Brooklyn Trivia Finder

TALEA Beer Company – Cobble Hill – Wednesdays @ 7 pm

The Trivia: This is an NYC Trivia League bar. There’s five rounds of 8-10 questions each, with a variety of different formats (audio, visual, traditional) and each round follows some kind of theme. The questions are often simple and straightforward, and lean heavily towards pop culture. There is also a larger proportion of sports questions at NYC Trivia League events than at almost any other Brooklyn trivia night you’ll find.

NYC Trivia League is by far the biggest trivia company in the city, with over 140 locations across the five boroughs. They have trivia nights pretty much everywhere and any day of the week. One of the main appeals of NYC Trivia League is that each team’s score is automatically entered into a leaderboard that tracks every team over every night across the entire city. It expands the scope of simple bar trivia into a multi-tiered competition with a championship at the end. This competition definitely favors teams that play each week, as the scores are cumulative, and if you play twice in one week, you end up getting the higher score, so I can see why this might appeal to trivia degenerates like myself.

This time, I had the chance to join in with a team that frequents TALEA and for whom the leaderboard is a massive draw. They acknowledged that, while the questions are not necessarily the most interesting, they are fair. They also said that, if not for the leaderboard, they probably would consider going to another bar. NYC Trivia League essentially comes with a built-in community, as it’s certainly amusing to peruse the leaderboards, comparing where your team stacks up overall, in the borough, and in your division. It’s fun to wonder what trivia titans might appear on some other team that plays at some other bar, and what the story might be behind their esoteric team name. The team never really comes close to the top of the leaderboards, but just appearing on there gives a sense of progress and accomplishment that keeps them coming back, even if they feel the trivia quality might be higher at some other bar.

The trivia overall is… mediocre. It’s not awful, but it’s nowhere close to great. There are some fun questions, some boring ones, but nothing will really surprise you. It’s the chain restaurant of trivia. You know what you’re gonna get, and you can get it pretty much anywhere. It even rewards you for coming often. And also, like many chains, some locations are simply better than others. The host at TALEA was the best NYC Trivia League host I’ve experienced. Gabe was funny, fast-paced, and bantered with the crowd. It’s rare for somebody who didn’t write the questions to sound so invested when reading them, but he brought it in each round. No technical difficulties, no awkwardly long breaks, just a solid performance overall.

But, for me, even an outstanding host who doesn’t write their own questions will fall short of the average host who has a personal connection to their material. While most trivia nights run by independent hosts won’t track your scores week to week, consistency and progress can come from other things. You can build rivalries with other regulars. You can actually compliment the host on a well-written round and it means something. Most hosts post their victors on Instagram for the world to see! And hosts: you can do more, too! Why not track team progress on a digital leaderboard? It can literally just be a Google sheet, which would only take a few minutes of your time to update it week to week.

In conclusion: if you’re at a bar with your friends, and suddenly NYC Trivia League starts, there’s no need to run for the door. It’s a fun time that won’t offend you, but it also won’t really inspire you. On the other hand, if you’re looking to find a regular trivia night and build a community, try an independent host near you. You won’t always know what to expect, but finding that perfect mix of host, question style, and community is worth the effort!

First place team gets a $50 gift card.

The Venue: TALEA Beer Co. is a brewery/pub that offers a wide variety of their own beers on tap and tasting flights, as well as a fridge of cans and bottles. It’s an Eden for beer lovers. There are snacks and charcuterie, but if you want a meal, you’ll have to order a pizza from across the street. The taproom is spacious, with tons of space and an upper level, as well as tables outside.

The Bilt Bar – Prospect Heights – Wednesdays @ 7 pm

The Trivia: Traditional Pencil/Paper Pub Trivia. Four themed rounds of ten questions each, with one Final Jeopardy style wager question at the very end. The themes of the night (Food Network Star or Canadian Prime Minister, Nic Cage Movies Before & After, an “I am” Songs audio round, and a visual name-the-film round featuring people coming back from the dead) were fun, easy to understand, and comprised a nice variety of question structures. Host Jason writes all his own questions with a personal touch. The movie rounds were clearly written with a deep love for the source materials, complete with bonus trivia when the answers were revealed, a sign of somebody who does a ton of research before boiling it down to a succinct question. The music round felt very much “from my record collection”, and even though there were some songs and artists I had 100% never heard of in my life, I found myself looking them up on Spotify afterwards to listen more. In the end, I felt like I got to know Jason from the questions he asked us, which is a great way to build a trivia community that keeps coming back.

