earlier this week, i posted a poll that allowed you, the readers, to determine one of life’s most pressing questions: who has the best pizza in little rock?

i asked. you (well, 59 of you…which is better than i expected) responded.

before i get to the results, allow me to make a couple statements. first, since i know you’re all just dying to know, my favorite pizza in little rock is iriana’s (followed by probably damgoode & vino’s). it just so happens that it’s across the street from my office, so i can only surmise that i’m fulfilling god’s will by loving it. right? while iriana’s didn’t finish first, it had a respectable showing.

second, during the voting, as i talked to people about how they voted, i was struck by the way in which people would talk about their vote. despite the fact that i was asking only about the quality/taste of the pizza, people consistently made comments like, _________________ is just a cool place to hang out or __________________ is lame. certainly, we have a very vibrant culture of eating out and one of the things that is most prominent in the experience of eating out is a restaurant’s decor, location and culture. bottom line, you give me a dilapidated warehouse with amazing food and match it against a really amazing atmosphere with good-but-not-amazing food, the vast majority of people are going to be drawn to the amazing atmosphere. in the food industry, for the average guest, experience wins almost every time.

what i’m trying to get at is that i’d love to see this poll conducted in a neutral environment. more to the point, i’d like to get a group of people who’ve had none of these pizzas (and been to none of these restaurants) and conduct a blind taste test. i’m not saying i’m certain that the results would be dramatically different, but, well, i’m relatively confident the results might look somewhat different. (with all that said, i don’t necessarily “disagree” with the vote, but it’s simply to say there are limitations to the results…much like any casual surveying.)

with all that said, the numbers are the numbers. you can view a ridiculous pie chart below (sorry people, i couldn’t resist…), but here are the raw numbers.

1. damgoode pies: 40.2% (24 votes)
2. iriana’s pizza: 25.5% (15 votes)
3. shotgun dan’s pizza: 13.7% (8 votes)
4. zaza fine salad & wood-oven pizza co: 8.6% (5 votes)
5. us pizza co: 6.9% (4 votes)
6. american pie pizza: 1.7% (1 vote)
7. gusano’s pizzeria: 1.7% (1 vote)
8. vino’s brewpub: 1.7% (1 vote)