West Side Tap House is a great little location in West Salem. (And that is saying a lot because I don't usually like braving the bridge!) It opened a few years ago in the little strip mall on Edgewater at the end of Eola. I've enjoyed hanging out there over the years, especially on summer evenings when the side patio is the prime seating location as the sun goes down and the day cools off.
I've always liked the vibe at West Side Tap House. It has a kind of industrial/modern feel, which is nice and somewhat classy in a way, but still laid back. The clientele is usually a mix of ages (which I tend to appreciate), and pretty tame and relaxed. There are a ton of taps with so many choices including beer, of course, cider, and even kombucha. They also have a few wine selections. I always enjoy hanging out there with family or friends for a tasty drink with good conversation.
So when I recently found out that West Side had a Monday night trivia night, I was in! I'm not great at trivia, but I still have fun trying and having a night out with friends.
I had tried out the trivia night two times in the last few weeks, and this week was my third. I arrived early, about 6:30pm, to attempt to secure a table for our group. But, I found that 6:30 was too late as all the tables were taken. I should have known because I had tried 6:30 the week before and had some problems too. I threw my stuff on a couple chairs at the bar to save some seats, and then checked out the tap list.
Well, actually I was checking it out for the second time because I had already checked out the tap list at home :). My brother, who is the ultimate planner, taught me that tip. West Side has their entire selection on their website, complete with bar graphs showing how full each keg is!! That is one of my favorite parts about this place! I hate making decisions in the moment, especially when I sometimes need to research ingredients (...food allergies...), so browsing before I go is perfect.
I had been considering Wandering Aengus's "Wanderlust," which I saw had just been tapped that evening. Sidebar - Wandering Aengus is a local cider company in Salem! Note to self - schedule some time to go do a tasting there ASAP! I researched it to see that it was made up entirely of apples and no other added crap, but I wasn't quite sure if I would like it, so I asked for a sample. I totally recommend sampling! It's free and then you don't end up with a huge glass of something you don't like! Wanderlust was my jam, not too sweet and not to dry, so I ordered a pint and set in waiting for the rest of my crew to show up.
I started filling out our paperwork and made the executive decision of naming us the Concurring Penguins (since no one was there to object!). I had brought along a book to read while I waited, but instead I decided to do some last minute cramming for trivia. They always release the trivia topics on Facebook on Sunday night. I'm not on facebook, but luckily I have a friend who is great about telling us the topics so we can study. So I sat at the bar and scrolled through facts about Spring, the one topic I thought I could perhaps cram successfully for.
Pretty soon Friend #1 showed up and perused the tap list herself. I was feeling a bit iffy about the spot I had secured for us at the bar because we were going to both be squished, yet paradoxically not close enough together to be able to discuss our answers well. But right about the time that I was fretting, I noticed a couple pick up their belongings and move to leave. I quickly sat at their table and yelled at Friend #1 to move her stuff over. I was happy :) And next time I will arrive earlier to be safe!
Another thing I should mention about West Side Tap House is the fact that they do not serve food (besides containers of nuts and pretzels, etc that are free for the grabbing), but they allow you to bring any food you'd like in. This means that (if you're like me) you can even cook your own dinner at home and then brown bag it to the tap house! Or you can stop and grab something along the way. OR, you can do what it seems like the majority of people there do - have a pizza delivered to you right there in the tap house! I actually really like this feature. I don't really like eating out (...food allergies...) and sometimes that hampers my fun or keeps me away from an establishment. But this way I can bring my own food and have a good time!
So I pulled out my homemade dinner and started to dig in. As 7:00pm rolled around, Friend #2 & Friend #3, our last two teammates rolled in at just the right time for the game to start. They both grabbed drinks to go along with their dinners they had brought along, and the first category was on! We started out with five questions about "Southern Rock Classics." While we weren't totally knowledgeable, we managed to do ok, mostly because you get to decide how much each of your answers are worth, from 1-5 points. That let us put our most sketchy answers as just worth 1 point and 2 points.
(Note - if you've done trivia here in the past, they've switched the rules! The first time I went, you had to turn in each answer slip right as you answered it, and you had to give it a point value at that time. That made it difficult because you were blindly guessing how hard the future questions were going to be! Now you have one whole answer sheet per category, and you get to hold onto it until the end of the category. That makes strategizing which question is worth what point value much easier! And you don't have to run every answer up to the quiz master each time either! I love that they changed it!!)
From there we moved onto the category of "Spring." I found that my random facts weren't much help, but again we managed to hold our own. At least I knew spring happens in September in the southern hemisphere! At the end of the first half, we were in the middle of the pack.
After a short break, the second half started. For this half, the questions were now worth double (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 points). Unfortunately the first category of the second half was "Quentin Tarantino Movies," and none of us felt good about that. I myself have seen approximately zero of his movies so I was no help...besides moral support. While Friends 2 & 3 had seen some of his movies, we still struggled and got few points. Last up was "Pot Luck," which I guess is just the trivia way of saying what Jeopardy calls "Potpourri." We had to take some guesses here and again struggled.
When the scores were read, we were sad to hear that the Concurring Penguins were in last place, especially since last week we got second place overall and won a $10 giftcard! The last stage of trivia night is the final question. You can wager anything from zero points up to all the points you have. We tend to be the "all or nothing" group. And this night was no different...especially since we were in last place...even though the category was, again, Quentin Tarantino movies! Arg! I turned in our wager and we awaited the question. It was, "According to two Tarantino movies, where's the worst place on the body to get shot?" We had no idea and debated various places. We finally settled on "anywhere" and turned in our guess.
Well, the correct answer was the kneecap. Dang it, that was one of our options we discussed. We ended up with zero points, but lots of other teams failed too, so we were in a four way tie for last place.
Last place does get a consolation prize though. You get to pick from a grab bag (well, we didn't actually get to do that this time, I bet because there were too many losers), but even better than that, you get to pick one of the topics for next week! The first week I went, we also lost (go big or go home, right?) and picked the topic of "Downtown Salem" for the next week - which ended up being really fun! This time we mulled it over a bit and decided to pick "Children's Lit," because I feel pretty good about that category and we're hoping our teacher friend who will be on spring break next week will join us!
We wrapped up the night, gathered our things, and headed out. I drove up the hill to my parents' house to grab some flower seeds from my dad (seriously, when you're in west Salem, get all your West errands done at once! It always feels so far away even though it's not), and headed home. If I manage to actually get those flowers to grow on my back patio, it will be a miracle (I did not inherit my dad's green thumb) worthy of instagram. Follow me there @urbanlivingsalemor
Even though we lost, it was a fun night as always. We will be back! I hope to see you and your trivia team there too :)
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