Outside of this-or-that, before & after, name-that-tune, and name-that-movie style rounds, there was only one traditional trivia question of the entire night (“What group of people are exempt from the 10-years-dead rule to be featured on U.S. Postage Stamps?” see answer below), and it came at the very end. This was also the only one that extended outside of the realm of pop culture. Overall, the night featured 50% questions either completely or partially about movies, 25% music questions, and 25% questions that could be directly or tangentially answered with knowledge of television food programs. There are a few schools of thought when it comes to bar trivia, and not every trivia night has to appeal to every person, so it’s okay that some hosts cater more to the pop culture lovers. The small, but energetic crowd were eating it up, so we know which camp they belong to. That being said, one round in the night for the… non-pop-culture nerds can’t hurt. We really should come up with a good word for that. “Anything-but-pop culture”? “poP-culture” but we have to specify that pop is spelled backwards?

The final question of the night works exactly like Final Jeopardy: you hear the category, you submit your wager (from 0 up to your total score), and then you hear the question, and either gain or lose those points depending on if you get it right. It certainly makes the end of the night dramatic, but… it also makes everything leading up to it feel like just a tiebreaker for the groups that get the final question right. That’s almost exactly how it plays out on the TV show Jeopardy, as well, but at least on that show, every point you get is a point your opponents don’t, so you have the ability to build up enough of a lead to make it a runaway. This probably only matters to degenerate nerds like me who show up with the intention and expectation of winning, but I felt bad for the groups that ended with 0 points. It seemed like the prevailing strategy was to simply bet it all; nobody was gonna win by 1 tonight. Also, I loved the final question. It’s not something most people would know off-hand, but the question itself was straightforward, and the answer was simple and clear and made perfect logical sense after some discussion with the team: of course U.S. Presidents would be exempt from the ten-years-dead rule. It was an excellent question to finish the night with, but I don’t think the previous two hours should have been rendered essentially moot because of one question.

I’ve got a proposal for anybody wanting to do Final Jeopardy style questions in the future: make the wagers be set numbers that range from nothing, half a round, or a full rounds worth of points. If your rounds are 100 points, then 0, 50, and 100 could be the wagers. That way, you can still have a “runaway” in the traditional sense: a team that has answered correctly an entire round’s worth of questions more than the second place team should be guaranteed their win. Also, teams don’t feel pressured to bet their entire point total, and can end the night in the plus! Overall a great night, and we look forward to returning in the future.

The Venue: The Bilt Bar is spacious and clean and there were plenty of available tables even though we showed up right at 7 (benefits of an earlier trivia start time). Plenty of beers, cocktails, and wine, and a friendly bartender. While the website says they have charcuterie boards, the kitchen was closed that night. Luckily, there are a ton of good take-out places around there, and they didn’t mind us bringing in outside food and eating it there. Our team of ate sushi, burritos, and poke bowls, all from different places less than two blocks away. It’s right down the street from the Barclays Center, so don’t expect to find parking on an event night!

Sea Witch – Greenwood/South Slope – Monday @ 8 pm

The Trivia: Traditional Pub Trivia. Four rounds of six questions each. Bonus shot round questions in between. Each round is themed (this night’s themes were Born This Week, Marathons, Rangers, and Movie Password). Shot round questions were themed, as well: name the company from their NYSE stock ticker symbol. The host delivers questions via a PA system and teams answer on paper. Host was easy to hear from everywhere in the bar, although, regrettably, not from the backyard space.

This is a Trivial Dispute trivia night, a medium-sized trivia company that operates at several locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan and has been a stalwart on the trivia scene for over a decade. I remember playing a round at the Alligator Lounge (of The Rehearsal fame) over ten years ago, and not much has changed with the format in that time. The questions are generally high quality. A decent mix of easy and hard, with many falling in the sweet spot, but there were also a handful that were very niche “you-either-know-it-or-you-don’t”, and could have used a few more avenues of entry. I would classify the overall difficulty of the questions as higher than average. That being said, the philosophy seems to be quality over quantity; if you’ve already done the math, you’d know there were only 24 questions the whole night. It’s not the fewest number of questions at a Brooklyn trivia venue, but it definitely leaves you wanting more. As the host dragged these few questions out to fill two and a half hours, the pauses between questions, and especially between rounds, felt excruciatingly long. This was made especially more painful by the fact that the answers to round 1 weren’t revealed until after round 2. People want to know the answers. Why make us wait so long? It just leads to players looking them up on their phone, which isn’t satisfying, or should even be tolerated for that matter… but people have their limits. It didn’t help that the music in the bar was a little too low, leading to an awkward lull in the proceedings.

