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Are These Trending Boston Restaurants On Your Radar?

BOSTON (Hoodline) - Wondering where Boston'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 to discover which restaurants have been most discussed this month.

Read on to see which spots are riding a trend this summer.

Lovejoy Wharf

photo: jenna m./yelp

Open since March, this brewery and breakfast and brunch spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp.

Citywide, breakfast and brunch spots saw a median 2% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Lovejoy Wharf saw a 90.3% increase, maintaining a solid four-star rating throughout. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis Lovejoy Wharf's review count increased by more than 1,400%.

Located at 1 Lovejoy Wharf, Suite 101, in North End, Lovejoy Wharf offers made-from-scratch food served at shared tables. Breakfast sandwiches include bacon, tomato, egg and cheese and pork roll with egg and cheese. Other options for later in the day are sandwiches, burgers and sides such as grilled sweet corn, mac and cheese and house pretzels.

Tender Greens

Photo: tender greens/Yelp

Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Back Bay's Tender Greens, the New American spot, which offers salads and sandwiches, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.

While businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp saw a median 1.7% increase in new reviews over the past month, Tender Greens bagged a 26.3% increase in new reviews within that time frame, with a slight upward trend from a three-star rating a month ago to its current 3.5 stars. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining five times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.

Tender Greens, which opened at 100 Huntington Ave., Suite K006A, in Back Bay in 2018, features a chef's special — for August, it's Steak Frites made with New York strip steak and topped with chimichurri — as well as tuna nicoise and vegan salads, plus sandwiches, sides and soups.

Jonquils Cafe & Bakery

Photo: Vi T./Yelp

Also in Back Bay, Jonquils Cafe & Bakery is making waves. Open since June at 125 Newbury St. (between Clarendon and Dartmouth streets), it has seen a striking 125% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 5.5% for all businesses tagged "Coffee & Tea" on Yelp.

Chocolate and almond croissants, breakfast sandwiches on brioche or country bread and quiche are featured on the menu at Jonquils Cafe & Bakery. Over the past month, it's seen its Yelp rating improve from three stars to 3.5 stars.

Spyce

photo: feng yi c./yelp

Downtown Boston's Spyce is the city's buzziest Italian spot by the numbers.

The Italian, Thai and Lebanese spot, which opened at 241 Washington St. in May, increased its new review count by 5.2% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.8% for the Yelp category "Italian."

Spyce, which has a four-star rating on Yelp, offers cavatappi pasta pesto bowls alongside Korean, Indian, Thai, Latin and Lebanese roasted chicken.

To figure out who made the list, we looked at Boston 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.

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