Putnam’s Pub & Cooker – Fort Greene/Clinton Hill – Tuesdays @ 8 pm

The Trivia: Music Clue Trivia. Four rounds of five questions for a total of only 20 questions. It’s not a LOT of trivia, but the questions were generally solid, so the quality somewhat makes up for the lack of quantity, and at least the night ends before bed time. The host asks each question and teams answer on an app rather than paper. That may bother some people as there is little protection against cheating. He plays a song (an entire song) that is supposed to be a clue to the answer, then reveals the answer to the question at the end of the song. Sometimes the song is a dead giveaway, other times it is deliberately misleading (which I am NOT a fan of, but hey, what can you do?) How are you supposed to convince your team that the answer is Sonic the Hedgehog when the song they are playing is by MARIO? You assign a sliding scale of points for each question, which ensures that the final standings end up pretty tight, but a LOT is determined by the final final question, which was worth up to 10 points both nights we played.

Winning team gets a $100 gift card, which is an insanely good prize and makes me wonder why there aren’t more heavy hitters here every week. Second place gets $50 and third place gets $25. No score run-down in between rounds means you’ll be guessing at your performance all the way to the very end.

The Venue: Beautiful gastropub with lots of outdoor seating (with heat lamps) and some festive décor for the holidays. I recommend getting a reservation. Plenty of moderately priced entrees and sides, and some delicious cocktails and hot toddies. Lots of families dining, so not your typical bar trivia crowd. The Shepherd’s Pie was amazing. The Fish & Chips were… greasy.