I think ONE more round would have helped a lot to fill the time more effectively. Additionally, the absence of any sort of music round felt very pronounced, as it has become a trivia night staple that a lot of folks expect and deeply enjoy. Conclusion: add a music round!

When the answers are finally revealed once every two rounds, teams swap sheets with another team to grade each other. I’m not a fan of this practice, as it can feel awkward and overtly competitive, and it’s hard not to feel judged when you get a wrong answer. I’d prefer if we skipped that extra source of anxiety during trivia night. I also don’t see the point in it, because the host should be checking the work anyway, so it doesn’t actually save any time. Also, what if there’s an answer dispute? I also don’t love that the host randomly decided to award a bonus point on a particular question because one team provided additional information beyond the scope of the question. That’s cool that you know there used to be a third correct answer to this two answer question, but that wasn’t the question that was asked. Should teams just start writing a bunch of extra facts on their sheet and hope the host gives them extra points? It’s a bad precedent.

Overall, it’s an okay trivia night. The host was enthusiastic and engaging even if she re-read the questions a few too many times for my liking. I have a few other nits: point values for questions felt arbitrary, the question writer broke their own rules for the questions in the Movie Password round (aka pass phrase(?) round), and the shot round questions were repetitive and uninteresting (Stock ticker symbols… the whole night? ho hum).

The Venue: Sea Witch is a nautical-themed bar with a ton of beers on tap, pub grub, and a variety of cocktails and wines. Beautiful fish tank behind the bar is nicer to look at than a TV (for some folks). The backyard is lovely, but you’ll have to be inside to play trivia.

Greenwood Park – Greenwood/South Slope – Wednesday @ 7 pm

The Trivia: Traditional Pub Trivia. Five rounds of eight questions each. Raffle questions in between rounds. Each round is themed (this night’s were common bonds, before & after, music round, This Week in History, and genericized trademarks). The host duo delivers the questions via microphone and PA system that allows players both outside and inside to play. Teams answer their questions on good old fashioned pen and paper, and there’s no wagering system involved. The hosts hand out raffle tickets at the beginning, and if your ticket is called between rounds, you get the opportunity to answer a question live to win a free drink.

The hosts write all their own questions and explore a wide range of subjects. Their first round (common bonds) tackled pop culture, science, geography, food, and film, just to name a few. Throughout the night, the questions felt like they pulled from a variety of knowledge bases, making it easier to engage the entire team. The This Week In History round had an especially fun twist, where the first letters of each answer unscrambled to form the answer to another relevant question (about BASTILLE day) which was a fun way to tie everything together. Even without the added twist, the round worked well on its own. The Before & After round also contained some clever wordplay; “Tequila Sunrise Sunset” made me chuckle because I was imagining the wine bottle dance from Fiddler, but with bottles of Jose Cuervo instead. However, 1912th Amendment was a bit of a stretch and probably should have been cut.

Each round contained high quality questions and hit almost all the right notes, but the Common Bond round had a few misses. You have to be careful that the bond isn’t too general that the connection is uninteresting, but also not too specific that people can’t guess it. Connecting “World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Everquest” with video games is technically correct, but shouldn’t be worth a point, as it’s too broad. Calling them RPGs is more accurate and should be worth a point, but should we be more specific and say that they are multi-installment MMORPGs? It can be difficult to establish that cutoff, but it should be consistent. “Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, and Christopher Nolan” are all directors. That’s too easy to earn a point. There are a LOT of things that those three have in common besides that, though. They make films that millennials love. They all made movies starring Scarlett Johansson. They’ve all worked with their brothers on their films. They all got their start with critically acclaimed indie films in the ’90s. They’ve been nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, and they all lost to a non-American guy with a beard. But which of those things should earn the point? Ultimately, what they were looking for was “Directors who HAVEN’T won an Oscar” (but um… ackshually Coppola did win an Oscar for the Lost in Translation screenplay). The difficulty with these, as a host, is that you have to make judgment calls and often do extra research to accept or disqualify an answer, which often leads to outrage among the players: “Hey that should be worth a point!” OR… “Hey that SHOULDN’T be worth a point!” I appreciate the effort that goes into writing them, but it might be best to avoid these types of rounds unless the bond is clear and concise and really can’t be anything else.

