Fri
Oct 20 2006
11:13 am
By: R. Neal
Every year the KNS has the "East Tennessee's Best" survey, and every year it's the same old big yawn. It's not even East Tennessee's best. It's Knoxville's best. Well, it's not even that. It's West Knoxville's "best".
Olive Garden is the best Italian restaurant. Red Lobster is the best seafood restaurant. Litton's has the best hamburger. Best ice cream is at Marble Slab. The best bakery is Panera Bread. Border's is the best book store. OK, then.
As usual, this isn't a "best of" survey. It's a "most popular franchise in Farragut" survey (with the exception of the loyal Litton's fans out in Fountain City). But what it really is is a huge ad sale for the paper. Everybody who gets mentioned buys an ad thanking the readers. Some who weren't even mentioned bought ads.
(The front page has a big thank you from Regal Cinema, but there is no "best cinema" category in the print version. Same with WATE's thank you ad, but they aren't mentioned in any category in the print version. Apparently it was for Jim Wogan as best sportscaster, which is listed in the online version.)
Oh, and Big Ed's is the best pizza. Pizza Hut and Papa John's are the runners up. I finally made it up to Big Ed's a while back. It was OK, but there are at least three or four better pizzas closer to home. (Pizza Hut and Papa John's are not one of those three or four.)
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Knoxville's business slogan:
Knoxville's business slogan: Unless you're a chain, don't bother.
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SayUncle
Can't we all just get a long gun?
Olive Garden? RED LOBSTER?!
Olive Garden? RED LOBSTER?! Nasty and pathetic. Are you sure these folks were not surveyed in Bucksnort, Tennessee?
What's worse is the South
What's worse is the South Knoxville newspaper's Best Of categories. They didn't list the places I like best and they did have ones I've never heard of--and I've lived in SoKno for 20 years. I threw my ballot away.
SKS Times Community Choice Awards
"They didn't list the places I like best and they did have ones I've never heard of..." -Anonymous
The South Knox Seymour Times held open nominations for over three weeks. Everyone was welcome to nominate in any of 35 categories. The top three nominees in each category made it to the final ballot.
If your favorites aren't listed, I would ask if perhaps you nominated them. With the help of a few more like-minded individuals you might have found those favorites on the ballot as well. Some categories only had two valid nominees - a single voice could have placed your favorite on the ballot in those categories.
We would have liked to have seen I Love New York Pizza or American Pie in place of Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell most likely won't take any prizes over Panchos or Cancun, but again, these are the Community Choice Awards, not the SKS-Publisher-likes-these-places Awards or the We-hope-to-get-some-advertising-revenue-from-those-folks Awards.
The community nominated them, we published them. Simple as that.
Further, although you say "What's worse..." in regards to the SKS poll, if you read the darn thing you'll find the locally-owned shops -vastly- outweigh the chains.
Will the local shops win over the big chains? I certainly hope so. I've personally counted over 10,000 votes so far, and I'll be working all weekend counting more. It all depends on the voters.
If we've listed places you've never heard of, maybe you should try them. They wouldn't be listed if somebody didn't like them. We don't expect everybody to agree with the winners chosen by popular vote - I've yet to see any poll favor one candidate by 100%.
So perhaps you should get another ballot. One more will be printed before the entry deadline. Record your choices anyway. You might win the $100 prize.
Which you can then spend at your favorite stores that weren't nominated.
"It is not the writer's task to answer questions but to question answers." -Edward Abbey
Big Ed's
It may be heresy for an Oak Ridge resident to say this, but I hate Big Ed's.
Many people say you go there more for the atmosphere than the food. But what atmosphere? You wait in a line that stretches out the door, wait at your table for poor service, eat from tiny paper plates, and eat pizza that tastes like the plate, only greasier.
Yummmm!
No surprise
No surprise. Twice a year we get these polls: one from KNS and one from MP. They both have way too many nonlocal winners.
The MP at least tries to stick to local. The KNS needs to implement a rule that MP has: specify the specific location. Taco Bell wouldn't rank if you had to put which Taco Bell you liked best.
And I love Litton's.
Big Ed's is pretty lame, but at least it's local. And in this case, at least it's not Knoxville (ie this is an East Tennessee poll).
I never understod why some
I never understod why some many people get orgasmic about a fried fatty hamburger at Littons. I tried it one...bleech...I've had a better chargrilled burger from Hardees.
Amen!
These are always super lame. Why choose as favorite place a restaurant you can go to in any city in the country? It baffles the mind. The KNS and MP should have editorial choices and make the poll multiple choice for the readers from those choices. You'd think they would have the people who visit Knoxville from other towns looking for different places to go in mind, but they obviously don't. Not to mention having Red Lobster show up on any poll as being the "best" at anything makes this area look like a bunch of fools.
yeah, but
Look at the City Guides on MSN and who locals in major metro areas pick their "best of" winners. K-town isn't the only city who loves Olive Garden.
Chain chain chain...
It would be useful and interesting to see a "best of" survey that represents what locals deem best about a given area, no chains allowed.
The best thing about Turkey Creek Olive Garden is that we no longer have to wait for a table at Itallian Market and Grill, but how long can that last?
Somebody say pizza?
So what are the good pizza places? I usually settle for PJ's cause they deliver here and the boys eat it. I like Stefano's (Windy City!) and had a nice pie from Savelli's a couple of weeks ago, but I wanna hear from the pros.
John
Tomato Head has great pizza!
Tomato Head has great pizza! I like the pesto and sundried tomato.
Listings
The "Best Theatre" and "Best Sportscaster" categories were on the last few of pages of the print edition. If you got a copy without those, it was an anomaly.