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Woodland Hills' Old New York Deli & Bakery, the deli and bakery, which offers bagels and more, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Bakeries" on Yelp saw a median 1.4% increase in new reviews over the past month, Old New York Deli & Bakery appeared on Yelp relatively recently. Many new businesses struggle to gain reviews, but it has seen a surge of interest.
Open at 6209 Topanga Canyon Blvd. since December 2019, Old New York Deli & Bakery features cookies, tarts and cakes.
Percolate
Sawtelle's Percolate is also making waves. Open since November 2017 at 11870 Santa Monica Blvd., the popular tea room, which offers coffee, tea and bubble tea, has seen a 1.5% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 2% for all businesses tagged "Coffee & Tea" on Yelp. According to SafeGraph foot traffic data, Percolate saw visits more than triple over the past month.
The business offers "premium loose leaf tea, matcha and espresso-based drinks, served iced or hot, often complimented by Percolate's small batch boba," according to its Yelp page.
There's more than one hot spot trending in Los Angeles' coffee and tea category: BonTea has seen a 300% increase in reviews.
Percolate serves up cold brew iced coffee, peach oolong tea with housemade cheese and matcha latte. Over the past month, it's maintained a healthy 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Percolate is open from 9 a.m.–10 p.m. on Monday-Saturday and 9 a.m.–7 p.m. on Sunday. According to SafeGraph, foot traffic is heaviest at 12 p.m., 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., and on Mondays and Fridays. If you’re planning your visit, you may want to try its slower periods on Wednesdays.
CoCoYo Chicken
Koreatown's CoCoYo Chicken is the city's buzziest fast food spot by the numbers.
The fast food spot, which offers chicken wings and more and has been open at 4121 W. Olympic Blvd. since December 2019, is still relatively new to Yelp but has seen a surge of new reviews. Meanwhile, the median new review count for the Yelp category "Fast food" was up 2.6% over the past month.
CoCoYo Chicken offers crispy chicken tenders, grilled spicy chicken sandwich and kimchi bacon fries. View the menu here.
CoCoYo Chicken is open from 11:30 a.m.–midnight on Monday-Saturday and 10 a.m.–4 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.
