To celebrate the restaurant launch of Impossible™ Sausage Made From Plants, Yelp teamed up with Impossible Foods to curate a list of top diners across America that will be the first independent restaurants to serve the award-winning patties*. Consumers across America can now seek out these beloved local eateries to experience the new plant-based breakfast sausage first hand.
Using Yelp Data, we identified and named 30 of America’s Top Diners. The restaurants were awarded a supply of Impossible Sausage Made From Plants; and offered one-month free access to tools that will help them promote their new Impossible Sausage dishes, including Yelp Connect and Businesses Highlights. These favorite local eateries were also offered one-month free access to Yelp Waitlist to help them safely reopen their dining rooms and manage capacity.
Diners, some might say, are the heart and soul of mom and pop restaurants. They epitomize “local” and are often known as a community’s beloved and reliable standard. It is for those reasons we were excited to partner with Impossible Foods to identify some of America’s favorite haunts and help make plant-based a part of everyday fare.
The Continued Rise of Plant-Based Food
Last year, Yelp named the Impossible Burger as one of the biggest food trends in 2019 as part of our Yelp 15 Trend Report, and we don’t see signs of that trend slowing down. In fact, consumer interest in plant-based food continues to gain traction according to Yelp data — in the last two years we’ve seen:
- 140% increase in mentions of “plant based” in reviews on Yelp
- 114% increase in mentions of “Impossible Burger” in reviews on Yelp
- 65% increase in mentions of “plant based burger” in reviews on Yelp
More and more, we are seeing people make socially conscious decisions when it comes to what they do and what they eat. By choosing plant-based foods, consumers are not only making a potentially healthier choice, but also one that will have a positive impact on the environment by reducing their carbon footprint.
Helping Diners Communicate With Their Customers
As we reached out to the owners of diners across the U.S., we were struck by the incredible resilience they’ve shown in the face of unprecedented challenges. COVID-19 has severely impacted the restaurant industry with 53% of restaurant closures on Yelp indicated as permanently closed since March 1st. As restaurant owners have had their worlds turned upside down, they’ve had to innovate in ways they never imagined, just to survive. As local economies reopen, we’re heartened to see restaurant owners begin to return to a “new normal.”
To help these top diners communicate with their customers and share updates around new menu items, such as their new Impossible Sausage dish, as well as manage their dining room more efficiently in these unprecedented times, Yelp has offered them one-month free access to the following products:
- Yelp Connect allows businesses to communicate and share updates with new and existing customers, including what’s new on the menu, food and drink specials, and upcoming events. This is particularly important during these times as things are constantly changing and evolving — for example, diners can easily share if they’re offering curbside pickup or delivery.
- Business Highlights allow restaurant owners to choose from over 30 highlights to showcase unique attributes that help their business stand out. The diners can highlight that they are now “Vegan Friendly” and have that appear along other attributes in both search results and on the business’s Yelp page. We’ve also rolled out several COVID-19 related highlights that let businesses share if they’re offering takeout, drive-thru service, curbside pickup, gift cards, among other offerings.
- Yelp Waitlist allows restaurants to manage their dining room and waitlist online, making physical distancing possible among customers and hosts during COVID-19. We’ve seen business owners use Waitlist in innovative ways in the past few months, including using Waitlist to manage curbside pickup. To help restaurants make the transition back to dine-in service safely and smoothly, we recently launched two new features that enable them to monitor seating capacity and control wait times.
30 of America’s Top Diners
At Yelp, we’ve always been focused on connecting people with great local businesses, so we were naturally excited to dig into the data to find and highlight Yelpers’ favorite diners across the U.S.* The list includes plenty of hidden gems, such as a family diner in North Pole, Alaska, an all-vegan spot in Brooklyn, a donut shop turned diner in Nebraska, the second oldest restaurant in Utah, and an eatery serving up Canadian favorites in Texas!
List of America’s Top Diners According to Yelp:
Businesses that offer takeout or delivery via Yelp ⧫
Little Richard’s Family Diner — North Pole, Alaska
Little Anthony’s Diner — Tucson, Arizona
Beach Break Cafe — Oceanside, California
Broadway Diner — Middletown, Delaware ⧫
Boynton Diner — Boynton Beach, Florida
Daily Eats — Tampa, Florida
Little Duck Diner — Savannah, Georgia ⧫
Oxbow Diner — Bliss, Idaho
Gallery Pastry Shop — Indianapolis, Indiana
Drake Diner — Des Moines, Iowa
D. Nalley’s — Louisville, Kentucky ⧫
Miss Portland Diner — Portland, Maine
The Diner at 11 North Beacon — Watertown, Massachusetts ⧫
Al’s Breakfast — Minneapolis, Minnesota
Brent’s Drugs — Jackson, Mississippi
Union Diner — Laconia, New Hampshire
Marlboro Diner — Englishtown, New Jersey
Plaza Cafe Downtown — Santa Fe, New Mexico
Plaza Cafe Southside — Santa Fe, New Mexico ⧫
Champs Diner — Brooklyn, New York ⧫
The Dive N — Pineville, North Carolina
Canal Street Diner — Bolivar, Ohio
Cafe Lift — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ⧫
Early Bird Diner — Charleston, South Carolina
Inskip Grill — Knoxville, Tennessee
Maple Leaf Diner — Dallas, Texas
Ruth’s Diner — Salt Lake City, Utah
Bob’s Diner — Manchester Center, Vermont
Anchor Allie’s — Virginia Beach, Virginia ⧫
Fare Well — Washington D.C. ⧫
We’re excited to partner with a brand like Impossible Foods that allows us to elevate an important innovation in the food industry, as well as highlight great local businesses who are just as excited as we are to bring socially conscious plant-based dishes to consumers across the country.
* This is an all-time list of 30 of the top diners across the U.S. according to Yelp. The company identified independently owned businesses in the diners category, then ranked those spots using a number of factors including the total volume and ratings of reviews. When available, all businesses on this list have a passing health score, and were confirmed open and operating with either dine-in, delivery or takeout as of June 1, 2020. Each diner has a claimed Yelp page and agreed to participate in the campaign.
