Organizing a pub quiz at your café: the complete playbook
A pub quiz is one of the few activities for a café that both fills a quiet evening and delivers regular guests. Those who take part come with a group, stay for two hours, and drink more in those two hours than during a regular visit.
The problem isn't in the idea but in the execution. Coming up with questions takes time, counting points takes time, and one evening where the count doesn't add up costs you half the participants.
What you need
- A fixed evening. Every week or every other week, always the same day. Irregular is deadly for turnout.
- Forty to sixty questions, divided over four or five rounds with their own theme.
- Someone who hosts the evening and links the rounds together.
- A way to keep track of points that no one doubts.
- A prize that's worthwhile without being expensive.
The setup of an evening that works
Length
An hour and a half to two hours, including breaks. Shorter feels like too little for the effort of coming; longer and the last round plays out in front of a half-empty venue.
Rounds
Four or five rounds of ten questions. Vary the difficulty and make sure each round has its own character: general knowledge, music, images, something local, and a round that has nothing to do with knowledge such as estimating or guessing.
The local round
This is the round that sets your evening apart from every other pub quiz. Questions about the street, the municipality, the history of the building. Regular guests feel at home and new guests learn something.
The local round is almost always the round that gets the most laughs, and the reason people come back.
Counting points: where it goes wrong
Having guests hand in answers on paper and checking them yourself costs you ten minutes between rounds, and in those ten minutes the energy in the room drops. On top of that, discussion breaks out as soon as one answer has been marked wrong.
The variant that solves that: guests take part via their own phone and the scores add themselves up. At TablePlay, each table scans the QR code, chooses a table name, and the standings appear live. No paper, no checking, no discussion. See the games for which quiz variants are available, or the page for cafés for how that works out in a café.
The questions themselves
Anyone writing a quiz for the first time almost always makes the same two mistakes: too difficult, and too much factual knowledge. A quiz in which a team gets two out of ten questions right isn't a challenge but a humiliation.
The distribution that works
- Two questions that almost everyone gets right. These are there to give the feeling that you're taking part.
- Six questions that you have to think about or can discuss. This is where the fun is.
- Two questions that almost no one knows. These determine who wins.
The discussion in the middle is where a pub quiz gets its value from. A question that one person knows and the rest don't doesn't produce a conversation. A question that four people can work out together, does.
Formats that do better than factual knowledge
Estimation questions (how high, how heavy, how many), image questions, music clips, and questions where you have to determine an order. They have one thing in common: you can take part without knowing the answer. That keeps teams in the game that would otherwise drop out after round two.
Prizes that work
The prize doesn't need to be big; it needs to be visible. A round of drinks for the winning table, a voucher for next time, or something on the house. A voucher has one advantage over cash: it brings the team back.
Hosting the evening
A quizmaster doesn't have to be funny, but does have to be clear. What keeps an evening running smoothly is almost entirely rhythm:
- Read every question twice, with a pause in between. Reading it out once guaranteed gets you a hand asking if you can repeat it.
- Give the same thinking time per question, and say beforehand how much that is.
- Announce the standings after every round. That's the moment the room wakes up a bit.
- Keep the break short. Ten minutes is enough; fifteen and you've lost half the attention.
The final round
Let the scoring of the final round weigh a bit heavier, or keep one round in reserve where teams can wager points. Without that, a team that's ten points behind after round three is mentally done, and you'll notice it at the bar.
How to fill the first few evenings
- Announce it three weeks ahead, not three days.
- Ask your regulars personally if they'll bring a team. That works better than any poster.
- Put the date on your Google profile and on social media, with a photo of the venue rather than a quiz logo.
- Make the first evening easier than you'd like. Anyone who feels they don't stand a chance won't come back.
What it costs and delivers
Budget for two to four hours of preparation per evening if you write the questions yourself, plus the evening itself. In return, a quiz night becomes the best-attended weekday evening at most bars, with a higher spend per guest than average because people stay seated longer.
If you'd rather skip the preparation, check what a ready-made quiz on the table costs at the prices.
How long does a pub quiz last?
An hour and a half to two hours including breaks. Shorter feels like too little for the effort; longer and the final round plays out to a half-empty room.
How many questions do you need for a pub quiz?
Forty to sixty, spread across four or five rounds of ten, each with its own theme.
How do you keep score without hassle?
Checking paper answers takes ten minutes per round and leads to disputes. Joining in via phone with automatic scoring removes both problems.
Which evening is best for holding a pub quiz?
A weekday evening that's currently quiet, usually Tuesday or Wednesday. The goal is to fill a dead evening, not make a busy evening busier.
What's a good prize for the winners?
Something visible but not expensive: a round of drinks, something from the house, or a voucher. A voucher also brings the team back.
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