Endless Life Brewing Company – Crown Heights – Tuesdays @ 7:30

The Trivia: Four rounds of ten questions, each with a distinct theme. Classic pub trivia style. Host Price (he with the megaphone, also of 99 Rogers) and his writing partner John always produce a night of questions that is diverse in difficulty, knowledge base, and style, necessitating a team with varied interests and experiences to push for that first place prize. It’s rare you will hear questions about a Spanish romantic era painter, a fashion conglomerate, a TikTok trend, and the ancient Mayan empire, all in a single round of trivia and tied to a common theme (even if somewhat tangentially). The weekly music round, likewise, spans many genres and eras, challenging even the most confident pop music aficionado. With 40 questions in about two and a half hours, the pace is very good.

If I have to nitpick, which I do have to, and I do it gladly, actually, the questions are far too long. I’ve said this in my last two reviews of Good Question Trivia nights and I’m not sure it’s gotten better, so I started collecting data. One question in particular about the Bracero program was 48 seconds long. If that doesn’t seem long to you, count to 48 Mississippi in your head right now, and imagine trying to get your drunk teammates to stop talking for that long so you can finally hear what the question is actually asking. I hope you got the picture. Sometimes the long exposition provides hints, but for this one, nothing in the leadup to the actual question was helpful for finding the answer. I’m okay with the odd long form question here and there if the background is as interesting as the farmworker strikes of the 60’s, but it’s nearly every question! One question we had decided was one of the shorter ones of the evening, still clocked in at 24 seconds. The host says it’s part of the gimmick, and people like the long questions. My (admittedly small sample) polling says otherwise.

It’s clear the long questions are here to stay, so here’s my suggestion for a compromise: cut the fat on the re-read. Give the whole background and the story the first time through (if it’s truly interesting), but when you re-read the question, cut straight to the heart of it. We didn’t need the whole Cesar Chavez build up the second time through!

$50 gift card to first place. No prize for second. Boo. The highest scoring team each round (bonus score included) wins a round of shots for their team.

The Venue: Endless Life Brewing has a clean, cozy atmosphere. On this night, there was a pop-up shop in the back (Secret Vegan Kitchen) serving up vegan bratwurst and vegan gourmet hot dogs (you do you). The bar itself only has a few snacks, so if you are hungry for something substantial, check the Instagram to see if there’s a pop-up that night. If you like beer, perfect, they have several original brews on tap, including all types of sours, ales, and lagers. I particularly enjoyed the Smoked Lager. If you don’t like beer, maybe you should be the team’s designated driver, as there aren’t a lot of other options. There was a whiskey you could order. That’s it, though. No mixed drinks, cocktails, or wine, unfortunately.

Mekelburg’s – Clinton Hill – Tuesdays @ 8pm

The Trivia: Four rounds of five questions each. Each round consists of four questions of various categories on which teams can wager 1, 2, 3, or 4 points, but each value only once per round. You have to turn in each question as you answer it, so wager more if you are more confident and less if you are less confident. In between each question, the hosts play a song as a clue/hint/dead-giveaway to the answer. The song is played in its entirety, so that means there can be upwards of four to five minutes between questions, and with four rounds, that means the night lasts close to three hours. Luckily, there’s so much walking back and forth from your table to the host that at least you’ll get your steps in. The rounds move very slowly, so if you’re gonna bring friends, make sure they’re friends that you don’t mind talking to, because there’s plenty of time for that. Maybe you can do some grocery shopping in between questions (literally; the venue is a grocery store).

The questions ranged in difficulty from oh-come-on-that’s-too-easy to oh-come-on-that’s-too-hard, but most were squarely in the middle, in the sweet spot of “I think I know it, but I’m not sure” or “let’s discuss this and figure out the answer”. The hosts (normally a duo, but just Shasha this evening) split question writing duties, so it’s clear that some care and effort went into making it a balanced night of trivia. The categories were of a refreshingly wide variety, ranging from typical pop culture fare (singers, Broadway, celebrity relationships) to space, city name etymology, history, and Greek mythology, among others. The question delivery was smooth, easy to hear, and free of long-winded exposition. Sometimes the answers took longer to read than the questions (quit teasing us, we’ve already waited through an entire song). The host sounded relaxed and approachable, although she apologized for the difficulty of the questions too many times. Trebek never apologized for a triple stumper, he just glared at the contestants disappointedly. No Mercy.

First place gets a $50 gift card to Mekelburg’s. Second place team gets a Babka (nice). Third place team gets some swag.

