Is it ever acceptable for a child under 2 to use a curse word?
   OK, probably not.
   But we had to laugh when Bib Taler tried to say his pizza was "damgoode." He was right, after all. We were sitting smack dab in the middle of Damgoode Pies on Cantrell Road.
   The folks at Damgoode fawned over Bib Taler, with no fewer than three of the restaurant's employees coming over to say hello. One chatted with him about her nieces and nephews. One brought a mug full of crayons and a stack of pages from a coloring book with pictures of some of his favorite characters -- Snoopy, who he insists on calling "Seepy," Woodstock, who is a "mean bird" and Curious George, who is simply "monkey."
   A third employee brought a lump of pizza dough. "It's like Play-Doh !" she told him.
   He was skeptical until he watched me roll parts of the dough between my palms and turn them into a snowman. Poor little Bib Taler tried to do the same, but he took a spill recently and the bright red cast that covers part of his hand kept him from being able to duplicate my actions. He had to settle for patting it or spearing it with a finger and then plunking the whole blob onto the table instead.
   We ordered garlic bread with cheese, served with Damgoode's original red sauce for dipping, ($3.75) because Bib Taler has never met a starch he doesn't like. And then we set out to find one kind of pizza we could all enjoy.
   I suggested a Funky Chicken (smoked chicken, green peppers, mushrooms, onions and black olives ) or The Club (smoked turkey, ham, crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese), but Bib Taler's dad said something like, "Chicken or turkey on a pizza? No way." Sigh...
   The Hog (pepperoni, Canadian bacon, sausage, crumbled bacon and cheddar) looked good to us ($4.50 for a 6-inch, $10.25 for a 10-inch and $17.90 for a 14-inch Funky Chicken, Club or Hog). But while Bib Taler's not quite a vegetarian, he usually opts to pull most of the meat out of his food and offer it to our dog. Since "Sa-Sa" didn't come to the restaurant with us, we decided to go with something a bit less protein-packed.
   We finally settled on a basic sausage pizza. At Damgoode, cheese pizza is priced at $2.50 for a 6-inch, $6.50 for a 10-inch, and $9.75 for a 14-inch. The first topping is $1.25 for the smallest size, $2.25 for a medium, and $3.25 for a large.
   Bib Taler had chewed through the breadsticks and was chugging on his milk and swiping crayons at cartoon characters while we waited for our pizza to arrive. When it was delivered to our table, piping hot from the oven, he was almost beside himself at the thought of having to wait for it to cool. The person who brought it thoughtfully placed it out of Bib Taler's reach -- and she warned us that the knives wrapped in napkins next to our plate were sharp, too. Good to know.
   While we worked with Bib Taler on a lesson in patience, a man from the next table tried to start up a conversation with Bib Taler. The man said he had been carded at another restaurant not long before his dinner at Damgoode, and since he's 61 years old he was tickled to share that information. Just as the friendly wait staff, the man wanted to give Bib Taler something... would Bib Taler be interested in taking the man's 22-year-old son as a ready-made big brother? Nah...
   When the man and his wife left, Bib Taler happily chomped on his pizza. He insisted on holding a slice all by himself, so he wore some original red sauce home as a souvenir. He seems certain that pizza tastes better in triangles than in the bite-size squares I cut up and put on a plate in front of him.
   For dessert we ordered a brown cow ($4) -- chocolate cheesecake with chocolate chips and great globs of whipped cream on top that delighted Bib Taler's senses.
   As we strapped the kiddo into the car seat outside the restaurant, he was still talking about pizza (which he is only capable of saying with an exclamation point!). And while he hasn't repeated the brand-name of that particular pie, I guess it would be OK with me if he did. It was Damgoode. Bib Tales is a monthly column on where to go with a baby in tow.
   

DAMGOODE PIES Address:
Three Little Rock locations : 2701 Kavanaugh Blvd., 6706 Cantrell Road and 10720 Rodney Parham Road

Hours: Monday-Thursday
11 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-11 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

For the parents:
Angel hair or fettuccine with one of eight sauces, including original red, pesto cream, spicy white and Alfredo ($5.85, served with garlic bread); pizzas ranging from a basic cheese ($2.50/small, $6.50/medium and $9.75/large) to the Mexicali, with ground beef, bell peppers and cheddar, ($4/small, $8.75/medium and $15.85/large). Toppings that can be added to the basic cheese include the regulars like black olives, Canadian bacon and pepperoni and some more exotic ones like pine nuts, artichokes, dill pickles and shrimp. Drinks are $1.35 for a 20-ounce and $2.75 for a 2-liter. Bib Taler's dad is impressed that Dos Equis beer is available on tap ($3.25).

For the kids:
Pizza!

Highchair report:
Standard wooden ones.

Hire a sitter?
The Kavanaugh location has music on Friday nights, so a grown-up night out is a possibility. But kids are typically part of the Damgoode landscape.

Family budget:
Reasonable. Damgoode's prices are a bit higher than some of the chain pizza places, but the menu, the atmosphere and the flavor set it apart.

(501) 664-2239
(same number for all three locations)

This story was published Friday, December 01, 2006