Brooklyn Brewery is hosting a Thursday Trivia Night on March 30.
Noah Sheidlower | CNBC
Megan Fitzgerald has at all times been a fan of trivia, but as Director of Brand Experience at Talea Beer Co. in Brooklyn, she wasn’t sure it might be a very good fit for a women-owned brewery.
In February, she begged friends to return to Talei’s first trivia night, fearing that only just a few players would show up. As a substitute, greater than 70 patrons joined.
When people exit, “they need something that is enriching and fascinating, and that is greater than just taking shots or slamming a beer,” said Fitzgerald. “Trivia is simple and fun, good for large groups or couples, and may often be found right round the corner.”
After partnering with the NYC Trivia League for several weeks to host Wednesday night games, Fitzgerald said Talea’s trivia nights usher in nearly double the revenue of other nights of the week, except special events. The venue consistently attracts nearly 20 trivia teams, boosting food and beverage sales throughout the two-hour game. Bar staff also receive more suggestions, she said.
Across the country, bars and restaurants are adding curiosities to their weekly or monthly schedules to draw more diners and increase profits. Latest trivia brands have popped up in big cities and small towns, and a few long-established firms have returned to pre-pandemic numbers. Nevertheless, the pace of recovery has been slow because the industry struggles with staffing issues, in keeping with business leaders and restaurant owners.
While some bars develop their very own trivia questions, others work with trivia or entertainment firms that charge a hard and fast fee to offer the questions, facilities, and hosts. The essential idea is to herald teams that compete for prizes, business growth or extra space on a often slower night – and construct a latest base of standard customers.
“Trivia is helpful to us since it pays to have it in these slower times,” said Nick Marking of The Tap Yard in suburban Milwaukee, which has attracted about 30% more revenue during trivia nights at its five locations.
“The programs offer you a specific amount after which also rewards, so you’ve got to think about whether it’s value having trivia in the long term, provided that the profit margin is between 15% and 25% within the bar world,” said Marking.
The NYC Trivia League, which hosts trivia events at greater than 100 locations across Latest York City, recently surpassed the variety of weekly events since early 2020 and the Covid-19 lockdown. The league charges a hard and fast fee for bars and is free to players.
Irving Torres-Lopez runs Trivia Nite on the Brooklyn Brewery.
Noah Sheidlower | CNBC
Cullen Shaw, one in all the league’s founders, said the teams were larger than they were before Covid – a median of around 3.5 people – when many bars were barely sticking to their trivia nights. Shaw, who hosts trivia nights at The Gaf East on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, added that the league’s transition to a pen-and-paper digital platform has allowed games to be more efficient.
“We’re filling up the place, and I do not think that may occur if they simply placed on a basketball or hockey game and hoped a crowd would come,” he said.
Development of “gastronomic entertainment”
Shaw said the NYC Trivia League recently attracted venues that never considered themselves curio bars, adding a dozen to its lineup this 12 months alone. Retention rates increased in 2023 because the league became more selective about venues and hosts.
“I’m sure there are one million trivia apps on the market, but there’s something about group competition, there’s something about community where like-minded and competitive people come together in space to play a silly game, but everyone understands the principles,” Shaw said.
In response to Mike Kostyo, “trendologist” at Datassential, the rapid growth of trivia nights is a component of a broader movement towards “gastronomic entertainment,” a mixture of dining and interactive activities starting from bar trivia to culinary pickle concepts. Catering has been helpful for many bars and restaurants because it doesn’t significantly increase labor costs, added Kostyo.
“You could have rather a lot more customers at your premises, so you wish more staff in the front and back, but it surely’s not something where you’ve got to rent someone to administer it. This is generally done by a third-party trivia program provider,” Kostyo said.
In response to a Datassential report last 12 months, 82% of Americans have been to no less than one dining establishment, and greater than 50% of them said they’re “very interested” in visiting one again. Eighteen percent of respondents said they might visit eateries more often in the event that they held trivia nights regularly.
“On trivia night, we easily double our sales from the night before,” said Will Arvidson, manager of the tasting room on the Brooklyn Brewery, who said the venue typically attracts around 150 people to the Thursday trivia event. “Sometimes it’s hard for us to take a seat down with people, but we discover a way.”
Brooklyn Brewery has hosted NYC Trivia League trivia nights since 2019.
Noah Sheidlower | CNBC
Victoria Dawes and Kristina Cheng, who teamed up last Thursday on the Brooklyn Brewery, said they have been playing bar trivia for a couple of decade and agreed that it’s more popular now than it was before the pandemic. Each said they find time each week to bond with friends and exhibit their random knowledge.
“I feel like we have lost a lot contact with one another, and trivia was a very fun method to interact normally again,” Dawes said.
