One of our goals when we moved to Maine, was finding a trivia night we could go to regularly. We figured that if we focused on places near or in the Portland area, we’d do well.
Most bars use an outside company to provide their trivia. Different companies use different formats. One popular company is Raise the Bar Trivia. They are one of our favorites and can be found all around the Portland area each week, bringing the trivia game to pizza places, brew pubs and restaurants. Raise the Bar trivia nights are also in Southern New Hampshire and the North Shore of Massachusetts, outside Boston. But I’m focusing on pub trivia nights in Southern Maine only.
What it’s like playing pub quiz trivia
The exact experience differs by company and venue, but there are typically current events, pop culture and music questions. Let’s take a look at how Raise the Bar runs theirs. We’ve been to their competitions at Feile in Wells, Pepper’s Landing in Ogunquit and Federal Jack’s in Kennebunk. While the format has been the same, each host has put his own spin on the night. So, while this is a general overview, your experience may change with a different company or host.
Every week, Raise the Bar Trivia’s host comes prepared with worksheets, random pictures and music for the name-that-tune round. There’s even a pregame round to keep you busy as other teams settle in. When our daughters were in town, here was the pregame trivia worksheet. It included identifying the four people in the picture, who all had “Jan” in their name somehow.
All told, with Raise the Bar there are eight rounds of trivia. They are organized with a nod towards football:
- Pregame
- First quarter
- Second quarter
- Halftime
- Third quarter
- Fourth quarter
- Two-minute warning
- Hail Mary
Halftime is the name-that-tune-like round. One night was all ’80s music and this MTV-generation GenXer knew every song. Also, you get extra points if you know the artist, too. I did. At Pepper’s Landing, the host, Matt, gives bonus points if you can name the year that one of the songs debuted.
One of my favorite rounds is Third Quarter, which is a themed picture puzzle. You need to identify all of the items shown that are somehow connected.
For example, this past summer we had to decipher all of the frozen treats in the picture above. I was the only one who knew the Cookie Puss cake from Carvel — thank you, Beastie Boys for your “Cookie Puss” song from 1983, the year I graduated high school. The whole game usually lasts between 90 minutes and two hours. You’ll have so much fun you won’t even realize that much time has gone by.
I’m hoping to find other trivia nights near me that are worth adding to this list or in a separate article. Of course, if you know of another company or bar or restaurant doing trivia, please let me know. I’d love to try them out firsthand.