The Venue: Mekelburg’s is a hipster grocery store with a beer cave. The vibe is very much underground, because it is. It can be a little confusing when you walk in the first time, descending a staircase into what seems like a labyrinth of pasta boxes and craft chocolate bars, but, no, you’re in the right place. The bar is through the grocery store, but it is a little small, so if you want a seat in there, you’ll probably have to show up early. We didn’t show up early, so we sat in the grocery store. It was perfectly comfortable, nestled among the potato rolls and biscotti. From our position, we got plenty of good whiffs of what they were cooking up in the kitchen. Smoky porchetta, wings, chicken sandwiches, meat loaf, tofu banh mi, the aforementioned babka… an eclectic mix of fun gastropub fare. The tap list was extensive with a wide variety of types and a massive selection of canned beers in the grocery store that you can drink at the bar for a $5 corkage fee. Wine, cocktails, and ciders also graced the menu.

Overall: If you don’t mind a late night and want to socialize between questions, Mekelburg’s is a great choice for a Tuesday evening. Come hungry, eat some porchetta, and hopefully leave with a babka.

The Ryerson – Tuesdays @ 7:30 – Crown Heights

The Trivia: Four rounds of 3-4 questions with a semi-unique wagering system. Here’s how it works: Each round is three questions of various categories on which you can wager 1, 2, or 3 points. If you get it right, you earn the points you wagered, if you get it wrong, nothing happens (you don’t lose the points), but you can only wager each amount once, so wager more when you are more confident and less when you are less confident. The host tells you the categories of each question in the round beforehand, but you have to determine your wager one question at a time because he only asks one question at a time before revealing the answers. After asking the question, the host will play a song that will serve as a tangential (or very direct) hint, and he will collect your little pieces of paper before revealing the answer. You can keep track of your scores and wagers on a handy worksheet (I LOVE worksheets!). All told, the host gave us a whopping 15(!!!) pieces of paper. I’m no logistics professional, but I’m sure we could find a way to reduce that total.

With only four rounds of 3-4 questions each, this may be the fewest trivia questions I’ve ever seen asked at a trivia night (14). Stretched to over two hours, the host was averaging about one question every ten minutes, meaning the pace was excruciatingly slow. It didn’t help that there was a fully ten minute introduction in which the host explained the convoluted wagering system and the musical hint (or hindrance) system. Besides the clunky intro, the host was a capable clue reader with a charming and lively demeanor when presenting the questions. He did a commendable job filling the long space between questions, as there weren’t a lot of awkward silences or downtime, but the night did feel like it dragged, especially when we were directed to clap for ourselves and the bartenders twice before the final standings were read. If you come to trivia nights for the social aspect, this isn’t an issue at all, but if you want to answer trivia questions, there’s not a ton for your money here.

The questions you do get, however, are (mostly) very good. Some were even great. Many fun journeys were had connecting the questions and categories and trying to squeeze some juice out of the musical hint. Connecting Linkin Park to Lincoln’s Assassination was a great “eureka” moment, and picking a different song with do-do-do’s to clue Baby Shark was a thing of brilliance. I’ve already ranted about the one musical “non-hint” in my review of Putnam’s Pub, so I won’t repeat that here, but at least this time the host made it VERY clear that he was going to try and trick us on one of the musical clues that evening, so it wasn’t as frustrating when some teams were inevitably misled away from their correct answer. I wasn’t a fan of the first question of the night: “What is the brightest star in Earth’s sky?” …the Sun? Really? That’s more of a trick question than a trivia question… Additionally, too many of the questions were a little “current event”-y. My stance on current events questions is decidedly anti. If you can’t ask the same question a year from now and expect anybody to remember the answer, then it’s not really trivia. Stick with stuff that’s interesting and memorable for reasons other than that it just happened.

Winning team gets a $50 gift certificate. Second place gets a round of shots and third place gets a bottle of wine. Pretty good prize support all around.

The Venue: There is definitely a sit-down feel to the Ryerson, although the host informed us that the food menu was reduced to accommodate trivia night (why?). A variety of bar snacks (wings, chicken fingers, mac & cheese) at really good prices means the dinner-time start isn’t an inconvenience, and happy hour prices on drinks last the whole night.

