Image: Jana Early
I know how many episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation ever aired, and which element is second on the periodic table. I can recognize “One Night in Bangkok” from its opening riff and I know what SPF stands for. Mostly useless, sure. But also extremely helpful at bar trivia.
Several times a month, my trivia team—all hail the Crusty Jugglers—gathers at a local bar, puts away our phones, and takes a test. It’s one of my favorite pastimes, and not just because I’m a Lisa Simpson type who yearns for pop quizzes. Bar trivia is a guarantee of seeing certain friends, an outing no one has to plan. No one’s scrolling antisocially. Sometimes there’s even the sweet taste of victory.
Across the globe, quiz nights fill bars on otherwise slow nights, spurring alcohol sales and entertaining patrons who can’t play pool or flirt with strangers at a bar like the cool kids. But every bar trivia series maintains its own idiosyncratic rituals: For more than a decade, Capitol Hill’s Bryan McCall has launched his monthly trivia with Herb Alpert’s brassy “Spanish Flea” over the loudspeaker, the sound of horns noodling across Hillside Bar. At Neighbor Lady in the Central District, the nonspecific absurdity of Family Feud somehow became a regular trivia category. MovieCat Trivia at Central Cinema involves projecting obscure clips to the big screen.
Success at bar trivia requires of a wide breadth of knowledge. The best questions don’t come from old Trivial Pursuit cards; they are crafted for the occasion, specific to Seattle’s own blend of historical, sports, pop culture, and geographical smarts. Famous folks who died last week, local inside jokes. Nostalgia looms large and, given that bar crowds are, by definition, adult, things can get a little raunchy. “The best kind of trivia question is one that gets a reaction,” says McCall. “That reaction could be a laugh or a groan or an ‘Ew, gross’.”
In 2021, Leah Caglio and her best friend Sally Neumann—both of whom won on TV’s Jeopardy!—held quiz nights in Seattle backyards to combat pandemic isolation. Their operation has since grown into Head in the Clouds, a company hosting events in more than 30 local bars and restaurants, most weekly. Bar trivia, Caglio says, is a social structure ideal for either a date or a visiting boomer parent.
Unlike similar companies that use apps, Head in the Clouds operates with paper answer sheets. Phone-based games would simplify scorekeeping, but Caglio prefers how the old-fashioned method encourages collaboration. “I love to see people grab the paper when it’s something they know and their friends don’t,” she says.
Seattle has long considered itself a nerdy city. Heck, we can claim king nerd and Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings. But considering the question suggestions Caglio gets in the company’s online portal, she thinks we’re more than just boring dorks. “We’re one of the kookiest cities. People have weird knowledge and interesting requests.”
My fellow Crusty Jugglers and I have won many a trivia night by knowing all the lands of Disneyland or which Midwest city hosts an annual cereal festival. Sometimes we beat our rivals (take that, Veggie Reuben), and sometimes we groan at the near misses and brain farts. Socializing in Seattle isn’t always easy, but sometimes it’s as easy as knowing a little about something.
