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CLUE: It's the coolest thing to appear on Jeopardy since
Alex Trebec's pimp plaid pants and full luscious 'stache.

photo credit: mandelweb

 

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For the Entire Month of January, Yelp Kicks (Your) Butt

How many years have you made resolutions like this?

“Lose 15 lbs.”
“Fit into those jeans.”
“Go to the gym more.”
“Not drink so much.” (Well, let’s not get crazy here)

Here at Yelp, we realize it can be hard and sometimes daunting to start new goals -- especially when fitness is involved. New to the gym and don’t know how to turn on the treadmill? Thought a downward dog was a type of schnauzer? Want to try kickboxing, but don’t want to go on your own? Hey, we’ve all been there! So Yelp wanted to make getting into shape not only easy and affordable, but fun!

Enter: Yelp Kicks Butt!

For the entire month of January, 7 Community Managers, 6 cities and more than 200 deals are going to PUMP. YOU. UP!

Photo credit: Saturday Night Live

Yelpers in Boston, LA East and West, Phoenix, Denver, Indy and Charlotte will enjoy hundreds of deals at a variety of businesses for 50% off (or more in some cases)! Including boot camps, skate parks, yoga studios, outdoor biking, pilates, gyms, dance lessons and much more! Best of all? Your friendly CMs are hosting informal group events so you get your groove on at a variety of businesses with fellow friends -- and afterwards, with all that cash you save, you can treat yourself to a double bacon cheeseburger -- I mean, a tall glass of carrot juice.

 

Yelp Top 10 Restaurants of 2010!

We said goodbye to 2010 and with 2011 came the inevitable New Year's resolutions. But let's just get things out in the open and be honest with ourselves: we all know that you aren't gonna give up drinking and those french fries have your name on them.

While less than ⅓ of the 15 million reviews on Yelp are food-related, it’s no secret yelpers have an appetite. In an effort to help make resolutions everyone can actually stick to, we’ve pulled together a list of the hottest Yelp restaurants of 2010 in the US, as well as some of our top Yelp cities**. These businesses kept our tummies happy and our souls merry last year -- and for those we haven’t yet tried, we resolve to use the rest of the 361 days in 2011 to rectify that!

Top 10 US:
It was a tough battle and it came down to East vs. West. While San Francisco may have taken the World Series, New York got one better and took home Yelp Gold. Ippudo New York came in as the MOST POPULAR U.S. business on Yelp in 2010. With nearly 2,000 Yelp reviews, lines that trail out the door at any day, time or season and pork buns that make a rather large number of diners think they’ve died and gone to Heaven, we can see why they were crowned victor. But they were also amongst good company, with LA eateries dominating the list and SF favorites rounding it out.

(If these buns could talk, they’d probably say they were delicious)

1. Ippudo NY, New York
2. Ike's Place, San Francisco
3. Bottega Louie, Los Angeles
4. Wurstküche, Los Angeles
5. Griddle Cafe, Los Angeles
6. Bi-Rite Creamery, San Francisco
7. Daikokuya, Los Angeles
8. Philippe The Original Restaurant, Los Angeles
9. Oinkster, Eagle Rock
10. Brenda's French Soul Food, San Francisco

Top 10 Los Angeles:
Downtown LA represented hard on Yelp Los Angeles’s Top Ten 2010 list with Bottega Louie edging out the competition (must have something to do with that peanut butter terrine). But other than location, this year's picks are a mixed bag of cuisine and saucy sips from German-heavy Wurstküche to the sweet treat shop, Milk and many more!

1. Bottega Louie
2. Wurstküche
3. Griddle Cafe
4. Daikokuya
5. Philippe The Original Restaurant
6. Father's Office
7. Wood Spoon
8. Milk
9. Animal
10. Umami Burger

Top 10 San Francisco:
Despite problems with its, err, popularity, it comes as no surprise that perennial Bay Area favorite, Ike’s, came out on top. But San Franciscans weren’t shy about finishing off their sammy with a sweet treat: Bi-Rite Creamery, Tartine and Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream also followed suit.

1. Ike's Place
2. Bi-Rite Creamery
3. Brenda's French Soul Food
4. Tartine Bakery
5. Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream
6. Katana-Ya
7. SO
8. San Tung Chinese Restaurant
9. NOPA
10. Mama's

Top 10 New York:
According to Yelp New York, the food scene theme for 2010 was a keen focus on old time favorites that serve up affordable and consistently lovely grub. Ippudo New York came in as the most popular business on Yelp New York in 2010. But many of these names will look familiar, not just because you’ve read about them online or in print, but because you’ve likely been there once (or thrice).

1. Ippudo NY
2. The Meatball Shop                           
3. Shake Shack
4. Katz's Delicatessen
5. Doughnut Plant
6. 53rd and 6th Halal Cart
7. Lombardi's Pizza
8. Caracas Arepa Bar
9. Clinton St. Baking Company
10. Prosperity Dumpling                         

Top 10 Chicago:
2010 was the year of meat for Yelp Chicago. Kuma’s Corner reigned supreme as the place to grab the best burger on a pretzel bun with Hot Doug’s dishing up the dogs a close second. The list boasts a number of places to get your carnivore on: XOCO known for its Mexican street meat, Crisp for Korean chicken and Smoque ensures you’re always in need of a napkin with some of the best ‘que in the city.

1. Kuma's Corner
2. Hot Doug's
3. XOCO
4. The Purple Pig
5. The Publican
6. Revolution Brewing Co
7. Girl and the Goat
8. Big Star
9. Crisp
10. Smoque BBQ

**Rank determined by how many people in the Yelp community have bookmarked the business in 2010, combined with average star rating, total review count, and total checkins.