Boston Pizza, New Minas, N. S.

Falcon · **Posted:** Mon Jan 18, 2010 3:13 am

There seems to be a shortage of Canadian sites here, so I thought that I would mention mine. It is one of 41 Boston Pizzas, mainly across Canada, but with one in Iowa and two in Alaska, that have NTN Buzztime. It is a franchise chain, I believe, and not all have it. However, in many places, including New Brunswick and western Nova Scotia, it is the only place to play our favorite games.

The food is fairly good, with fair prices, especially if you take advantage of the specials, including Tuesday night ones on pastas and beer. Service is usually good, unless they are really busy, but the 10 playmakers at our site are behind the bar so you must ask a server and may have to wait to get one. Only two of the 9 fairly large tvs in the bar can carry the NTN channels, and normally one of them is in general trivia and the other on sports trivia. There is almost always a need for more players, so please stop by if you are in the area.

stevej84 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 18, 2010 1:20 pm

Falcon wrote:

There seems to be a shortage of Canadian sites here, so I thought that I would mention mine. It is one of 41 Boston Pizzas, mainly across Canada, but with one in Iowa and two in Alaska, that have NTN Buzztime. It is a franchise chain, I believe, and not all have it. However, in many places, including New Brunswick and western Nova Scotia, it is the only place to play our favorite games.

The food is fairly good, with fair prices, especially if you take advantage of the specials, including Tuesday night ones on pastas and beer. Service is usually good, unless they are really busy, but the 10 playmakers at our site are behind the bar so you must ask a server and may have to wait to get one. Only two of the 9 fairly large tvs in the bar can carry the NTN channels, and normally one of them is in general trivia and the other on sports trivia. There is almost always a need for more players, so please stop by if you are in the area.

there seems to be a pattern with Boston Pizza. When they open a location (there are over 300 now), they always install Buzztime

..and after one year, they always seem to drop the game. All 5 Boston Pizza's in my area fit this pattern

hope you have better luck in New Minas

Falcon · **Posted:** Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:47 pm

stevej84 wrote:

there seems to be a pattern with Boston Pizza. When they open a location (there are over 300 now), they always install Buzztime
..and after one year, they always seem to drop the game. All 5 Boston Pizza's in my area fit this pattern

hope you have better luck in New Minas

So do I, as there is nowhere else to play within a 2-hour drive, but they do nothing to promote it, and most people who might like to play simply do not know about it. With Acadia University in the adjacent community of Wolfville, I had hoped that enough "fans" would find it to get a good core of regulars, but it has not happened yet. They have had it for a little over a year, so this may be a critical time. Any ideas on how to get the word out to those who might be interested? I live about 60km away, and just moved back to the province after 30+ years away, so do not have a lot of local contacts.

ANON · **Joined:** Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:59 pm **Posts:** 2233

Falcon wrote:

[Any ideas on how to get the word out to those who might be interested? I live about 60km away, and just moved back to the province after 30+ years away, so do not have a lot of local contacts.

I know it sounds a bit 80s-garage-band-ish, but you could try posting flyers on the bulletin boards at the university advertising the formation of a trivia team with your contact information (phone numbers at the bottom which one can rip off). If you pick a game or night to focus on (SIX, Showdown, etc.), you could start with a core that meets one night and then use whoever is interested to spread the word more to friends and faculty on campus.

If you post the flyers with the detachable phone numbers (say, 15-20 on each flyer), then you can go back to the University later and see how many takers there were.

In any case, good luck!

Spoons · **Posted:** Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:31 am

Good to hear about BP's in New Minas. I've seen it up on the Top 20 sites from time to time.

I agree that Boston Pizza doesn't do well with Buzztime. I don't know why--lack of promotion maybe? Heavy staff turnover, meaning staff that doesn't know about the game or doesn't care? I know of at least three BP's in Calgary and one in Edmonton that such questions would apply to. And yes, they ended up getting rid of the game.

Anon has a good suggestion. Maybe also see if your BP's itself would let you promote, say, a Tuesday night showdown team, with posters in the bar itself; or at the host station to catch those going into the restaurant side.

Falcon · **Posted:** Thu Aug 05, 2010 9:02 pm

Just for the record, this site no longer has NTN as of June 2010. It and the other Boston Pizzas in NS and NB followed the pattern that Steve noted above, except that ours lasted a year and a half. The manager said he might get it back in the fall for QB1, as they are trying to be more of a sports bar, but I have my doubts, as they did nothing to encourage playing it last fall.
Alas, now there are no places to play closer than Halifax, two hours away from my home, and only 2 locations left there.

New Scaratings

Boston Pizza, New Minas, N. S.

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