Organising a pub quiz in your café: the complete playbook
A pub quiz is one of the few activities for a café that both fills a quiet evening and brings in regular guests. Someone who joins in 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 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. Irregularity is deadly for turnout.
- Forty to sixty questions, split across four or five rounds each with its own theme.
- Someone to host the evening and link the rounds together.
- A way to keep score that no one doubts.
- A prize that's worth it 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 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 guessing or estimating.
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 biggest 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, arguments arise as soon as one answer is marked wrong.
The version 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 arguments. Check the games to see which quiz variants are available, or the page for cafés to see how it 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 where a team gets two out of ten questions right isn't a challenge but a humiliation.
The split that works
- Two questions that almost everyone gets right. They're there to give the feeling of taking part.
- Six questions you need to think about or discuss. This is where the fun is.
- Two questions that almost no one knows. These decide who wins.
The discussion in the middle is where a pub quiz gets its value from. A question only one person knows and the rest don't doesn't create conversation. A question that four people can work out together does.
Formats that do better than factual knowledge
Estimation questions (how tall, how heavy, how many), image 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 evening
A quizmaster doesn't need to be funny, but does need to be clear. What makes an evening run 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 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 closing round weigh a bit 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 evenings
- Announce it three weeks ahead, not three days.
- Ask your regular guests 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 and not a quiz logo.
- Make the first evening easier than you'd want to. Anyone who feels they have no chance won't come back.
What it costs and delivers
Budget two to four hours of preparation per evening if you write the questions yourself, plus the evening itself. On the other hand, a quiz night becomes the best-attended weekday evening in most bars, with higher spending per guest than average because people stay seated longer.
If you'd rather not deal with 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 last round plays out 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 with each its own theme.
How do you keep score without hassle?
Checking paper answers takes ten minutes per round and sparks debate. Playing along via the 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 slow evening, not make a busy one 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.
Want to try table games yourself?
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