I don’t want to nitpick too much, though, as I was overall very happy with the quality of the trivia and look forward to playing again!

Prize: $50 gift card to first place.

The Venue: Greenwood Park has a huge outdoor space (it’s a former gas station), with typical gastropub fare, dozens of beers, a respectable cocktail list, and some frozen drinks, as well. They also have a woodfired pizza oven, and on trivia nights, you get a free margherita pizza (good for one or two people) when you order any pitcher of beer. The bar is located right next to Green-Wood Cemetery, which is a beautiful arboretum on top of being an active cemetery. Get there early and take a stroll through the cemetery before trivia starts. Since the venue is so massive, you are unlikely to need to reserve a table to get a spot. There were 15 teams on the night we played, yet it didn’t feel crowded at all, even with several groups there to watch the Gold Cup Semifinal. This trivia is a great time, and I highly recommend it!

Chilo’s Greenwood – South Slope – Wednesdays @ 8

The Trivia: Traditional Bar Trivia. Four themed rounds of ten questions each. The themes for this week included Pride, Summer Blockbusters, Fire Songs, and Flag Day; appropriate choices for mid-June. I love when a host chooses categories that are reflective of the times as it makes the night more memorable. Host Sarah writes her own questions and delivers them with infectious enthusiasm, even if that energy overloads the microphone from time to time. Her questions were challenging, but fair. The first round was maybe a bit too difficult for a first round, as we felt somewhat discouraged by our performance, but the rest of the rounds were right in the sweet spot for a casual night of trivia. The night’s questions skewed heavily towards pop culture, but with plenty of geography, history, and esoterica thrown in for good measure. Solid night of questions overall.

Contestants answer the questions by sending a text to a Google Voice number. I can see how this can be convenient for the host, but everybody in my group and the neighboring group agreed that we preferred to write our answers on paper. My favorite part of trivia night is the unplugged-ness of it all. Yes, we could simply look up the answers on our phone in any other circumstance, but for the night, we are simply relying on our memories and just thinking hard and long about something. Part of that is the paper, which over the course of the night becomes a monument to bad hunches and does-that-sound-familiar-s. The different handwritings can act as a record of eureka moments and the thrill of the team working as a collective brain, when the connections between our synapses seem to reach across the table. And the act of getting up to bring the piece of paper to the host is iconic in itself. That slight hesitation when you think you might have JUST thought of something as you walk away from the table, but decide no you’re gonna go with your gut. As a host, I always enjoyed the brief interactions from teams when they handed in the sheets. When they let me know how much a particular question had vexed the team (in a good way), or that they had a eureka moment at the last second, I could feel a growing bond with my players, which improved my question writing and hosting overall. For all hosts: bring back the paper.

$25 gift card to first place. Round of shots to second place.

The Venue: Chilo’s is a former parking lot turned into a bar. If you’ve been to their location in Bed-Stuy, this is more of the same. Lots of picnic tables, pitchers of frozen margaritas, and a taco truck on the premises serving tacos, tostadas, tortas, and chips & guac if you just want a snack. The food has always been delicious and the margaritas have always been strong. There are tons of tables outside under a big tent and umbrellas, as well as plenty of seating inside, where the TVs behind the bar will have sporting events. The venue hosts Bingo on Thursdays (also with Sarah) and events throughout the week. Check it out!

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.

Circa Brewing Company – Downtown Brooklyn – Wednesdays @ 7 pm

The Trivia: Music Clue Trivia. Four rounds of five questions. Each question is accompanied by a song clue as a hint (or a deliberate misdirection) for the answer. Teams submit their answers on their phones, and the host reveals the answer before going on to the next question. Teams can wager 1, 2, 3, or 4 points on each question (once per value per round), and then are forced to wager a certain amount on the final question of each round. You don’t actually lose any points for wrong answers, though, so the term wager, which they use, is a bit of a misnomer here. If done correctly, I like the wagering system, as it keeps teams closer longer. I do, however, disagree with the final question being worth 10 points (as much as an entire round), especially if it is an all-or-nothing type question. When the rest of the night was relatively very easy, the final question (“Who was the last Roman emperor?”) being so difficult makes it feel like the last question is all that matters, and the rest of the night was just a tiebreaker for the teams that got the last question correct. This is the same trivia night (different host, but same questions) as Putnam’s Pub. If I had to choose, I prefer the host and the venue at Circa. Here’s the thing, though, you don’t have to choose. Putnam’s Pub’s trivia is on Tuesdays, and then they ask the same exact questions less than a mile away at Circa on Wednesdays.