Franklin Park – Crown Heights – Wednesdays @ 8 pm

The Trivia: With six rounds of eight to ten questions and an extra question in between each round, there are a LOT of questions at Franklin Park trivia. Each round is themed (including the questions in between) and the host moves through them very quickly, so the night doesn’t drag too long. The questions are some of the most challenging you will find at a trivia night outside of Pete’s Candy Store, but this host actually gives you and your team time to, you know, discuss the answers, leading to lots of teamwork and those “Eureka!” moments that make bar trivia so thrilling when it’s done right. That being said, six rounds is a lot, and the night would be better paced if the host cut just one of those rounds in favor of letting some of the very well-written questions linger a little bit longer before moving on to the next one.

The categories themselves were fun, allowing for a nice variety in the types of questions. An entire round of animated movie taglines surprisingly didn’t overstay it’s welcome, and the host somehow snuck in a round about Yankees players by attaching each one to a more general knowledge base (though he should have given half credit for partially correct responses, just sayin’). A round where the host listed three parts of various household items and teams had to name the item drew on a wide variety of knowledge bases. One of the more creative rounds involved a worksheet with all the answers written in Wingdings, leading to an exciting combination of trivia, crosswords, and logic puzzles.

It’s easy to see why this trivia has been so popular for so many years (I even have recollections of playing here about eight years ago). On top of solid, streamlined rounds of trivia, the host has a great rapport with the contestants, offering encouragement to various teams as well as props to that one guy playing by himself at the bar and also playfully ribbing that team that wins almost every week, who helpfully identify themselves as “The Trivia Gang”. But there are no antagonists at this trivia, as the questions themselves are good enough to have a fun time even if you don’t win, plus the prize is kind of lame anyway.

The winning team gets a round of drinks/shots (but I already drank a bunch?). No second or third place (bummer). Individuals can win free drinks if they answer a specific question correctly and the host pulls their name out of a hat.

The Venue: Franklin Park has high ceilings and big TV screens, and a good variety of drinks on tap. Plenty of food available, including burgers, tacos, milkshakes, and curly fries. Trivia is played in the main room, but there is tons of outdoor space, as well as a smaller, more intimate bar through the patio, if you want to keep the party going.

Black Forest Brooklyn (Smith Street) – Cobble Hill – Tuesdays @ 7:30 (NYC Trivia League)

The Trivia: This is an NYC Trivia League event, which means that it is the same trivia experience as almost every other bar that hosts trivia with NYC Trivia League. One person on your team scans a QR code to join digitally, and you answer all the questions on a website. There are five rounds of 8-10 questions, with occasional audio and picture rounds thrown in. There is a time limit for each question, so you have to come up with the answer quickly, which can sometimes be stressful.

Answering on an app is my least favorite way to do trivia. I have such fond memories of having long debates about single questions in a ten-question round, going back and forth about what to write down, second and third guessing your answers after you hand in your sheet, followed by the anticipation as the host reveals the answers one by one. The way NYC Trivia League runs their events lacks these moments. I understand logistically why they do it this way, as they run a season-long competition for regular teams, but the result is that much of the charm of a bar trivia night is missing. Answering questions on an app rather than paper brings back memories of virtual trivia nights during the pandemic, which is not really something I want to revisit. I can see how some might find this way of doing trivia appealing. For those that can’t wait to find out the answer or who are really excited about participating with a regular team in a season long trivia competition, NYC Trivia League events check both of those boxes, so if that’s you, find one of their many locations and get to it.

Now let’s talk about the questions: they’re average. A few good ones thrown in, but very few are sticking out in my mind as having inspired fun, thoughtful discussion. A good trivia question shouldn’t be answered quickly. It should be arrived at by using clues in the questions or the category to find pathways to the correct answer. The best questions are the ones that you’re never really sure are correct until the host reveals the answer. Those are few and far between here, and you can expect similar levels of quality at any NYC Trivia League event.

First place team gets a $50 gift card e-mailed to them. Second place gets $25. Third place gets a round of drink/shots.

The Venue: Black Forest is a German restaurant, so you’ve got plenty of pretzels, schnitzel, spatzel (all the ‘zels’), all the wursts, and plenty of German braus on tap. A respectable selection of seasonal cocktails rounds out the menu. The food is quite tasty and really ups the experience. There is a big outdoor section, but I don’t think you can play trivia out there, which means all the teams are sort of scrunched into the center room, meaning you will likely be sharing a communal table with one or two other teams also playing trivia, so get your whispering voices ready. Get there early to grab a good spot.

