Commonwealth Bar – Park Slope – Semi-monthly Tuesday @ 8 pm

The Trivia: Traditional Pub Trivia. Four to five rounds of ten questions each, which may also include a music round and a visual round. Each round was themed to a specific topic, but consisted of general knowledge questions that didn’t require specialized knowledge. A “mystery theme” round offered a fun puzzle to solve as the team worked to find a connection between the answers we knew, and use that connection to help us find the answers we didn’t know. Overall, the questions were of a consistent high quality, often challenging, but always fair. The competition is fierce, as several former Jeopardy competitors have made this a regular haunt. That being said, the questions aren’t as unforgivingly difficult as somewhere like Pete’s Candy Store, and the host gives out bonus points for funny wrong answers and a round of shots to the best team name. The host, Keith Williams, is a former Jeopardy champ, and his experience as a trivia player and host really shows. He keeps the night moving quickly, periodically updates teams on the overall scores, and banters with the regulars. Make sure to follow @commonwealthtrivia on Instagram to get the names of the rounds ahead of time. Knowing the rounds doesn’t give away the answers, but you might be able to brush up on some topics.

Winner gets a $50 bar tab, $25 to second, third place this time got a random assortment of household items from the bar owner’s friend’s apartment. Not sure how often that’s the case, though.

The Venue: Commonwealth has a lot of space: booths, tables, big bar, and a huge backyard (that you can play trivia from!). Tons of craft beers on tap, a few wines, some specialty cocktails, and dozens of different bourbons. They don’t serve food, but you can order from a local place. The bar is exceptionally clean (what’s the opposite of a dive bar?) and the staff was friendly and courteous. Great place to play trivia.