Now let’s talk about cheating. I hosted bar trivia for many years. I also happen to be a high school teacher, so I’ve given lots of tests in my life. Cheating happens. In fact, it happens almost every time. It often doesn’t make a difference: kids who are cheating on a test rarely improve their score enough to pass, and teams who are cheating at bar trivia rarely crack the top three. From my experience, there are two things that have the most influence on whether or not somebody will cheat. The first is the stakes. The higher the stakes, the more likely somebody is to want to improve their odds of succeeding. The top three prizes are $100, $75, and $50. I have never seen a trivia night giving out that much money before. The third place prize is higher than the first place prize at many other venues. With prizes that high, and the actual consequences for getting caught virtually non-existent, a simple reminder that “Cheating at bar trivia is pathetic” may not be enough to deter unscrupulous teams from cheating their way to a bunch of free drinks.

The other, and more significant, factor that has the most influence on whether or not somebody cheats is how easy it is to do so. This is one of my biggest issues with bars that do trivia on the phone. One of my best weapons against cheaters as a host was just observing which teams were on their phones during the trivia rounds. Obviously not an option for the host here. It would be SO quick and easy for a team to quickly google “last roman emperor”, and considering how the entire night essentially comes down to that one question, I can see how somebody might be tempted.

Another more subtle way for teams to cheat that is unique to this trivia, is that they can easily look ahead to see what the questions are. The app they use doesn’t have anything to prevent you from just going to the next slide. In fact, the first time we played (at Putnam’s Pub), my team was confused about the structure, and we answered all the questions in round 1 before the host even started the game. Not only that, we went back and changed our point wagers to reflect our relative confidence after seeing all the questions. We literally cheated ON ACCIDENT. Once we realized our mistake, it was too late, but it didn’t actually affect anything. This is something that could easily be prevented by using a different app that allows the host to control which questions teams can see. Even a Google Form would be better. Also, if the question is projected on the screens, and the host reads it out loud twice, why does it even need to be on the app?

The Venue: Huge space with tons of places to sit and be comfortable. There are tons of teams playing trivia, but it’s highly unlikely that anybody here will have to stand around a bar stool they’re using as a table. There’s better than average pub fare on the menu and a massive variety of beers, wines, ciders, and spirits. Great venue!

B61 Bar – Cobble Hill/Waterfront – Thursdays @ 7 pm

The Trivia: Traditional Pub Trivia. Five rounds of eight questions, each following a theme. Bonus question at the end with variable points depending on how many clues you hear. Host/quizmaster John Chaneski is a professional question writer with an impressive game show resume including Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?, The Chase, Ask Me Another, and Bullshit (on Netflix). He’s also been writing and hosting pub quizzes for the better part of a decade. His long and varied experience is apparent, as the questions are thoughtfully and expertly crafted and draw on a wide variety of knowledge bases, cultural eras, and esoterica. To quote the host, “this ain’t trivia for dummies”. Don’t let that scare you, though! Clues in the questions allow multiple avenues of entry, meaning everybody on the team can contribute. Although the five categories tonight were relatively straightforward, he often mixes in picture and music rounds. The night moves at a pretty fast pace, fitting in a little over 40 questions in two hours, so there’s not a ton of time to socialize between questions. However, the host repeats the questions several times and will repeat them again if asked, so feel free to go to the bar and get a drink.

The final question of the night is worth up to 6 points depending on how many clues you need before you submit. The host provided clues about Rudolph (he of the red nose) starting with describing the (apparently bonkers) sequel to the original Rankin/Bass film, followed by his origins as a Montgomery Ward department store marketing character, and ultimately making it more and more obvious. Teams that submitted after Clue 1 got 6 points (nobody), 4 points if you submitted after clue 2, and then the points are reduced by 1 each extra clue after that. Submit too soon (i.e. wrong answer) and you get nothing, so there’s a fun game of risk/reward at play, and an exciting way to end the night with some potentially big point swings!

$40 bar tab to first place, plus you get your team name on a card that gets placed in the window for the week. So if your team name is your blog, you get some free advertising!