Sandy Jack’s – Greenwood – Thursdays @ 8 pm

The Trivia: Five themed rounds of eight questions each with one bonus round. Zac is a solid host, moving efficiently through the questions, repeating them when necessary, enunciating the right words, and effectively calming down the rowdy crowd. My favorite part of Lit Up Trivia is that the host invites the two last place teams to come up and choose among a few options for the categories for round 3. Involving the last place teams is a great way to make trivia night feel more inclusive, and it’s impressive that there are several rounds just ready to go depending on the players’ choices. The questions themselves are hit and miss. Some are interesting (loved the questions about Leinenkugel’s and George W. Bush wanting to be commissioner of baseball), but many are too ambiguous to be anything but guessed at, or just frustrating. I’ll nitpick a few in particular.

What “R” Beatles song is track 13 on the White Album? Answer: Rocky Raccoon. There’s a couple reasons this is not my favorite question:
1) There’s nothing especially interesting about a song being track 13 on an album, so there’s no hidden trivia or even a path that could lead to the correct answer unless you specifically know the exact track order of the White Album. There are so many more interesting approaches to asking a question about Rocky Raccoon (like that it inspired the name of a Marvel character, or it was adapted from a poem called “The Shooting of Dan McGrew”, or that Donovan made contributions to the lyrics, but no… it’s track 13!)
2) If you wanted to guess the answer to this question, why wouldn’t you guess “Revolution 1”? It’s a far more popular Beatles song that is ALSO on the White album (track 25 if memorizing Beatles album track listings is your kind of thing). Or you could go with that song’s weird partner “Revolution 9” (obviously well known as track 29), which has plenty of interesting trivia around it (did you know it’s actually the longest Beatles track at over 8 minutes in length?).
So this leads you to the awkward moment of just trying to read the trivia writer’s mind, and flipping the proverbial coin. Maybe some people like that, but I prefer trivia to be more about skill of recall and making connections, and I don’t think it’s a worthwhile endeavor to memorize the track listing of every Beatles album just to answer this particular question.

What animal recently broke into a house in Tennessee and snuggled in the owners’ bed? Answer: A Dog.
This isn’t really trivia. It just relies on having heard of this particular story which was a month old at the time of the trivia. Sounds like the host was listening to “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me…” while writing these questions.

What is “liquid pred”: an alcohol, a medicine, or an oil-based fuel? Answer: medicine.
I don’t like this question at all. Firstly, it sounds like “liquid bread”, and the host didn’t spell it out for us, so anybody who wasn’t listening for the p-pop on the microphone would assume that he was talking about the slang term for a full-bodied beer and move on with their lives. It’s actually Liquid Prednisone, an oral medicine used to treat arthritis among other things. Stupid; frustrating. Thirdly, it’s multiple choice. If you have to make your question multiple choice, just write a different question. Nobody wants to feel like they’re back at school. On top of that, this question is worth three times as much as any question from prior rounds that were far better written.

Fill in the blank: I’ll be home for Christmas, you can _______ on me. I actually really enjoyed the Christmas blanks round (even though it doesn’t make much sense to do this round in June). The selection of which words to bleep really led to some hilarious moments. I’m singling this one out because, depending on the version of the song, the lyric is either “plan” or “count”. The host played the Bublé version, which I was confident was “count on me”. He said the lyric was “plan on me”. It wasn’t. It’s count. Nothing bugs me more than a trivia writer getting their own question wrong. It’s sloppy and leads to frustration, especially for the poor host, who now has to sit there and argue with angry inebriated people.

Okay, you get the point. I think Craig has potential as a question writer, but the quality is below the level of Jeopardy, and those writers write over 300 questions a week, so I expect the more boutique scene of bar trivia to have higher quality than that.

The prize is a round of drinks & shots for first place. A decent value if you have a big team, but most bars give out a bar tab, so this prize is pretty disappointing. Nothing for second place. Even more disappointing.

The Venue: Sandy Jack’s is quite dive-y. There is a pool table… which means there are people playing pool… and they probably aren’t playing trivia… and they don’t really care that trivia is happening. I actually love playing pool at bars, but it was a bit distracting during the question reading, and the bar was quite rowdy overall. At one point, there was a dog running back and forth. For you, maybe that’s a plus, maybe that’s a minus, but I figured I’d mention it. There’s also a couple pinball machines at the front (fun). The bar has some food (pizza and chips) and a decent variety of beers on tap. Plenty of shot specials and sports on the televisions, but you can only see them if you’re sitting at the bar.

