Recently I started going to trivia night at a bar, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it is the best decision I have ever made. A few weeks ago my team won, and again, I am absolutely not exaggerating when I say it was the greatest accomplishment ever made by anyone in human history. I’m hesitant to give these tips out and threaten my team’s collective throne, but victory doesn’t pay for all the Tecates, so like Van Gogh or whoever, heroically using his own paintings for kindling, I offer you these tips:
1. Find a Place That's Right for You
And what I mean by that is, go somewhere your friends all don’t mind going as well. I know people in San Francisco have trouble making the arduous twenty-minute BART trip out to Oakland with us commoners, and I acknowledge a lot of us Oakland people don’t tend to regard as adequately “real” establishments where you might not get a brick thrown at your face. Find someplace that everyone can agree on. (Just don’t go to Treasure Island. I heard it's weird there.)
Distance should be no object, as trivia rarely lasts late into the night, and a journey towards victory can never be too long. If you search “trivia” on Yelp, there are a ton of places in both the city and the East Bay where you can go and get drunk and feel smart.
I go to the Sycamore in the Mission, which has great sliders and awards winners PBR and cash, but that place gets pretty crowded already, so here’s what I’m gonna say:
I'm just kidding. It's a fine establishment and you should patronize it.