The Venue: B61 is located in Alma, a Mexican restaurant with tacos, enchiladas, burritos, etc. You’ll have access to pretty much the whole menu, so there are plenty of food options for the 7 pm dinner-time start. Lots of drink options, as well: margaritas, craft beers & ciders, mezcals, tequilas, and more. Also there’s a weird mannequin sitting on top of the bathroom that stares at you while you play trivia. Way too lifelike. Scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it.

Shenanigans – Kensington – Wednesdays @ 8pm

Shenanigans – Kensington – Wednesdays @ 8 pm

The Trivia: Traditional Pub Trivia. @goodquestiontrivia. Four themed rounds of ten questions each. One entirely music round (name the song & artist). The host offers double points on one round of each team’s choice, but you have to choose it before you hear the questions, so it’s a bit of a gamble there. The top scoring team of each round (including double points) wins shots, but if two teams tie for a round, they each have to tell a joke as a tiebreaker; audience decides. The questions are challenging, but fair, and a diverse set of knowledge bases is needed to win. Even the music round uses some deep cuts and lesser known hits from a wide variety of genres.

While the questions are often long by bar trivia standards, the exposition provides hints or fun facts as bonus trivia even if the actual question is rather straightforward. It’s clear that the writer knows his audience well, giving just about enough information to guess at the answer without making it too hard or too easy. It is a fine tightrope to walk, but the host does it deftly. A question about two famous people with famous fathers started off extremely difficult, but over the course of the question, more and more clues made it much more accessible. Being able to approach an answer from multiple different angles helps get the team involved and shows that the host really does his research.

This is a very new trivia night, so the bar wasn’t packed, but the host capably played the crowd and made sure it was an energetic and fun night regardless. If you aren’t able to arrive early enough to the overcrowded 99 Rogers on Thursday nights to get a table, consider taking the trip to Kensington on Wednesday for the same quality questions and a much higher chance of winning!

$50 bar tab goes to the winner, but there is NO SECOND PLACE. I find this a missed opportunity for the bar, as even a $10 to $25 bar tab pretty much guarantees the team comes back, and you KNOW they’re gonna spend more than that in drinks alone. The highest scoring team each round gets shots.

The Venue: Shenanigans is a Dive bar with darts, cheap drafts, and a Men’s room door that doesn’t lock. This place hasn’t really changed its vibe in decades, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. A major positive: a $50 bar tab goes a long way here. There are TVs all over playing a variety of movies and miscellany and the big one above the bar will likely have some sports on it. If you’re hungry, you can order a frozen pizza.

Franklin820 – Crown Heights – Mondays @ 8 pm

The Trivia: Six themed rounds of five questions each. Traditional pub trivia style. In between two of the rounds the bartender poses a lightning round question for a free beer. The categories are fun and unique, and the questions range from typical pub trivia fare to very difficult and highly niche. Host Gerard (who is instantly recognizable as a trivia host) has a Category Suggestion bin behind him where he takes recommendations for future nights. Tonight’s player suggested category was “Reality Shows”. Now, most hosts would just write some more general trivia with a reality shows slant, but Gerard went IN and asked some very difficult questions catered to actual Reality Show aficionados (“What American reality star confused David Gest with David Bowie on Celebrity Big Brother UK?” Actually that one may just be impossible). Other categories included “Underdogs”, “Fast Food Promotions”, “Indigenous Peoples of the Americas”, and a picture round of famous groups with a single member being blanked out (name the missing person). The variety of the questions kept it fresh and exciting throughout, culminating in one of the funniest and strongest written rounds of trivia I’ve experienced in a while (“1 Star Yelp Reviews of Famous American Landmarks”). The host moved quickly through the questions and the night was over by 10 pm. To keep it quick, the host neglected to read the answers to the questions after each round, opting instead to read them every three rounds.

$40 off bar tab to the first place team. $20 off to the second place team.

The Venue: Franklin820 has a nice open layout, with a variety of seating options, including some couches in the corner that will likely be occupied by some regular trivia-goers. TVs behind the bar had NFL football (it is Monday night after all). About a dozen different beers on tap, a better-than-average trivia bar wine selection, and a variety of cocktails means there’s alcohol options for most everyone. There’s also standard pub food fare (a smash burger with fries, wings, fish tacos, tater tots, etc.) so if you come hungry, you won’t leave hungry.