Bar owners ask this question constantly, and they rarely get a straight answer. Trivia companies say yes because they're selling something. Bar owners who've had a bad experience say no because they're burned. Bar owners who've never tried it say maybe because they don't have enough information to decide. None of those answers are actually useful. Here's a straight answer — including the situations where trivia night is genuinely worth it, the situations where it probably isn't, and what the...

The host is the most important variable in whether a bar trivia night succeeds or fails. Better than any other single factor — better than the venue, the night of the week, the question difficulty, or even the marketing — the quality of the person holding the microphone determines whether players come back the following week or quietly decide to find a different trivia night. Most bar owners understand this intuitively. What they don't always understand is what separates a great trivia host...

Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States and one of the most complex bar and restaurant markets in the country. The metro sprawls across an enormous geographic footprint — from central Houston neighborhoods like Montrose, Midtown, and the Heights to suburban communities in Humble, Spring, Cypress, Magnolia, Conroe, and Royal Oaks — and the venue owners operating across that footprint face a customer base that is diverse, discerning, and has genuinely excellent options on any...