The Arkansas Times has been publishing its readers’ choices for the state’s best restaurants longer than most of the staff has been alive. That means our writers have been raised on our readers’ recommendations: For 36 years, you’ve put your votes where your mouths are and we have dutifully reported the results.

Our exhaustive questionnaire — with its 45 categories — came up with The Pantry Eatery as Little Rock’s “overall” winner and The Hive in Bentonville as the state winner. Both have gotten plenty of ink in the Arkansas Times, so we turned our feature writers loose on a couple of winners in the “new” category: Honey Pies in Little Rock and The Preacher’s Son in Bentonville. DeLuca’s Pizzeria in Hot Springs won that city’s best restaurant award; we got the fascinating story of how proprietor Anthony Valinoti went from Wall Street to the Spa City’s Park Avenue.

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Because hamburgers are king, we pulled one up from the food truck Excaliburger, which some folks find magical. With our sticky fingers on the pulse of what’s trendy in the world of chow, we also offer this year a review of ticketed dinners.

Readers Choice 2017 results

Soup to nuts, restaurant-wise.

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Grow the dough
How a Wall Street hotshot chased a childhood memory to a pizza career.
by Stephanie Smittle

A Q&A with Chef Matt Cooper of Bentonville’s The Preacher’s Son

On being an actual preacher’s son, his gluten-free menu and more.
by David Koon

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Book your ticket

To event dining in Little Rock and beyond.
by Lindsey Millar

Honey Pies
They’ve hit the big time.
by Leslie Newell Peacock

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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Home-cooking winner Homer’s enters its third decade of dishing up meat ‘n’ three.
by David Koon

Quest for the Holy Grail
Inside one man’s bid to perfect the all-American cheeseburger.
by Benjamin Hardy

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