Curious where New York City'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 discover which local businesses have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month.
To find out who made the list, we first looked at New York City 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 riding a trend this spring.
Quality Bistro
Open since January, this French restaurant is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "French" on Yelp.
Citywide, French spots saw a median 1.3% increase in new reviews over the past month. Quality Bistro only recently appeared on Yelp, but while many new businesses struggle to gain reviews, it has seen strong initial popularity.
Located at 120 W. 55th St. (between Sixth and Seventh avenues) in Midtown, Quality Bistro is the first French eatery from restaurant group Quality Branded, which also operates local steakhouse chain Quality Eats. The 200-person, bi-level bistro serves a menu of classic French dishes, such as steak tartare, escargot, raw bar platters, steak frites and more. There's also a full bar serving wine, beer and cocktails.
Quality Bistro is open for dinner from 5–9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 5–10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with plans to add brunch service.
The Stoop
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Ridgewood's The Stoop, the vegan cafe is a hot topic, according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp saw a median 1.6% increase in new reviews over the past month, The Stoop appeared on Yelp relatively recently. Many new businesses struggle to gain reviews, but it has seen a surge of interest.
Open at 1683 Madison St. (on the corner of Cypress Avenue) since last September, this cozy spot offers 100%-vegan cafe fare. Check out the vegan doughnuts or bagels with "cream cheese," or try one of the sandwiches, like the "egg and cheese," the avocado smash and the Chuna Melt with chickpea "tuna." The menu also offers coffee, tea, espresso drinks and smoothies.
The Stoop is open from 7 a.m.–7 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m.–4 p.m. on weekends.
Strings Ramen
The East Village's Strings Ramen is the city's buzziest ramen spot by the numbers.
This location of the Chicago-based ramen shop, the first outside of the Midwest, opened at 188 Second Ave. (at the corner of 12th Street) in February. While still relatively new to Yelp, it has seen a surge in new reviews. Meanwhile, the median new review count for the Yelp category "Ramen" was up 2.1% over the past month.
Strings Ramen serves up five varieties of ramen — seaweed-based shoyu, poultry-based shio, miso, pork-based tonkotsu and spicy Hell Ramen (also available in a vegetarian version). Other menu items include tsukemen (deconstructed ramen), yakisoba, rice bowls, and appetizers like gyoza and edamame.
Strings Ramen is open from 11 a.m.–10 p.m. daily.
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.
