Food trends come and go. So how can you tell which tastes are trending right now?
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 restaurants have been in the spotlight 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 riding a trend this spring.
Lemon Zest Cafe
Open since February 2020, this Mediterranean spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Mediterranean" on Yelp.
Citywide, Mediterranean spots saw a median 1.4% increase in new reviews over the past month. Lemon Zest Cafe only recently appeared on Yelp, but while many new businesses struggle to gain reviews, it has seen strong initial popularity.
Located at 7600 Balboa Blvd., Suite 109 in Van Nuys, Lemon Zest Cafe offers falafel wrap, chicken gyro and sour beef kebab. View the menu here.
Lemon Zest Cafe is open from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. on Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m.–8 p.m. on Sunday.
Pizza Sociale
Downtown Los Angeles's Pizza Sociale is also making waves. Open since October 2019 at 448 W. Olympic Blvd., the Italian spot, which offers pizza and salads, has seen a 36.5% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.1% for all businesses tagged "Italian" on Yelp. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis Pizza Sociale's review count increased by more than 140%.
There's more than one hot spot trending in Los Angeles' Italian category: Chi Spacca has seen a 0.4% increase in reviews.
Pizza Sociale serves calzone, burrata salad and margherita pizza. Check out the full menu. Over the past month, it's maintained a solid 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Pizza Sociale is open from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday and 11 a.m.–10 p.m. on Thursday-Saturday.
Handel's Homemade Ice Cream
Northridge's Handel's Homemade Ice Cream is the city's buzziest ice cream and frozen yogurt spot by the numbers.
The well-established ice cream and frozen yogurt spot, which has been open at 8850 Corbin Ave. since August 2018, increased its new review count by 4.8% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.5% for the Yelp category "Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt." According to SafeGraph foot traffic data, Handel's Homemade Ice Cream saw visits more than triple over the past month.
The business makes its own ice cream daily, according to its Yelp profile.
Handel's Homemade Ice Cream features ice cream in cones and waffle bowls, ice cream pops, sundaes and hand-packed quarts and pints. See what else is on the menu.
Handel's Homemade Ice Cream is open from 11 a.m.–10 p.m. daily. According to SafeGraph, it usually gets busy at 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., and on Fridays and Saturdays, with a slowdown on Tuesdays.
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.
