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PrintTrivia galore
The slips on which teams submit their responses. Photo by Jeffry Konczal.
News
Mead outlet Brothers Drake, 206 Oak St. (on the city’s far north side), is coming to the Short North. Honey wine enthusiast Woody Drake, who co-owns the meadery with his brother, Eric, says they hope to be working out of the new location,
26 E. Fifth Ave., in February with a grand opening later in the spring.
Amorous apéritifs
Lindey’s, 169 E. Beck St., has unveiled a pair of Valentine’s drinks—each with a local connection. Try not to spill while locking arms with your significant other across the table. Both are $12.
Cupid’s Arrow: Made with St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, gin from Columbus-based Watershed Distillery, lemon juice, simple syrup and muddled strawberry, then finished with a dash of Prosecco (an Italian sparkling wine) and garnished with a strawberry.
“Be Mine” martini: OYO Vodka from Middle West Spirits in the Short North, Cointreau, simple syrup, ice and blood orange juice. Garnished with a lemon twist.
I’ll take trivia for $1,000, Alex
Who was the only Major League Baseball player to have a brand of cigarettes named after him? If you guessed Ty Cobb, you’d be correct, but if you then presumed the salad was named after him as well, you’d be mistaken.
A fun alternative to your typical bar shenanigans is trivia. And when it comes to trivia, Columbus nightlife venues offer plenty of options. Here are some spots for stimulating your brain while enjoying a night out. Ledo’s Lounge, 2608 N. High St., does trivia each Wednesday at 8 pm. At Buffalo Wings & Rings, 8661 Columbus Pike in Lewis Center, it’s Tuesdays at 10 pm, with $50, $30 and $10 gift cards given to the winners. Grandview Cafe, 1455 W. Third Ave., does two a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 8 to 10 pm, with winners also receiving gift cards. All three Champps locations put on live trivia, as do many of the Buffalo Wild Wings branches. Check their websites for more information. Additionally, every six months the Wexner Center for the Arts, as part of its GenWex young patrons program, holds a large trivia night, the next of which will be April 13 at 7 pm (doors open at 6 pm). Visit wexarts.org to sign up.
My trivial pursuit
Grandview Cafe co-owners Bill Cosgrove and Brett Holland hold claim to the city’s largest trivia event, and they do it twice a week to boot. With my girlfriend, her college-aged brother and his girlfriend joining me there, we put our collective brains to the test. Cosgrove and Holland emphasize to us how subdued the turnout is on this particularly snowy evening in early January. Typically, it’s standing room only, they say. Still, it seems crowded enough, with roughly 20 teams consisting of anywhere from one to 10 players packed into the upstairs bar of the cafe.
I go in thinking about Tracy Jordan, Tracy Morgan’s lovable buffoon from NBC’s “30 Rock.” One episode found him involved in a trivia contest, in which he managed to answer each question correctly by recalling random and outrageous memories from his past. He responds to a question about Shamu by describing the whale as an “Orca” and adding, “FYI, they’re very difficult to keep in a home aquarium.” I can only hope to match his gusto.
On the mic at Grandview Cafe is Steve Meyers, a trivia master who writes each question and acts as emcee. Meyers, the owners and seemingly everyone else here takes this stuff seriously. “Any time someone will whip out a cellphone, the whole place just erupts,” Meyers says. There’s a strict no-cellphone rule. Same goes for laptops. In fact, there’s a 10- to 15-minute intermission in the game so many of the players can respond to text messages and make phone calls.
One of the first questions has to do with world history: Which European country ruled Cameroon prior to its independence in 1960? My girlfriend, a former Peace Corps volunteer who happened to have lived in Cameroon one summer, knows the answer: France. She also knows that England ruled a small portion of the country as well—a fact not acknowledged by the game. We don’t get extra points, though. Unfortunately, none of us could name the city where James Madison University is located (Harrisonburg, Virginia) and we started to fall behind.
After the first round of trivia, our team hovered around the middle of the pack. With our eyes on the prize, we definitely had some ground to make up on our competitors if we wanted those gift cards.
The final question of the night, on which we’re allowed to wager up to 20 of our points, is one that Buckeye fans might appreciate. Within 50 miles of the correct answer, what is the shortest possible road distance between New Orleans and Fayetteville, Arkansas? Meyers designed it as a jab to those Razorback fans who attended the Sugar Bowl. The states are adjacent to one another, however they’re both relatively large, so we’re a little more liberal with our guess of 450.
Wrong. 596 miles. Better luck next time. And there will be a next time, as we greatly enjoyed the family atmosphere. “Instead of people coming and drinking, there’s this great interaction,” Holland says. The co-owner has reason to feel joyous. His team won. “This is only like the second time it’s happened,” he says with a huge grin. Not allowed to accept any spoils since he owns the place, the winnings are added to the prize in next week’s trivia. I’ll be there, this time with more backup. A word of advice: a multigenerational team likely will be the most prosperous.
And in the words of Tracy Jordan: “The Lazy Susan was invented by Thomas Jefferson. I know, because I’m a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Lazy Susan herself!”
