Local Event Gains Regional Following

By Barbara Perkins
What is a female rabbit called? St. Patrick is said to have cast what out of Ireland? What is the name of the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean? Krusty the Clown is featured on what TV show? Brotherhood, Revelations, Black Flag & Unity are all title from what video game series?

Answer: Trivia Night. If you have driven through Norfolk on a Tuesday night you might think some big name performer must be in town…at least if you judge by the number of cars parked in Station Place. And, you would be wrong. Tuesday night is Trivia Night at the Wood Creek Bar and Grill.

According to Heidi Dinsmore, owner of “the Pub” as it’s colloquially known, trivia started as “just a fun little thing we could do in the bar.” Going on to say that maybe it would be a way to get people out on a night they usually stay home. Little did she know it would evolve into the number one way to beat the winter blues and take over the whole restaurant by mid-spring.

During a trip to Vermont, Heidi and husband Mike visited a local watering hole that was hosting a trivia night, and as Heidi put it, “ I couldn’t believe how the place was packed and people, all sorts of people, were having a great time, and it was midweek and the weather was lousy. I knew we needed to try this in Norfolk.”

After weeks of combing through listing and calling around, the local solution came from Norfolk natives Justin and Katie Vagliano in the form of Bruce Paddock and his company Berkshire Trivia. Bruce hosted trivia for a fundraiser Justin attended and with a single call Trivia Night was on. When asked about his own history with trivia, Bruce gave a story similar to Mike and Heidi’s. He was on a vacation, stopped in for dinner, it was trivia night…and the rest is history. Bruce, a self-professed trivia junkie dating back to 6th grade even met his wife playing trivia!

Initially a small handful of teams and even a solo player player or two would sit in the bar and play. Winners took home gift certificates for a future visit to Wood Creek (1st place – $40, 2nd place – $30, 3rd place $20). Stop in now and both the bar and restaurant are hopping with an average of 15 teams (no more than 6 to a team please), with players coming not just from Norfolk but Winsted, Canaan and Torrington too.

On any given Tuesday an absolute cross-section of northwest corner residents from attorneys, to artists, to teachers, to engineers can be found scribbling out answers to questions on topics ranging from current events, TV, geography, music, science and literature, and nearly every encyclopedia entry in between.

In case you are wondering, the format is straightforward with 2 halves, each with 3 rounds of 3 questions, and a single-question final round. In the first half, questions are worth 1, 3 or 5 points with teams assigning points based on their level of confidence in their answer. Point values can only be used once per round and are not deducted if the question is answered incorrectly in either the first or second round. In the second half, values jump up to 2, 4 or 6 points. The final question is worth up to 15 points, with teams again assigning a value based on confidence. The key here is that if you get the answer wrong the points are deducted from your final score.

Trivia happens every Tuesday night at 7:00pm at the Wood Creek Bar and Grill. Bruce/Berkshire Trivia is available for parties, fundraisers, special events, restaurants, etc. and can be reached at Berkshire.trivia@gmail.com.

Answers: Doe, Snakes, Strait of Hormuz, The Simpsons, Assassins Creed.

Photos by Bruce Frisch.