A food truck answered every one of its last 10 reviews. Cousins Maine Lobster Minneapolis, with 354 reviews, replied to 10 of 10 — and so did Town Hall Station, a restaurant with 1,024. Neither is the most-reviewed business in its trade. The busiest restaurant someone searching in Edina is shown carries 3,358 reviews, and the busiest bar carries 4,120. Answering, in this set, has almost nothing to do with size.
The clearest split is between the sit-down trades and the counter trades. Among the 20 cafés, 20 coffee shops and 20 bakeries we read, the best repliers we found answered 3 of their last 10 — Honey & Rye, with 619 reviews, which turns up under all three of those trades, and Patisserie Margo with 280. Càphin Minneapolis - Linden Hills answered 1 of its last 10, and Hold The Wheat, with 466 reviews, also answered 1. Nobody in those three trades had answered more than 3 of their most recent 10. These are not quiet businesses: the median café someone searching in Edina sees has 117 reviews, the median coffee shop 121, the median bakery 280, and the most-reviewed of them carries 1,913.
Bars and restaurants look different. Tavern on France answered 7 of its last 10, Bunny's Bar & Grill answered 6 of its last 10 against 3,723 reviews, and Full Tilt Tavern answered 3 of its last 10 with 3,073. Bars carry the deepest review counts of the six food and drink trades, a median of 1,003. Food trucks carry the shallowest, a median of 37, alongside the highest median rating in the group at 4.9. The other five trades sit at 4.6 to 4.7.
Across everything we read around Edina — 460 businesses in all, 120 of them in food and drink — a typical measured business answered 72% of its recent reviews, measured here across 56 businesses. The café and bakery lane sits well under that. Ratings do not explain it, since nothing in this group has a median below 4.6.
What to do about it
If you run a café, a coffee shop or a bakery around Edina, the number to sit with is 3 of 10. That is the most any business we read in those three trades had answered recently, in a town where a typical measured business answered 72% of its recent reviews. Every unanswered review on your listing is a page a customer reads with only one voice on it.
Start with the last ten. Open your Google profile, work down from the newest, and write a short reply to each — including the five-star ones, which are usually faster and are read by the same people. Write them the way you would speak at the counter, not in a template; a bakery reply that names the thing someone ordered reads as a person. Then close the gap going forward by asking at the moment it is easiest, while the customer is still at the counter with the bag in their hand rather than by email three days later.
Restaurants
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Town Hall Station | 10 of 10 | 1024 | 4.5 |
| 2 | Tavern on France | 7 of 10 | 3358 | 4.3 |
Cafés
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honey & Rye | 3 of 10 | 619 | 4.6 |
| 2 | Patisserie Margo | 3 of 10 | 280 | 4.7 |
| 3 | Càphin Minneapolis - Linden Hills | 1 of 10 | 271 | 4.7 |
Coffee shops
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honey & Rye | 3 of 10 | 619 | 4.6 |
| 2 | Patisserie Margo | 3 of 10 | 280 | 4.7 |
| 3 | Hold The Wheat | 1 of 10 | 466 | 4.8 |
Bars
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tavern on France | 7 of 10 | 3361 | 4.3 |
| 2 | Bunny's Bar & Grill | 6 of 10 | 3723 | 4.5 |
| 3 | Full Tilt Tavern | 3 of 10 | 3073 | 4.6 |
Bakeries
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honey & Rye | 3 of 10 | 619 | 4.6 |
Food trucks
| # | Business | Answered | Reviews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cousins Maine Lobster Minneapolis (Food Truck) | 10 of 10 | 354 | 4.7 |
| 2 | Bad Rooster Food Truck | 3 of 10 | 439 | 4.6 |