New Scaratings

Location: near corner of 3rd Avenue and 82nd Street (link to the Sitefinder)
(upper East Side, Manhattan Island, Borough of Manhattan (AKA New York County), New York City).

There are many types of bars in Manhattan, and Mad River is among the more tolerable for outsiders. It is neither a chippy blue collar bar, nor a snooty upscale bar, but instead an honest drinking man's bar, catering also to those who want primarily to eat. It turns into a singles bar on Thursdays and Fridays (spilling over into Wednesdays now -- I've never tried to play on a Saturday, so I can't say, but...) Otherwise it is the closest that NYC gets to trivia heaven. For some reason (possibly because there is always something else to do in NYC), BT trivia has never really caught on in Manhattan, though many bars (particularly the numerous Irish bars) have live trivia for 2-3 hours any evening from Monday to Wednesday. Mad River decided to join the live trivia game about a year ago, so they have it from 8-10:30 every Tuesday.

You may notice that this conflicts with Showdown. Indeed it does, but the generally strong BT Showdown team has decided to just play both games at the same time, which has been occasionally a bit much. We won most of the earlier live trivia games ($50 a pop, so not inconsiderable), but Mad River has since shifted the games in our disfavor, mainly by emphasizing pop culture to the point that our generally antiquated gang has no idea what the questions even mean. Still we keep battling, since on a good night, half our team is under thirty (not counting the part that thinks it's under thirty), and can occasionally snare one of those wins.

There's almost always someone playing BT trivia at the bar, afternoon or evening, so visitors are always welcome and will be treated with our legendary hospitality (I know, I know, that means that it's fictional, just bear with me). I'll add more detail if I get inspired. Meanwhile, it helps to know that Mad River is at least a stable customer of Buzztime -- the other half-dozen or so in NYC are a bit fly-by-night.

Actually, both Bill and I have been out for awhile due to health issues, and the situation with the bar trivia has gotten worse. Now the questions tend to be those that you can only get with a lucky guess. I was back for the first time since before Thanksgiving this past Tuesday, and I remember vividly that one of the questions was, "How many bubbles in a bottle of bubbly?" I chuckled, thinking to myself that Bill would immediately point out that "a bottle" is hardly a precise name for a container. At any rate, the answer was "250 million," so I myself wondered who counted them. (It was multiple choice, so you had a one in three shot at the right answer.)
I will add, however, that the bar is doing very well with the bar trivia. It brings in crowds of youngsters who nurse their plastic cups of Bud Lite and try to think of humorous names for their "teams." It's a friendly bar, and there are two or three guys who play NTN trivia at the bar, ignoring our invitations to come sit at our table. The youngsters who like the bar trivia won't play NTN either. I think we've spooked them. But there are seats for anybody who comes by. Just walk past the bar and there we are at the table at the end.
XT

We have a lot of places around here doing it, and they're all packed and doing pretty well, as well. Perhaps Buzztime should sponsor some Bar Trivia locations and try to raise their name awareness?

Mad River is a great place to play. The prices are very reasonable for NYC, and the regulars tend to behave themselves when guests drop by. Wish I could visit more often than once every year or two

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