Halyard’s – Gowanus – Thursdays @ 8 pm

The Trivia: 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 were fair, but challenging, with a few headscratchers. Overall, the questions were high quality, and its clear that the host puts a lot of effort into writing a balanced round of trivia (with his writing partner, who hosts at 99 Rogers). I still think some of the questions are too long, but he blames that on the other guy. These guys offer some of the better-written trivia rounds in Brooklyn, so if you are choosing between multiple places and everything else is even, let that be the tie-breaker. However, whereas 99 Rogers gets packed on a Thursday night, Halyard’s trivia is still growing. There were only about 5 to 6 teams when we visited, and the small crowd creates a more intimate environment, which leads to a lot more interaction with the host.

$50 bar tab goes to the winner, but there is NO SECOND PLACE. I find this a very bad marketing strategy 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: Halyard’s is a relatively peaceful bar (no loud pumping music here) with a labyrinthine layout with plenty of secluded space and a large outdoor space. Trivia takes place in a backroom with a microphone and PA setup, so no megaphone here. There aren’t any televisions in the back room, in case you plan on half-watching sports during trivia. Small, but solid list of cocktails, beers, and ciders, and Table 87 pizza.

Paddy’s of Park Slope – South Slope – Thursdays @ 7 pm

The Trivia: Four themed rounds of seven questions each. Each week, there is a themed image round, a themed audio round, a themed regular round, then a “throwback” round that consists of random trivia questions from previous weeks (definitely an advantage for the regular teams). Teams can double the points of one of the rounds if they feel they did well. It’s a relatively small amount of questions and host Tommy Eyebrows energetically keeps the pace moving quickly, so the night ends up being over by 8:30. It’s over so quickly, you could almost do a “bang bang” and hit up another trivia night nearby right after. Why not?

Trivia night at Paddy’s feels very old-fashioned (which is a plus for an old-head like me, even though the host called me young lol). There’s a lot of banter with the bartenders and the “regular” teams (you know, THOSE TEAMS that win every week), and an intimate environment that makes it feel like this trivia has been running for years rather than only the few months that it has. At some other places, the host can demonstrate favoritism with certain teams, but Tommy was very friendly, having conversations with each team of newcomers, making all feel welcome and included. He offers raffle tickets to win a mystery prize (but really it’s to get some extra tips lol don’t hate the playa…).

The questions ranged from easy to hard throughout the rounds and assessed a wide variety of knowledge bases. Bring a team with breadth, but keep in mind that there is a 4 person limit, which is a bit of a bummer. I don’t fully agree with the necessity of putting an upper limit on team size. I think there are inherent qualities of pub trivia that encourage people to keep their team sizes reasonable: 1) splitting the prize too many ways makes it essentially worthless, 2) there are serious diminishing returns on adding more members, and 3) a team of 8 or more people probably only has 4 of them actually taking it seriously anyway. Also, if you’re going to put a limit, 4 is definitely too low. I think SIX is a fine upper limit if that’s something you really care about, but in the end, don’t you want to encourage teams to bring more people? If a team of four is dominating weekly, what can another group really do to compete if they can’t invite more people? If it seriously becomes a problem where a SUPERLARGE team is dominating each week, a better solution is to just talk to that team and ask if they would like to split up, rather than making a rule to force them. If I have a team of five, I guess I’ll just have to go to a different bar.

The Venue: Paddy’s is pretty small. It’s cute, I’d even say. Plenty of beers on tap and sports on the TVs. They don’t have any food, which is a shame because I’m normally pretty hungry at 7 pm, but you can order food at a nearby food truck or restaurant and eat it in the bar (although the wait time at the taco truck around the corner was fully 30 minu- aaaaand I JUST realized it was Cinco de Mayo, so YMMV).

Pete’s Candy Store – Williamsburg – Wednesdays @ 7:30 pm

Disclaimer: I haven’t been to Pete’s Candy Store for trivia in some years, and I don’t know when I’ll go again, but I wanted to post this review so people know what they’re getting into.

If you like going to bar trivia nights to socialize and chat with your friends and answer the occasional trivia question, THIS TRIVIA IS NOT FOR YOU! The hosts go at a blistering pace, with almost zero time to socialize in between questions/rounds. I struggled to even find time to go to the bar to get another drink! There’s NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT if what you want to do is answer trivia questions, but it’s something you should know before you go! That being said, the trivia is very difficult, but very fun. The questions are tightly written around specific themes and the competition is very tough. It’s worth checking out at least once, but may not be for everyone.

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.