The first Best (and Worst) of Dayton: What the contest was like in 1982

As we approach the start of voting for Best of Dayton, we thought we would look back to see where the annual contest began.

Research in the archives took us all the way back to 1982 to find the first official contest. Back then it was called the “Best and Worst of Dayton” run by the Dayton Daily News and Dayton Journal Herald.

In 1982, there were only 31 categories, with one extra spot added to write in your own category not found in the list.

Voting now is all done online, but that wasn’t an option in 1982. Back then, the contest form was printed in the newspaper and had to be cut out and mailed to us.

To entice readers to respond, the DDN was offering to treat the person who sent in the “best ballot” — and that could mean anything from most refined to the one that make the boss the maddest or laugh the most ― to a special Best of Dayton Day, which included a night out with DDN food critic Ann Heller and film and music critic Terry Lawson.

The introduction to the reader responses indicated the poll was considered a success.

“More than 500 of you responded to our studiously unscientific poll, which proves in itself that you were just waiting to get a thing or two off your chests,” editors wrote in announcing the winners. “Most of you went to pains to complete the entire ballot, and more than a few of you attached extra sheets of paper — or else wrote real tiny on the ballot — to elucidate, elaborate or simply vent more bile.”

Here are some highlights (and lowlights) from those first contest results, including some reader commentary.

Pizza: Marion’s edged out Godfather’s by a pepperoni. Cassano’s took worst.

Italian food: Dominic’s won best

Place to see a movie: The Dayton Mall won in a walk. “The only problem is that the seats are so comfortable I sometime nod off,” one reader wrote. Worst: The Loew’s Ames.

Local athlete: Baseball player Mike Schmidt.

Supermarket: Kroger won both best and worst, with readers saying, “Good food, selection, prices,” and, “You can starve waiting in line.”

Hamburger: Wendy’s won best.

After-work watering hole: T.G.I. Friday’s was named best. Worst: Gambits at the Marriott, of which one reader said, “Filled with boring, upward mobile, brainless jerks.”

Park: Carillon Park. Worst: Island Park, of which one reader said “Malarial and dangerous.”

Steaks: Pine Club, overwhelmingly: “Better than Chicago’s finest.” Worst: Ponderosa, overwhelmingly: “Ponda-grossa.”

Record store: Bullfrog’s. Worst: Camelot, repeatedly cited as “too expensive.”

Disc jockey: Steve Kirk received 56 votes for best and 140 votes for worst and won both.

A strange aspect to the 1982 “Best and Worst” issue was that it also contained a separate set of light-hearted opinions about the city as determined by the staffs of the Dayton Daily News and Journal Herald. For many of the categories, the staff and readers were in disagreement.

Here are a few examples of the staff’s opinions from 1982.

Hamburger

Best: The Pine Club. Late night eating at its best. They make the hamburger from their steak trimmings (including tenderloin), and there are even some lamb trimmings in there, too. This burger is think, juicy, cooked however you like it. The bun is toasted, automatically. Try it simple, with just a slice of Spanish onion.

Worst: White Castle’s. C’mon, those aren’t hamburgers. They’re a nostalgia trip. Burgers cut from sheets of meat, dehydrated onion and steamed buns may make a memory but never a meal.

Margarita

Best: Carmel’s. So good you won’t care that the food isn’t.

Worst: Chi Chi’s. Green slush. A fair match for the food.