By Briana Leibowicz Turchiaro
Boston University News Service
Three friends spent days researching flag names to get ready for trivia night at Trident Booksellers & Cafe on Newbury Street. They dove into pop culture and brushed up on facts like the number of bones in the human body or the name of the world’s largest river.
But, after they sat down, the very first question broke them: “A popular but now discredited myth about the American flag claims that the first flag was designed and sewn by what Philadelphia seamstress?”
On one Friday night in June, the three girls started Trident’s trivia night as underdogs.
Jordan Slahley, event coordinator at Trident, said she was a regular before she started working at Trident, and the line to get a table was always “crazy.”
“You had to get here at five if you wanted to get in, so it’s always been really popping, honestly,” she said.
The small, two-story bookstore and cafe, founded in 1984, has hosted a trivia night every Friday for at least five years, attracting several participants every week. It’s considered a staple in the Boston community.
The event is free, except for the food and drinks customers can buy during the game. Although the trivia starts at 7:00 p.m., people can start lining up at 5:30 p.m. to try and get a spot since the space has limited seating.
Around 80-90 people participate in trivia, Slahley said, and during the school year as many as 30 people have been turned away due to the limited seating.
Keira Breitenback, a frequent customer at Trident’s trivia night, said the trivia is unique because it has a book-related angle. It doesn’t include sports-related questions, Breitenback said, which attracts a different type of audience.
“It attracts people that take it seriously,” Breitenback said when asked how the Boston community reacts to Trident’s unique approach to Trivia.
Trident’s trivia does not include the typical questions people expect in a normal trivia game. With rounds like “Lit[Literature] or Meme” and “Famous Doggos,” the knowledge needed to be good at Trident’s trivia is niche.
The event is filled with small rituals, such as booing the winner, cheering for the loser and playing music that hints at the answers to questions.
Emily Goyanes, lead bookseller at Trident, said the participants are typically college students. Trident’s trivia is not age-restricted, which is different from most trivia in Boston, which is 21+, since the game is usually held in bars.
“It’s so funny because I’ll see people go off for the most niche rounds,” Slahley said. “We had a Muppets round the other week, and people went crazy when they saw that category. ”
Most people who come to trivia are people coming back instead of newcomers, so the participants are usually very passionate and accustomed to the event, Goyanes said.
“It’s a fun way to connect with people for a short amount of time,” Goyanes said when asked why she thinks Trident’s trivia is so popular among students.
“I feel like people want an excuse to put down their phones but don’t often get it, and I think that trivia is almost an excuse for them,” Sahley said.
At the end of that trivia game, the three friends who started poorly left the game as winners, taking first place for the first time.
