Where Brews & Brains Meet

Trivia events offer local bars and participants a chance to shine on off nights

Lake Norman Currents | March 2019

By Aaron Garcia

If you're willing to regard Wikipedia as a reliable historical record, pub trivia has only been around since the 1970s, a stunning fact considering that beverage-born debates and slurred claims of intellectual superiority are as ingrained in the bar motif as stools and small napkins.

According to the website, though, the trend didn't start until an English company called Burns and Porter used it to lure patrons in on slow nights.

Nearly 50 years later the gimmick has not only endured, but it's become a common staple of many Lake Norman-area bars' weekly lineups. On any given weeknight you can find a room with small groups of people racking their brains for bragging rights and gift cards. To those involved, however, the payoff is bigger.

Establishing a following

Andrea Gravina, who, with husband, Matt, opened Mooresville's King Canary Brewing last May, says that starting a weekly trivia night was a great way to connect with her new patrons. It began after Andrew Katsamas, who was hosting a trivia night at Lake Norman Tavern on Tuesdays, approached the owners about starting their own weekly event.

It was a hit.

Andrea says although the outdoor setting and summer weather certainly helped attendance, King Canary has carried that success into the colder months. She estimates that roughly 50 people gather each Wednesday to try to figure out Katsamas' questions that range from geography to history to pop culture.

"We want to be a place where everyone can enjoy it, so to have one more fun thing to do, it's been a good thing for us," says Andrea.

After just six months, the following has started to become loyal, says "Lightning" Liz Hann, whose team took first place during a recent event at the brewery.

"It's fun to go out and do something different," says Hann. "It's more than just going out to the bar. We socialize and come up with strategies, and we're spending time with our friends."

New approach for an old favorite

Dora Callahan likes to ask several questions from a single category during a round, a variation on Katsamas' one-question-per-category approach. The subject matter is typically the same, unless it's one of the themed trivia events Summit Coffee Co. is hosting — The Harry Potter birthday was a huge hit, says Callahan. She isn't sure when Summit started trivia, but she recalls playing as far back as seven years ago.

For Callahan, a manager at Summit Coffee and Monday night trivia host, the point isn't to grow its clientele, but to better connect with the customers the coffee shop has earned in its 20-plus years of operation.

"That's why I was interested in hosting in the first place," says Callahan, who just started hosting in January. "How can I get to know people differently and help continue to build community? I think that's something really lovely about something as silly as trivia."

Like Hann, Summit trivia participant Betsy Verhey says it provides the right mix of competition and break from the norm.

"It's a little competitive — some people are more competitive than others," says Callahan. "It's just kind of fun. There's something different every week. Sometimes there's stuff you know; sometimes that's stuff you learn. That's kind of fun, too."

The real prize: No phones allowed

For all its community-building and competitive-fire stoking, Katsamas says what really makes a trivia night special is that cell phones — otherwise known as handheld cheating devices — are generally off limits. That makes these events some of the last opportunities for public, face-to-face conversations devoid of the soft glow of a screen. Trivia nights, it seems, have become the modern version of the social hour, offering a rare opportunity for interpersonal communication free of character limits, swiping or artificial vibrations.

"If you look around the bar, no one's on their phones. People are talking to each other," says Katsamas. "It prevents the easy, go-to escape where you're not paying attention to the people sitting next to you."

And that, says Callahan, is the larger payoff.

"I think you can find out silly things, and people have a chance to show off this random knowledge they might have that they otherwise don't have an outlet for," says Callahan. "You get to see a different side of people that way, because you're like 'I had no idea you knew about this topic.'"