Unsure where Seattle'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 uncover which local businesses have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month.
To find out who made the list, we first looked at Seattle 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 sizzling hot, right now.
Zaika
Open since December, this bar and Indian spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Bars" on Yelp.
Citywide, bars saw a median 1.1% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Zaika saw a 48.3% increase, maintaining a sound four-star rating throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the bar category: Laredos Grill has seen a 1.5% increase in reviews.
Located at 1100 Pike St. (between Boren and Melrose avenues) in Capitol Hill, Zaika offers a lineup of small plates, such as sesame cheese toast, prawn sambal and goat cheese potli. Heartier meals include rosemary lamb chops, apricot chicken kebab and heirloom tomato burrata.
Zaika is open from 11:30 a.m.–midnight on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (It's closed on Tuesday.)
Café Hagen
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about the Cascade's Café Hagen, the Scandinavian spot, which offers coffee and tea and more, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Coffee & Tea" on Yelp saw a median 2.1% increase in new reviews over the past month, Café Hagen bagged a 38.5% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a sound 4.5-star rating.
Open at 1252 Thomas St. (between North Pontius and North Yale avenues) since December, Café Hagen specializes in Scandinavian breakfast and lunch items, including the salmon breakfast sandwich with Danish goat cheese, sea salt, pepper and an Icelandic spice blend. The menu also features specialty teas and lattes, as well as coffee tasting flights.
Ben Paris
Pike Market's Ben Paris is also making waves. Open since March at 130 Pike St. (between News Lane and First Avenue), the well-established cocktail bar and New American and breakfast and brunch spot has seen a 5.4% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1% for all businesses tagged "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis Ben Paris's review count increased by more than 200%.
There's more than one hot spot trending in Seattle's breakfast and brunch category: Watson's Counter has seen a 6.7% increase in reviews.
Ben Paris offers American fare with a twist. Its menu features mid-morning, afternoon and evening eats, serving up French toast with banana, caramel, mascarpone, salted hazelnuts and dark chocolate; tuna salad with pickled shallots, marinated white beans and soft-cooked egg; and steamed mussels with shaved fennel, sausage and country bread.
Over the past month, it's maintained a healthy four-star rating among Yelpers.
Ben Paris is open from 6:30 a.m.–10 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 6:30 a.m.–11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Staple & Fancy
Ballard's Staple & Fancy is the city's buzziest seafood spot by the numbers.
The well-established Italian spot, which offers seafood and more and opened at 4739 Ballard Ave. NW (between North 17th Avenue and 48th Street) in 2010, increased its new review count by 0.7% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 0.8% for the Yelp category "Seafood." According to SafeGraph foot traffic data, Staple & Fancy saw visits more than double over the past month.
Staple & Fancy offers an assortment of pasta dishes, as well as wood-fired fish, scallops and hen. There's also a pre-selected chef's menu available.
Staple & Fancy is open from 5 p.m.–10 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 5 p.m.–11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. According to SafeGraph, foot traffic is heaviest on Fridays and Thursdays, and it attracts a quarter of its total visitors over those two days. If you’re planning your visit, you may want to try its slower periods on Sundays.
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.
