Flounders: Prince Chunk

Update: Read our second review of Flounders here.

Tonight we went to Flounders, the new venue for Local Option‘s regular trivia host, Rex.  Local Option canceled their trivia night a few months back, but fear not Local Option fans!  Trivia is basically the same at Flounders as it was at Local Option, just in a cheaper, less classy joint.  Good news for those of you who are feeling this economic crisis; bad news for those of you who love Delirium Tremens.

It costs $5 a person to play.  The second place team gets their entry fee back, and the winning team gets the rest of the pot.   The best team name also gets a free round of shots.  This week the winning team name was Team Flick My Bean.  I was not a fan of them or their name.  We were Team Prince Chunk, naming ourselves after a 40 pound cat originally named Princess Chunk by the Humane Society  because they couldn’t find his junk under all that chunk.

The website advertises some pretty good specials.  Unfortunately, our waitress denied that these specials existed, so order with caution.  The food was your standard bar food: burgers, sandwiches, salads.  I had chili (yes, in the summer!) and it was delish.

Before

After

We kinda have a love/hate relationship with the host, Rex.  Our main beef with him is that he doesn’t know when to quit.  During music rounds he plays way too much of the songs.  Also, when he asks a trivia question, he often ends up giving away way too many clues.  For example, tonight he asked which singer do the Huxtable kids lipsync to in an episode of the Cosby Show.  He then proceeded to sing the song.  And he then mentioned that the singer’s first name was Ray.  Lame.

Still, he’s a super friendly guy who clearly loves his job.  To that I say congrats, Rex, you’re livin’ the dream.

Trivia was played in 7 rounds: 2 general knowledge rounds, a matching round, a picture round, a music round, an awesome round all about the Cosby Show, and one final general knowledge round that was worth double points.  This week the matching round required us to match presidents with their number (give it up for #44!).  The music round featured music from 2001 and included songs by Evan and Jaron, KC and Jojo, and Shaggy.  Sigh.  It was pretty great.  I heart Evan and Jaron.

We were in the lead going into the final round but ended up tying for second place.  We lost the tiebreaker: how many championship rings does Phil Jackson have?  Even though we got it wrong, we thought it was a pretty blasé question to ask as a tiebreak.  I thought a more interesting question might have been: on what appendages does Phil Jackson display his 12 rings?  But no one asked me.

Despite our disappointing finish, I had a great time.  There were a lot of shoulda woulda coulda questions for us…last minute we ended up erasing our correct answer and writing in an incorrect answer.  And I think that’s a sign of a great trivia night.  It’s a challenge but still within reach.  That also means we’re definitely within striking distance.  So prepare to hand us your cash next time we come to Flounders.

Flounders Bar and Grill
2201 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago
$5 admission
8-10:30pm
2.5 paws (out of 4)