Sandpoint, ID

Tuesday there is always a buzz at my office about trivia night at Mick Duffs. I finally decided to round up my friends and give it a try. I had heard you needed to get there early to get a good table, near the large TV screen is best because this is where the questions were posted. I arrived at 6pm with trivia starting at 7pm, thinking that was plenty of time.

My boyfriend and I stood for a few minutes as we waited for a table. I saw a friend of mine, who is a trivia regular, and asked her what was going on with the long wait. She said that her group had been waiting for awhile and that a table was opening up, a small 2 person table for her group of 5. I finally got the attention of the waitress and asked her if any tables would be opening up and she said probably not as they were usually full by 6:45pm. I looked at my watch and it was 6:15. The weather was raining and I wondered if that had something to do with why they were extra busy, regardless it was clear they were packed that night. We continued waiting and my friend finally got her table only to give it up because they wanted to order dinner quickly and with the amount of people at Mick Duffs probably was not going to happen. I swooped in and grabbed the table for two for our group of 8. Our team started arriving and we eventually broke into two groups, as we had more friends showed up than expected. Luckily another table opened up and we rearranged the furniture a bit and our teams were ready to go. We did not have a prime location as we were the furthest away from the TV screen but we made the best of it.

Once we got settled at our table and trivia had begun I was a little surprised since there was not really an actual “start”. The first question just appeared on the screen, and luckily some of us were paying attention and saw that trivia had started. Mick Duffs provides 6 slips of paper that are numbered 1-5. There are 5 questions to each of the 6 rounds and there were two random questions that if you run up to the trivia host with the correct answer you were awarded free beer. Since we were so far away we did not really have a chance with those questions. Once the 5 questions for each round are asked you have 30 seconds to get the answers to the host. He will tally the points, post the answers to the questions and post the team points. The first round had completed and we were in 3rd place. As the rounds continued the questions got a little harder and our 3rd place quickly slipped to 5th, and that is where we finished.

We had a pretty good time with the trivia and had plenty of time to chat with friends in between rounds. I did however have a few disappointments, like the tables being already full 45 minutes before the game started and the wait staff was not exactly pleasant, especially when it came to paying our bill. However with each disappointment comes a lesson. If we decided to participate in trivia again I would arrive earlier to obtain a better seat and I would request separate checks for anyone who ordered food or beverages since this was the leading cause of dissatisfaction with the wait staff.

If you would like to participate in trivia night it is every Tuesday night at Mick Duffs located at 312 N First Ave. Teams can be 1 to 8 players and trivia starts at 7pm and ends at 9pm. Like I said before it’s best to show up early to get a seat, which I heard that night a rumor that people are now arriving at 5pm to get the best seat in the house!