The rise in popularity of food and entertainment comes as inflation forces more Americans to look at how they spend their money.
In response to February’s Datassential Table Stakes Report, 39% of consumers said they were backing out of eating out, though Kostyo said cost-conscious people look to eateries for value once they exit.
“Many consumers are stuck at home all day and do not really socialize, so they give the impression of being to the food service industry to reunite with family and friends,” Kostyo said.
“But that does not imply they’re coming back en masse,” he added.
Brooklyn Brewery is hosting a Thursday Trivia Night on March 30.
Noah Sheidlower | CNBC
Teams can win money prizes – as much as $50 or $100 for first place in some bars – or shots, food or free goodies. These possible winnings can encourage players to spend more and potentially offset the fee for budget-conscious trivia enthusiasts.
Conrad Corretti, who says his team typically ranks in the highest five at Brooklyn Brewery and elsewhere, said he’s more prone to reduce on other weeknights so he can spend “more lavishly” at bars.
“You show up along with your group and you do not really need to interact with other people, so it was a very good activity to hang around with people you do not at all times see and have a good time,” he said.
A bumpy road to recovery
With so many latest venues hosting trivia nights, Kostyo warned bars that they might “cannibalize one another” as more businesses attempt to put their flag within the trivia space. He saw more area of interest topics on trivia nights that attracted a selected audience.
To draw more consumers, some firms like Geeks Who Drink have hired latest quiz masters and hired client managers to nurture relationships with venues. Bryan Carr, director of selling for the trivia company, said the corporate launched a “twitch” quiz, which continues to be running, and maintains a writing team of over 15 to maintain creative content flowing.
Restoring old premises and taking in latest ones has been a “slow process,” but the corporate continues to expand its presence in cities including Denver, Chicago, and Austin, Texas. It does full-service pub quizzes at around 650 locations, although the number was around 1,000 before the pandemic.
“We try to provide venues an excellent starter kit to make certain their event goes ahead, and we all know that sometimes it takes two to a few months to essentially construct a consistent audience,” said Carr. “They really see an enormous difference between before they’d trivia after which once they have it on those slower free nights.”
On trivia night, we easily double our sales from the night before. … Sometimes it’s hard for us to seat people, but we discover a way.
Will Arvidson
Tasting Room Manager, Brooklyn Brewery
Joshua Lieberthal, founding father of California-based King Trivia, which has locations in about 35 states, said he saw way more trivia nights tonight than he did before the pandemic. Nevertheless, with smaller margins, many bars have been forced to host a “much larger” weekly event to remain afloat, which can explain why the corporate has gone from around 200 weekly venues in 2019 to around 325 today.
Still, around 30% to 40% of pre-Covid King Trivia customers went out of business and the recovery process was bumpy.
“It wasn’t like you simply got old customers back when every little thing was restarted – it was ranging from scratch,” said Lieberthal. “Weirdly, we were more profitable before the pandemic than we’re today, regardless that we’re a lot larger than before.”
He said attendance and retention had returned to roughly pre-pandemic levels, thanks partly to expanded sales and customer support teams. Although weekly, Lieberthal said one other client is on hiatus or pushing the discharge date because of staffing issues.
“Because everyone seems to be making more cash, since it’s hard to staff, you wish more people working behind the scenes to make all this occur,” Lieberthal said. “It’s an unlucky reality that the break-even point is far higher on this industry than it was once, but fortunately so many venues are willing to host shows that it’s doable.”
For Wisconsin-based America’s Pub Quiz, founded in 2007 by Michael Landmann, every little thing from staffing to the fee of pencil cases has slowed the corporate’s growth rate in comparison with pre-pandemic.
By 2020, the corporate had 205 locations in eight states. Now it’s back all the way down to around 175, despite having to start out from scratch and struggle with the upper costs of doing business.
The corporate created a web-based system that might handle dozens of additional teams, but Landmann noted that many sites were unable to maintain up with the increased demand. Others with plenty of staff couldn’t find an acceptable trivia host.
Tyson Sevier, CEO of the Omaha, Nebraska-based Varsity Sports Cafe, which has partnered with America’s Pub Quiz for a decade, said venues often run wanting one or two staff during a busy trivia night. He admitted that it was a far cry from the “job horror” he had heard from other bar owners in town.
Nevertheless, he said trivia nights on the Varsity Sports Cafe usher in $2,000 to $3,000 more in comparison with other nights of the week.
“We’re getting an increasing number of people calling in wanting to play, so I believe there’s definitely an interest that only just a few bars had trivia years ago and now it looks like every bar has it,” said Sevier. “You could have to do it now to be competitive.”