The Wire quiz on Sunday was awesome, but I know some people wanted to play but couldn’t either because of the time or because they couldn’t find a seat. So Friday we’ll do a more intimate version of the same quiz (If you played Sunday, don’t come, cause it’ll be the same questions.) So at 7 p.m. on Friday, I’ll be hosting the Wire quiz at the Ugly American. It was a very fun quiz, so if you’re a big Wire fan and couldn’t make it on Sunday, this is your chance to see what you know. It’s all in the game, yo.
Month: June 2011
Meet Drew Lazor, Who Guest Hosted a Round Wednesday at Black Sheep
We’ve got a couple of guest hosts at quizzo tonight. One of them most of you already know. The Beerlass, aka the Lovely Ginger, will host our opening round at the Rendezvous tonight. Beer Lass is well known in beer circles for repping for Sly Fox, for hosting the IPA girls beer club, and for running her Beerlass blog. Of course, she has also helped me at several Quizzo Bowls.
The other one is not as well known in quizzo circles, but is quite well known in food circles. Drew is the Food and Web editor at the City Paper and creator and editor of the popular Philly food blog Meal Ticket. Drew was so fired up he asked if he could write his own round. I said “Sure.” He’ll host that round tonight at Black Sheep.
I asked Drew a few questions about himself, the best and worst of the local food and drink scene, and what he’d request for his last meal:
1. When did you first become interested in writing about food?
Have definitely always been into food, but mostly the egregious overeating of it until I was assigned the “Feeding Frenzy” restaurant column as a college intern at City Paper. Kinda went from there with it and eventually became the food editor. Now when people ask me what I do I tell them I write articles about cheeseburgers.
2. What’s been the highlight of your career so far?
A few years ago Georges Perrier called me at work and yelled at me for a solid 15-20 minutes because he was upset about a (very positive!) review Trey Popp wrote of Le Bec-Fin, right after it had rejiggered its approach to become more casual. I was so flattered! Seriously. I’m pretty sure he didn’t care who it was who answered the phone, he simply unloaded on my ass because I picked up, but still, I’ll never forget that. GP tore me apart! As far as writing goes I enjoyed writing a long piece about pizza in Philly last summer.
3. Give us three of your favorite restaurants in Philly and a quick reason why.
This is always difficult but I’ll try. Mémé because it’s an honest place and it has bone marrow and fried chicken. Nan Zhou because I like to watch the dudes stretch noodles and slap them on the counter. Bistrot La Minette because it feels like France and I’ve never even been there.
4. What’s the coolest thing about the Philly food scene right now?
All the street food that’s been popping off! All the trucks are great of course but then you’ve got a lot of up-and-coming operations that are outdoor/stationary, like the carts setting up at Garden Variety at 2nd/Poplar. And then the Vendy Awards are happening in July here too. I think it’s cool that it’s growing so quickly.
4b) What’s the lamest thing about the Philly food scene right now?
I’ve been whining about this for years. There is no late-night pho. WHY IS THERE NO LATE-NIGHT PHO PLACE? PLEASE SOMEONE OPEN THIS.
5. You’re being executed at midnight. The warden takes your order at 8 p.m. What are you ordering?
My mom’s lumpia (Filipino egg rolls), my dad’s Yorkshire pudding, my girlfriend’s guacamole, sizzling mussels from Mémé, beef and tripe in chili oil from Han Dynasty, a crab pie from Matthew’s in Baltimore, Arista roast pork sandwich from Paesano’s, Kelly’s burger from Grace Tavern and the entire suckling pig situation from Amada, washed down with a Yards Philly Pale Ale, a Ballast Point Sculpin, a Penicillin from The Franklin and anything with bourbon in it from Southwark. Then Sour Patch Watermelons. And a Twix. With water. Whole lotta water.
Thanks Drew. We’ll see ya tonight!
