Trivia Nights

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  1. Bistro 33
  2. Sophia's Thai Kitchen
  3. Woodstock's Pizza
  4. Streets Of London Pub
  5. Media Coverage

There are a number of trivia nights in and around Davis, sometimes there is a fee to get in and you can win a cash pot, usually the prize is a gift certificate, round of drinks or something similar. The California Aggie recently featured local pub quizzes in a Miles Duncan article titled "Passing the Bar Exam."

Bistro 33

See also Bistro 33.

With the clang of a cowbell and a rousing introduction, the Bistro 33 Pub Quiz begins at 9:00 on Monday nights. Relaunched on October 22, 2007, with Dr. Andy Jones as host, the Pub Quiz features 30 questions with a break halfway through the competition. First prize is $50 in Bistro credit, with $25 in credit for second and third prize winners. Additional prizes come in the form of a gift certificate from a downtown business or a goofy (but coveted) prize chosen by the Quizmaster. Teams of up to six participants. For a team to win a prize, each participant on the team expected to purchase two items. Bonus prizes (usually an appetizer) handed out during the quiz, usually for a karaoke performance around question seven. Sometimes the best team name, the best incorrect answer, or the biggest mid-game tip pledged to a server will earn the relevant team a bottle of wine. Quiz takes place in the main bar and the upper section.

Categories almost always include

The revamped Bistro 33 Pub Quiz is a lot more fun than it used to be. Ask anyone who has attended in recent months.

The occasional guest host of Pub Quiz is Rob Roy. Regularly participating teams include The Oddities, Short Bus, The Fab Four, The Soccer Moms, The Newsteam, Saving for College, The Great Amplificators, Science!, The Knights Who Say Nii, and Beer and Trembling.

Reservations are now recommended, for pub quiz tables can be claimed as early at 7pm on Pub Quiz night. Teams without reservations are often relegated to crowding around a spot at the bar, or sitting on the floor in the corner. For reservations, call Bistro 33 at 756-4556.

Sophia's Thai Kitchen

See also Sophia's.

10:00 on Tuesday nights. No fee to get in, but there is a 1 drink minimum. Drink stamping begins at 9 pm. Teams can have up to 6 members, with 3 points deducted in increasing increments of 3 for each member beyond the 6 person limit (ex: -3 for the 1st + -6 for the 2nd = -9 for an 8 person team). There are two rounds, each with 20 questions and combined for a total score. The prizes are as follows:

Other known prizes have been given out for the most incorrect answer, funniest answer, and last place.

The bar keeps track of drinks purchased with a team drink card which gets stamped for every item purchased. Keep in mind that drink purchases before 9:00 do not count toward the drink minimum (though the bartenders can be lenient on stamping if you've tipped them well). One stamp per member qualifies the team for grading and a prize. Teams can get three bonus points if each member buys two drinks. No team has ever come in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd without earning the three bonus drink points.

Sophia's limits Trivia Night to 40 teams. This limit is reached almost every week by 9:15, the time when the answer sheets are handed out. Hence, even though the actual event doesn't start until 10:00, teams need to secure a spot much earlier. To get chairs/stools/tables, one must arrive around 8:15. To ensure you get an answer sheet, get there around 9:15. In most cases, you will not be able to participate if you arrive at 9:55. There is a "No Chair-Hording" policy where only one empty chair per present person can be saved before the event begins. This prevents one person from unfairly saving 5 chairs for his/her team while people who are present stand helplessly (if it's annoying in movie theaters, it's going to be annoying at Trivia Night.) Paying customers are also given priority for tables over non-paying customers, so a team saving a table that has not purchased an item risks forfeiting their table to people/teams who have purchased items.

There are many teams that can be consistently found week after week duking it out, most of which are comprised of graduate students from various departments around UCD. Canadian Softwood, a team from the agricultural and resource economics department, holds the record for most 1st Place finishes in a row (4). Regular competitors and winners include teams representing the psychology, philosophy, nutrition and mathematics (aka The Mathletes) departments, as well as the law, business, and vetmed schools. An undergraduate team, The Backdoor Babes (Their name changes weekly), have staked out the back porch weekly since February 2008, and rarely walk away without placing in the top 3.

