When it comes to restaurants, every US city has a unique identity. Austin, TX is renowned for its BBQ. New York City is densely packed with pizza-by-the-slice. San Francisco and LA compete on taqueria prestige.
Using Google data, visualized by Google News Lab with design studio Polygraph, we can begin to quantify how these food trends vary across the country. Based on aggregated, anonymized, and differentially private data from users who have opted in to Google Location History, we ranked cities and counties by their most popular cuisine.
We’ve also produced similar maps for pizza, coffee, and Mexican, seafood, Italian, and sandwich shops here.
We can also make comparisons: where are pizza parlors more popular than Mexican restaurants?
In the midwest, visits to pizza shops far outpace Mexican restaurants (especially in pizza-obsessed states such as Iowa and Missouri). Try comparing other cuisines, such as seafood vs. pizza or sandwich vs. burger.