Ri Ra Pub50 Exchange TerraceProvidence272.1953
Let's face facts: You're a pretty smart individual. Sure, you aren't going to get a genius grant any time soon, but you're pretty cranially gifted. You just know you could take that Jennings kid on any day - if only he would come and take up the gauntlet. In fact, maybe you could even be the next Jennings ... if only they had "Jeopardy!" auditions in Rhode Island. Then you could show 'em. You KNOW you could.
How to salve your bruised ego after a long hard day of being stuck to by The Man? Look no further than the heart of Downcity for proof that you've still got it - and not an "it" that can be learned in a book, either. The cozy Irish pub tucked into its lower-level berth between Exchange Terrace and Memorial Boulevard is comfortably full every night with 20-somethings in unpretentious button-downs and older, louder regulars in large groups, but what really draws the crowds in is Tuesday's pub trivia competition. At the stroke of 8:30, a buxom quizmistress with an unidentifiable lilt brings the pain with eight rounds of random and often delightfully obscure trivia questions. Drinks forgotten, teams of up to five members with silly, punnish names bend over the golden wood tables to rack their brains for the artist behind the 1970s novelty hit Hot Butter, the only two movies ever to receive Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress noms for the same character, and the five Summer Olympics host cities whose names start with the letter M. Scores go up after each round to allow patrons to see how much that Name That Tune bout helped or hurt their team. The winners eventually qualify to win a trip to London, where the real pub heavyweights play (forget that Trebek kid). And win or lose, the Guinness (or surprisingly adept mixed drinks) is there to light your way home.
No one deserves to feel stupid. Ri Ra is here to help. (And by the way, the answers to the above questions are: Hot Butter, "Titanic" and "Iris," and Moscow, Melbourne, Montreal, Mexico City and
