We walk into trivia

Pecado Bueno, Seattle, Washington (West Seattle neighborhood)
Just so you know, Jeopardy is on Hulu now. During several stretches of our lives, we watched the show consistently. When we lived near (or, to be honest, with) my mom, we regularly watched it along with Wheel of Fortune. No offense, Mr. Sajak, we endured the Wheel, but happily played along with Mr. Trebek. When we were in seminary, Trivial Pursuit was wildly popular, and it’s fair to say we were pretty competitive.

Which is why we were intrigued when we were in Redmond, WA, a couple years ago visiting the bar that represented Washington state on our 50 state adventure* and saw a poster for “Geeks Who Drink.” That time, we couldn’t go -- we had about it didn’t work for us at that time. When we saw that Geeks Who Drink, which runs trivia quizzes modeled after pub quizzes in Great Britain and Ireland, is still a thing, we knew we needed to go.

Many local bars have quiz nights, but we chose the Geeks Who Drink evening at Pecado Bueno in West Seattle. Sure, it was partly to avoid having to drive over the West Seattle Bridge into Seattle proper, but more because Mindy noticed that the quiz master at Pecado Bueno ("Sin Well") is named Sean Church...which works well with our other blogs.

Pecado Bueno is a Mexican restaurant more than it’s a bar, which is a point of internal contention in this blog, but hey, the event is Geeks who DRINK, so that seems bar-themed enough for our purposes. And Pecado Bueno is right next door to a bar, and the two establishments share restrooms. So there.

We arrived at 7:00 pm as Sean announced that the quiz was about to begin, so Mindy found us a table and got the quiz pamphlet while I went to the bar to order. The chalkboard menu listed a “rotating red wine” and a “rotating cider” among the tap options, so I ordered the wine for Mindy (it was a cabernet sauvignon) and the cider for me (it was pineapple). The bartender poured our drinks and gave me a number for the nachos I ordered because why wouldn’t I get nachos?

Sadly (for our score), the first round of the quiz was math-focused, and Mindy was initially alone and trying to figure out how the game worked while struggling to remember past fifth-grade math. Even after I came to the table we didn’t do well; we felt like Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford. (Sample question; “The whole number square root of 34969 is the same number as murder in the California penal code.” How could we not know that?)

We were even more disappointed with ourselves when we knew only half the answers on a movie photo quiz of rom-coms. (How could we miss Clueless, even if it was a picture of Dionne and Murray?) If they don’t have Bible or theology questions (which they didn’t), movies would be my go-to category, and I choked.

We didn’t do well with the music category either. In honor of Michael Jackson’s 60th birthday, covers of the Gloved One’s songs were played. We had to name the song and the singer or group that covered it (these were two point questions). The only cover we were confident we knew was Weird Al’s “Fat", which was a parody rather than a cover of the King of Pop’s “Bad".

There were only five teams that night; Sean mentioned that there are usually seven or eight teams for the weekly event (which debuted at Pecado Bueno just over a month ago), usually a combination of newbies like us and regulars. At that point in the game, we were tied for nearly last place. (To be fair to us, we were a team of two people, and three of the other teams had at least four members. Giving your team a clever name is part of the deal, and we hadn’t given it much thought. We called our team “Warthog.” The best name that night was “I Thought This Was Speed Dating.”)

Things improved with the Buffett category, where we had to decide if a fact or quote applied to Jimmy or Warren Buffett. On that round we finally won the bonus question, which happened to be “What 30 Rock character had Jimmy AND Warren Buffett on his speed dial?” The reward for getting the bonus question right was a baseball card that could be redeemed for a house beerita or margarita (we got the margarita).

We nearly aced the next category -- an audio round about TV shows that have outstayed their welcome (I only recognized Supernatural because it has a character named Dean). We’re so proud to be knowledgeable about bad television.

At the end of the eight-round game, we ended up in second place (granted, two teams left before the last couple rounds, but we’ll take a win any way we can get it) and got a $15.00 gift certificate for Pecado Bueno. (We also managed to get another bonus question right, so we’ve got a baseball card tucked away to use when we go back).

Rumor has it that Amazon’s employee Geeks Who Drink competition has a hundred dollar prize. Geeks Who Drink also sponsors specialized quiz nights (like the upcoming one about Parks and Recreation) with an entry fee and cash prizes.

We had fun and thought we should try it again with people with better math skills. (Offspring, are you reading this?) Everyone playing, especially the winning team -- who was not us -- seemed to be having a good time enjoying their beverages, the company, and the friendly competition.

After the quiz was done, we were able to talk with Sean, the quizmaster. He has a full-time job, but he does this gig for fun and a little extra cash. He’s been doing Geeks Who Drink quizzes for eight or nine months, and he made it clear during the evening that he’s just reading questions given to him, so don’t blame him for saying NCSI has outstayed its welcome. (When someone griped about South Carolina barbecue being called “weird,” though, he changed the adjective to “awesome.”)

Sean had mentioned his blog, and Mindy told him she’d read and enjoyed it. We told him about our blogs and asked him our two questions. He said what made a good bar was “The workers. Ultimately people go in and out. The workers make it good or bad.” In college, he came to appreciate the servers and bartenders of bars he frequented.

He said, “The people more than the pastor or worship leader [make a good church]. Ultimately it’s the activities done by the people such as bake sales. When I was growing up, there was a Bunco night at church.” He said he still keeps in touch with people he knew from Sunday School.

Certainly, some people who could enjoy doing this kind of thing regularly. You get bonus points if you read the previous sentence and knew the question for that answer is, “Who are Dean and Mindy?”

*The Kindle version of Cheers and Amen, the book about our adventure, is on sale through Labor Day! Click here to learn more.