Los Angeles is probably the best place in the world to have a brainpan crammed with trivial knowledge. I know this first-hand, having turned a Cliff Claven-esque penchant for useless information (Did you know that Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital?) into a run of television game-show research (“Win Ben Stein’s Money”) and writing (“Twenty One,” “It’s Your Chance of a Lifetime” and “Weakest Link”) gigs in the early aughts.
In our off-hours, my fellow Q&A colleagues and I hit the local pub-quiz circuit to see if we could leverage frontal lobes filled with folderol into free drinks, bar swag and bragging rights. We did OK for ourselves, one time coming within one right answer of a free steak dinner for the team. (We lost on a question — now lost to the ether — about Apollo astronauts.) That’s when I first came to appreciate the embarrassment of riches that is the SoCal trivia bar scene; the perfect storm of drinking establishments trying to beef up business during less-busy times (mostly, but not always, Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and a near endless reservoir of quiz-show writers, researchers and contestants (past, present and potential), all bent on sharpening their wits and plying their pop-culture prowess on both sides of the pub-quiz equation.
That’s still true today, as I discovered while revisiting some of our favorite haunts and exploring some new ones. The Sunday night contests at Ye Rustic Inn in Los Feliz, for example, are hosted by former “Jeopardy!” champion Brendan Sargent (Season 37). Also, a recent night at O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Santa Monica found a brain trust of that show’s buzzer beaters clustered in a corner, including Pam Mueller (the College Championship winner in 2000, she’s also appeared on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “500 Questions”), Jerome Vered (whose 1992 and 2005 runs sandwiched a win — followed by researching and writing gigs — on “Win Ben Stein’s Money”) and Brad Rutter, who holds the distinction of being the second-highest-earning U.S. game show contestant of all time.
The venues and people are as random — and as fun — as the questions themselves. On any given weeknight, you can find yourself competing in a giant barrel (Idle Hour) in North Hollywood, a mock-up of a Tatooine bar (Scum and Villainy Cantina) in Hollywood or a jackalope-themed German restaurant (Rasselbock) in Mar Vista. Likewise, your competition could turn out to be some totally unknown rock stars of the pub-quiz world, say, the Quizzlypuffs (the third-highest-scoring pub-quiz team in the country based on game runner King Trivia’s league play) or a guy who looks vaguely familiar from TV (the actor who plays Jamie in the Progressive ads).
With that in mind, here’s a look at some of the best pub-quiz places I’ve played at over the last three months. Every one has a little something extra going on — game-wise, food-wise or decor-wise — that will leave you feeling like you’ve won. That’s even if you’re ending your night in 14th place because that one guy on your team thought the Grand Canyon was in Nevada. (You know who you are.)
