Running a pub quiz at your café: the complete playbook
For a café, a pub quiz is one of the few activities that both fills a quiet night and creates regulars. Whoever joins comes with a group, stays for two hours, and drinks more in those two hours than during a regular visit.
The problem isn't the idea but the execution. Coming up with questions takes time, counting points takes time, and one night where the count is wrong costs you half the participants.
What you need
- A fixed night. Every week or every other week, always the same day. Irregularity is deadly for turnout.
- Forty to sixty questions, spread over four or five rounds with their own theme.
- Someone to host the night and link the rounds together.
- A way to keep score that nobody doubts.
- A prize that's worth it without being expensive.
The setup of a night that works
Length
An hour and a half to two hours, including breaks. Shorter feels like not enough for the effort of coming; longer and the last round plays out in front of a half-empty room.
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, like estimating or guessing.
The local round
This is the round that sets your night apart from every other pub quiz. Questions about the street, the local area, the history of the building. Regulars 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 marking 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 this: guests join in via their own phone and the scores add themselves up. At TablePlay, each table scans the QR code, picks a table name, and the standings appear live. No paper, no marking, no discussion. Check out the games to see which quiz variants there are, or the page for cafés to see how that works out in a café.
The questions themselves
Whoever writes a quiz for the first time almost always makes the same two mistakes: too difficult, and too much factual knowledge. A quiz where a team gets two out of ten questions right isn't a challenge, it's a humiliation.
The split that works
- Two questions that almost everyone gets right. They're there to give people the feeling they're taking part.
- Six questions that make you think or that you can discuss. This is where the fun is.
- Two questions that almost nobody knows. These decide 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 spark conversation. A question that four people can figure out together, does.
Formats that do better than factual knowledge
Estimation questions (how high, how heavy, how many), picture questions, music clips, and questions where you have to work out an order. They have one thing in common: you can join in without knowing the answer. That keeps teams in the game who would otherwise have dropped 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 night
A quizmaster doesn't need to be funny, but does need to be clear. What keeps an evening running smoothly is almost entirely rhythm:
- Read each question twice, with a pause in between. Reading it once guarantees a hand going up asking you to repeat it.
- Give the same thinking time per question, and say beforehand how long that is.
- Announce the standings after each round. That's the moment the room briefly wakes up.
- Keep the break short. Ten minutes is enough; a quarter of an hour and you've lost half the attention.
The final round
Let the scoring of the final round weigh slightly heavier, or keep one round in reserve where teams can wager points. Without that, a team ten points behind after round three is mentally done, and you'll notice it at the bar.
How to fill the first few nights
- 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 night easier than you'd like to. Anyone who feels they had no chance won't come back.
What it costs and delivers
Budget two to four hours of prep per night if you write the questions yourself, plus the evening itself. In return, a quiz night becomes the best-attended weeknight in most cafés, with higher spend per guest than average because people stay seated longer.
If you'd rather skip the prep, 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 to a half-empty room.
How many questions do you need for a pub quiz?
Forty to sixty, spread over 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 sparks arguments. Joining in via phone with automatic scoring removes both problems.
Which night is best for holding a pub quiz?
A weeknight that's currently quiet, usually Tuesday or Wednesday. The goal is to fill a slow night, not make a busy night busier.
What's a good prize for the winners?
Something visible but not expensive: a round of drinks, something on the house, or a voucher. A voucher also brings the team back.
Want to try table games yourself?
Give your guests more experience from day one.