Question of the Week
According to the Clancy Brothers Song “Beer Beer Beer”, what was the name of the man who invented beer?
Bounty Bowl at City Tap House Tonight
We start the JGT Summer Invitational tonight at O’Neals at 8 p.m. $3.50 margaritas and a $50 certificate for the winner. On to the City Tap House, which has been a lot quieter since the kids ran home to the hills. That means that getting your hands on the richest bounty in the city just got quite a bit easier. I’ll put it this way: 3rd place last week scored 48 points, and got a $25 gift certificate. $3 Sly Fox and a great pizza special. Not to mention that anyone who can knock off L. Ron Hubbard’s Diabetics will earn an extra $15 in prizes. That’s on top of the insane $100 first place certificate. I would highly recommend you making an appearance at the CTH tonight.
Oh Snap! JGT Invitational Combines with City vs. City Smackdown!
So we kick off the 2nd annual JGT Summer Invitational tonight at O’Neals and City Tap House. You know how the scoring works…but there are a couple of major wrinkles this time.
The Top 15 teams after 8 weeks will earn an invite. However, there will be a 9th week for a few “wild card teams” to do so. More on that later. Any team that scores 16 or more points in the following 8 weeks will have an opportunity at the $100 bonus drawing. There will once again be opportunities provided though both wins, physical challenges at various quizzos, and facebook challenges to earn points.
Each of the following 8 weeks will have a different theme. We start this week with Food and Drink. The other 7 themes will be (in no particular order. Working on guest hosts for some rounds now. Will let you know once I get calendar lined up):
- Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll
- Denver Rules (we’ll play by the rules the Geeks Who Drink play by in Denver).
- I Heart the 2000s Week
- Sports and Entertainment
- The Humanities
- Pictures, Mysteries, and Music
- Ladies Week
In addition, you’ll be able to score points by playing Koob and Kristy’s quizzes on Pop Culture. The Main Event will go down on Sunday, August 7th at National Mechanics (3rd between Market and Chestnut). But this will be more than just an event for local pride and glory; you’ll also be representing the city of Philadelphia, as we will be going City vs. City with Denver, Albuquerque, and Nashville. Our Top 10 scores will be averaged against their top 10 scores, with the winner gaining the bragging rights and the rights to name the Trophy. That’s right, there will be a trophy handed out to the winning city, and the winning city gets to name that trophy. The trophy will retain that name in perpetuity. So if you don’t want to be playing in the future for the Eddie George Cup or the Dog the Bounty Hunter Cup or some other such foolishness, be ready to bring your A-game. There are a couple of other cities that we’re currently discussing this with, so don’t be surprised to see a few more towns enter the mix as we move forward.
I REALLY WANT THE BEST TEAMS TO PLAY (Jams, Lambda, I’m looking at you). The winning city not only gets the glory, but they will get to name the Local Legend Cup. Don’t do it for yourselves. Don’t do it for me. Do it for your city. City vs. City Smackdown: It’s on.
Fayette Crew Mafia Almost Perfect at Wire Quizzo
The Fayette Crew Mafia won The Wire quiz at POPE on Sunday night in what can only be described as a sheiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit show. It was a packed house, standing room only, and it was filled with people who are freaks about The Wire. I mean, I thought I knew the show, but these people really knew the show. The Fayette Crew Mafia got 39 out of 40 correct, plus all 4 bonuses, for an all time high score of 124. The only one they missed, they described who I was looking for but couldn’t think of the guys name (and it was a question about Baltimore, only partially about The Wire). The Dickensian Aspect of Cheese Faced Bitches and Some Shameful S*** tied for 2nd with a 109. The rest of the scores are posted after the jump. If there is enough demand I will rehost the same quiz later this week (maybe Friday?). Let me know if you want to play. I know a lot of people tried to play but it was just too packed.
