New Scaratings

When Fabulous Fern's shut down, Minnesota's most distinguished Showdown team, its pedigree stretching back to the Norman Conquest, was exiled to the wilderness. The players wandered thither and yon, trying Ol' Mexico, Jimmy's Grill, Mad Jack's (no longer a site), possibly Wild Bill's Woodbury (ditto), before landing at Sweet Peas Public House in Highland Park, a neighborhood in the SW corner of St Paul. Sweet Peas is about seven miles from the MSP airport. The site is only a few months old. It's gathering favorable reviews for food, drink and atmosphere.

When the GM asked the Showdown players what he could do to improve their experience, they requested more tablets. Within a week, Buzztime had installed a second rack.

I've postponed mentioning the place until I had a plausible excuse to visit it myself, and I still haven't.

The motivation to mention it now? Last night (Thursday 5.30.19) Sweet Peas showed up on the Final Top 20 for an individual performance. KENT, whose home site is in Henderson NV, and seems to split his time between Sin City and Palm Springs CA, has recently played at several sites around Minneapolis, including one (JD's Sports Page, in North Branch MN) that I'd never heard of. He's a daily player, more or less, with 31M Players+ Points, and going into last night's play had only one medal (Gold) on his six-month resume. He doubled that by collecting a bronze from Immortal Words, with a fine 9800. Well played, Sir!

Well played, BO, who ran the quiz for a perfect 10K.

Sounds like a great place that all BWW managers need to read about to learn some marketing and customer service. Just the fact of asking what could be done is astounding. Then getting BT to do it quickly is a miracle. Guess I'm just used to BWW's head down, don't care, slowness.

Seen KENT from Vegas for years on the boards. He travels a bunch, came through the DC area one time a few years back, no one saw him in person.

_________________
BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Thanks GONE D! Maybe we will run into you around the Twin Cities this summer.

BUD, to refresh your memory, KENT and ZERO played with you TAXMAN and others
at Hard Times, 9/22/2010. Good memories.

Oh way back in 2010, right I do remember that time. Lots of beer back then. I was possibly thinking of a more recent sighting?? Did you come back through the DC area since 2010.

_________________
BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

We were at Hard Times in 2011, you were out of town. Through the area at various times in our quest to visit all the National Parks, they keep adding new ones. The last time was 2016.

We didn't waste much time in arranging that meeting. What, two days?

ZERO and KENT came to B-52 on a Monday afternoon, and everyone seemed to get along famously. ZERO, who has a lovely smile, charmed all the boys, so that we're all now in love with her.

KENT is from nearby Amery WI, a farming community I've only visited once, in the company of a woman, Gloria, whom I identified as a one-time runner up in the Miss Amery Contest, held in conjunction with the annual town festival. I gave an approximate date of her participation (1958) and KENT, with only a moment of reflection, was able to identify her maiden name!

I thought this was auspicious, because we were about to be joined by REVE, and between the two men, there were about fifty years of service time as Univac/Unisys employees, and I was curious to hear them swap yarns. But although both of them worked many years here locally, they had no common acquaintances in the company, at least none they were able to identify - a testament, I suppose, to the sprawling nature of the company and its proprietarial firewalls.

Thank's to JOHNL for posting the screenshot from B-52. You'll note that the comfortable social mix resulted in good scores, but that the locals have been struggling to finish off games ever since.

Congratulations to Sweet Peas for besting Team Beth at BWW-MOA for high Minnesota site this week (6.11.19). Further comment under REACH's Showdown Recap for the same date.

Last Tuesday (Oct. 22) KMART and GREY arrived unannounced and somewhat breathless at B-52, just at the start of Showdown. They had gone to Sweet Pea's to play, but the tablets were off-line, and the assistant manager on duty told the players that new ownership deemed Buzztime an unnecessary luxury, and were waiting for Buzztime to retrieve its equipment. Most of the group was sitting around, deciding what to do next, when KMART and GREY departed. The next day BETH wrote a group email that the consensus was to try Ol' Mexico, six miles north. While we're fortunate to have options here, and I've too seldom played at Sweet Pea's, I wasn't content to let the matter rest.

Small business hates losing customers. I asked the old Tailgate and Fab Fern's players, who number over a dozen, as well as the half-dozen players in the Golden Horde, to call the saloon and express their disappointment at no longer being able to enjoy Sweet Pea's hospitality. About ten calls in, the matter was resolved. Look for Sweet Pea's to be back in action tonight.

Great job Dave and others rescuing buzztime at Sweet Pea's.Now,I urge people to play there as much as possible so they see a viable ROI.

Well done, GONE D! While some stiff-necked managers will not be swayed by customer complaints, I have found that the direct approach, as you described, has been effective in reversing location policies.

BUGG is also correct that players should be encouraged to patronize the place as much as they are able to drive the point home.

_________________
Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Sweet Pea's has been a soap opera. The venue attracted most of the old Tailgate crowd, provided sterling service...and then took the death penalty. Sweet Pea's is now in obligation to reapply for its liquor license.

The death penalty in Minnesota depends on multiple instances of serving under-aged drinkers, serving after the 2 AM curfew, or what's locally known as the dram shop law, when a licensee serves an obvious drunk, who returns to the street and incapacitated, commits a vehicular crime. Sweet Pea's promises to re-obtain its liquor license soon - as it must to survive.

Ouch, not good, probably bartenders not paying enough attention to the age and condition of the patrons. More tips is all they want.

We had this same trouble at Hardtimes Germantown MD back in the good old days. Hardtimes had chains placed on all the doors mid day with the only key being held by the liquor control board inspector. No one allowed back in to turn off TVs, salvage food, put BT boxes back in the chargers (1st priority you know), nothing at all. I think it was 2 or 3 weeks before they were allowed to reopen. There had been trouble on several consecutive weekends prior to the lock down including underage busts, fights and a stabbing. Damn drunk trivia players always making trouble around here.

Is Sweet Peas still open without serving alcohol?

_________________
BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Sweet Pea's is open and serving food, but Buzztime has gone off-line, for the second time in two weeks, according to a two-day old report. The liquor license has not yet been restored.

I must have mentioned somewhere that Sweet Pea's intended to drop Buzztime, but renewed their trivia contract following a call-in campaign.

Both the Golden Horde and the Fab Ferns exiles adore the place. Ars longa, vita brevit.

It really is unfortunate now that they reopened and still no working trivia.They are losing business,including mine and a few friends.Another popular place for trivia Casper's has only 6 working boards.They too may be losing business.It seems like trivia is on the back burner as a priority in many places.

In reply to BUGG: The tablet technology has been superseded at so many levels, most prominently in how restaurants process their transactions, and has in many ways been overextended. Ray J's received ten new tablets last June, and six months later, only six of them are functional. And Ray J's is a powerhouse! Here I'm speaking of the players, rather than the defective equipment those players are obligated to negotiate.

If anyone employed by Buzztime is reading this, please do not construe 6/10 as a passing score.

Way too many extended breakdowns for a viable business. There should be easy solutions to get the systems back working as soon as possible. Also,if a place has good participation I would encourage they have 20 playmakers.That way if a couple boards are down it would not cause a major distraction.Also,it may encourage more team play.Also it seems like some places in Minnesota I play at have enough boards and seldom experience a major problem.