There is a list of common categories used in Sophia's Trivia Night.

And then, of course, there are The Rules.

Woodstock's Pizza

See also Woodstock's Pizza.

Thursday nights, beginning at 9 pm but sign-up is required at 8:30.

Streets Of London Pub

See also Streets of London Pub.

Sunday Night. Questions have a British slant and random prizes given through out the night for best team name and worst score. First prize is something good, but the other prizes are random things such as B-movies on DVD and British amateur porn.

Media Coverage

Comments:

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2007-01-28 15:02:34   Sophia's trivia has all sorts of non-trivia ways of getting points. There is a myspace question that you can only get with a myspace account and being friend's with Sophia's. Also if your entire team orders a second round of drinks, you get an extra 3 points. I totally agree with the one drink minimum, people who sit in a bar for two hours but don't even order a coke are lame, lame, lame. But I hate the second drink thing, two beers on a tuesday night is getting into sketchy territory for those with 8 am classes and it's a slippery slop of trivia being about things other than trivia. —AmyGoogenspa

2007-01-30 19:02:07   Yeah, I just feel so lame. I'm going to feel even lamer next week when I have to buy TWO non-alcoholic drinks so my team doesn't lose on account of my cheapness. —AmyGoogenspa

2007-03-11 10:48:33   do any of these let under-21s participate at all? —AllisonEriksen

2007-03-15 16:05:11   Just went to Sophia's trivia for the first time last Tuesday after being a longtime Bistro 33 player. I have to say, Sophia's trivia night is far, far better. There are more teams (a lot more), it's rowdy, but strange as it sounds, it seems more intimate. I attribute that to the fact that Sophia's feels more like a "Pub Quiz" than Bistro does. You're in a bar, you can get to the actual bar, people are actually drinking and talking while they're playing. It feels more like a group activity. At Bistro, the event takes place in a back room which makes the whole thing feel more like a classroom than a bar (especially with all the A/V stuff going on). Sophia's quiz is definitely way more challenging, but in a good way I guess (in that you should know the answer and feel like an idiot once you hear it.) Bistro's questions are either really easy (especially the true/false questions) or stupidly impossible. The respective hosts are a stark contrast. The Quiz Mistress at Bistro is definitely more showy and polished, but she can often be obnoxious. Sophia's Quiz Master (who I'm told is the owner, but I'm not sure if that's true.) is less polished and a lot drier, but he's funny and has an ironic, self-depricating hosting style. When the crowd heckles him (which happened several times last Tuesday), he talks shit back, which I find pretty funny. At Bistro, she seems to get agitated when people complain. Lighten up Sarah! As for the drink minimum at Sophia's, I think it's legit on their part. That they don't give drink stamps for food is bullshit in my opinion, but other than that, I bought 2 Bud Lights which cost me $6.50 (+$2 tip). The way I see it, it's cheaper than a movie and more interactive. —BriannaBetancourt

2007-05-15 13:31:22   Bistro 33 recently moved the quiz from the function room to the main bar area. Whilst I can understand their reasons for doing so (less staff needed to serve drinks) I think it is not so much fun as before. Now you can spend the evening sharing the room with people who aren't there for the quiz, and you don't get to really see everyone around you (depending on where you are sitting). For the last two weeks there have been no powerpoints either (presumably because of the NBA playoff games being on). I'm still coming to terms with this change, but I think it is a change for the worse. And they seem to have stopped the pub quiz drinks and food promotions too. —KeithBradnam

2008-03-16   I'm curious about the Thursday trivia night at the Silo Pub. I've seen several posters and its mentioned even on their website, I would love it if someone can share their experience.

2008-06-01 07:58:59   Gosh, I didn't realize trivia nights in St. Louis were quite so big (or involved free beer, for that matter). I used to do some there back in the day but thought they were relatively isolated (or only as common as anywhere else). I'll have to hit up some trivia when I'm back that way. _ _
franzche
I challenge you to a game of trivia! Click here to battle against me online at ConQUIZtador. Let's see who's the winner...
https://www.conquiztador.com/?a=26041 —franzche

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