I've been working on a fun, data-centric side project this summer, identifying "statistically improbable restaurants" via big data sets. Want to know where in the US to find Afghan or African food, or understand why that might be interesting? Start here: https://ethanzuckerman.com/2025/07/03/stalking-the-statistically-improbable-restaurant-with-data/
Discussion
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@ethanz this is great!
@ethanz
The cities closest to the centroid of that vectorspace are Lexington, KY; Colorado Spring, CO; North Charleston, SC; Indianapolis, IN and Columbus, OH.
My city is extremely average! Hooray, I guess?
@petes_bread_eqn_xls PROFOUNDLY average. At least in terms of restaurant distribution. Does that sound right to you?
@ethanz yes, it seems like a dubious honor but it’s not wrong
@ethanz Great stuff - would be interesting to see if a similar one could be made regionally - or in other countries
@mojala Absolutely. It wouldn't be hard to do - you would start with a list of major cities in your country, then obtain the Google Places IDs for them and then retrieve the data. If you want to waste a bunch of time, I can send you some scripts... :-)
@ethanz Please do! Am not at all sure when I can get to it but will keep you posted if and when I get around to it