Continue reading “Fayette Crew Mafia Almost Perfect at Wire Quizzo”
Coolest Photo You’ll See All Day
Doesn’t this look like a Tim Burton movie set? It’s actually Schmidt’s Brewery. I posted a 1970s Schmidt’s ad on the Phillysportshistory site that’s pretty cool and started doing some research on Schmidt’s. What you’re seeing above is the entrance to their brewery, where the Piazza at Schmidt’s now stands. Here’s some info, courtesy of the awesome Philaplaces website (you’ll also find some more great photos there):
Poised on the boundary between Northern Liberties and Kensington, this sprawling 15-acre site was home to Schmidt’s, Philadelphia’s largest and most famous brewery, established in 1860. Schmidt’s was the last survivor of Philadelphia’s brewing industry, closing down in 1987 after over 125 years and leaving Philadelphia without a brewery for the first time in 300 years. Schmidt’s Beer — and its tenacity — was a point of pride for all Philadelphians. The Schmidt’s closure signaled once and for all the end of Philadelphia’s industrial era.
Wire, Sci-Fi Quizzes Tonight
This Wire quiz has taken on a life of its own, as it seems to have created more buzz than any other quiz I’ve ever done. I’ve given the details out earlier, but here’s the Cliff Notes of what you need to know: Event starts at the POPE at 7. I would suggest you get there by then. It’s going to fill up early. I’m working on it now, and I think it’s gonna be a good one. But definitely get there early. We’ll get started around 8:30 or so.
If Sci-Fi is your thing, a good night for that as well, as Mike Minion is hosting a Sci-Fi quiz tonight at the Ugly American. Questions on classics as well as the hilariously bad. He’ll also have a set of the first 3 Alien movies to give away. That starts at Ugly American at 8 p.m.
The 2nd Annual Summer Invitational
Hard to believe, but it’s time for the 2nd annual JGT Summer Invitational. It starts next week. I’m still working on venue and band, but this one is gonna be the greatest Invitational yet. I’m gonna have celebrity hosts the next few weeks, as well as a little stand up comedy between rounds at the Bards.
There’s also going to be a bit of a wrinkle. Each week will be a new theme. There will be a Sports and Entertainment Week, a I Heart the 90s Week, a Denver Pub Quiz Rules Week, a Science and Technology Week, and so on. We start next week with out Food and Drink quiz. In honor of Beer Week, all questions will be food and drink related.
I’m also going to be hosting some special quizzes throughout the summer, in addition to Mike’s special quizzes at Ugly American and Koob and Kristy’s special quizzes at Drinkers, which will also count towards points. And only the top 15 qualify. Gonna be quizzes in just about every category imaginable this summer, and it all starts Sunday, with me hosting the Wire quiz at POPE and Mike hosting the Science Fiction quiz at Ugly American. Both start at 8 p.m. I’ll have more info about the Invitational itself on Monday.
All new physical challenges, all new quizzes, and a lot of surprises. As my kind of douchey college roommate once said, “F*** the bulls***. Let’s do dis!”
Quick Note on the Wire Quiz
Ok, so there’s been some confusion about the Wire quiz at POPE. Here’s the deal: It will be SUNDAY. The North Coast kegs will be tapped at 7 p.m., so that’s when they event officially begins. I won’t be hosting quizzo right off the bat though. There’s gonna be some time for people to come in and get settled and grab a beer. We are expecting a huge crowd, and I suspect it will be packed pretty quickly. If you want to play on Sunday, I suggest you get there at 7 p.m. Seriously, this is going to be a sold out gig, so don’t come wandering in at 8 p.m. and think you’re gonna get seated. It could happen, but I’ll be shocked if it does. We will probably start the quiz around 8:30 or so. I know some places say 9, but if we’re packed by 8 there’s not need to wait another hour. My point is simple: be there no later than 7 p.m. Otherwise, you probably won’t get a seat. And then you’ll be like “Sheeeeeeeeeeeit.”
The good news is that the demand for this is so high we’ll probably do another one in the next couple of months.