Urban Discoveries Baltimore

If you’re geeky like us — and by like us, we mean a Jeopardy-watching, Trivial Pursuit-obsessed type who just might have been on their high school “QuizBusters” team — then we’ve got a night out for you. A few of them actually. It’s pub trivia and it’s all over Baltimore.

The James Joyce, an Irish bar in Harbor East, has their trivia night every Monday at 7:30 p.m. Like everywhere else, prizes are given away after each category, with the overall first place team at the end of the night winning a $40 gift card for food and drink at the James Joyce. What separates the James Joyce is that second and third place win prizes too: $30 and $20 cards respectively. A pretty sweet deal if you ask us.

We headed down to Max’s Taproom in Fells Point at 9:00 last Thursday to get a feel for their “Quiz-a-ma-jig” and we came away most impressed. The upstairs “Mobtown Lounge” has the casual, boisterous ambience of an old-school speakeasy. And the questions were tough and well-considered with categories ranging from government agencies to Muzak. While we may not have won any of the categories or the $50 grand prize gift certificate, we came away knowing a little more about the FDA and Ted Nugent, always a good sign in our book.

Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., the Wharf Rat hosts its trivia night. A five-category showdown in this quiet little Fells Point bar gives you a reason to come in and show off all your arcane knowledge. The beer — locally brewed Oliver — is cold, but the mood is as warm as the place itself: they’ve got their own working fireplace. Adam, the host, has a variety of clever categories with occasional themes. (A recent, if biting pair: the MTA and “One –hit wonders of the 90s”.) The prizes here consist mostly of free food and drink, but we don’t mind. Camaraderie’s our main goal.

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