Trivia Nights Light Up The Desmond’s Downtown Crowd

Reporter: Takell Woods

PHOENIX- The Desmond's lighting is dim, and loud pop music is playing. Old and young are sitting in the restaurant, some sitting at table tops, eager for the trivia to begin. 

“We started this two years ago, said owner Harrison St. Pierre I make the questions, and we give out some money.” 

The energy is high as customers chat about past questions and hopes for this round, and place their orders for spirits and starters at The Desmond, located at 1 N First St. 

Jessica Nock, a 29-year-old waitress at The Desmond who has worked there for half a year, now enjoys the trivia nights and the vibrancy it bring to the restaurant. 

“While I serve and everything, it brings up the mood and makes it more fun,” said Nock. 

Tuesday’s trivia starts at 8 p.m. Before the trivia started, waitresses and waiters roamed the restaurant. 

During the trivia, the host made jokes about customers and how they had to take advantage of some of the drink specials as an excuse for missing specific questions. The customers took him up on the affordable drink specials, lightening up the mood of the bar. 

St. Pierre said many of his customers attend ASU, most of whom are graduate students. St. Pierre offers a 20% discount to these students. The students came in groups from club activities, like Collin Breischaft and fellow Thunderbird School of Global Management students. 

“We’re also ASU students, and this is our club bonding, so we come here and play trivia,” said Collin Breischaft. 

The owner makes the trivia questions and has no specific categories. Questions ranged from what a limerick is to questioning what type of farm animal a chester white is. 

The audience's reaction to the questions raised some cheerful responses from groups who knew, and some confused stares from groups who did not. 

The group Mikayla Sarnacki was a part of was not one of those groups. The Return of the Prince Harry was the group's name; they are regulars at trivia. 

“It has almost been an entire year, and we come almost every week. We’re pretty average, but we’ve gotten second place like twice. We’re like one of the top two teams, but we never come in first,” said Mikayla Sarnacki. 

In this round of trivia, they came in third place. 

There are always 40 questions asked, with the cash prize varying, depending on the number of players. Tonight, the first-place winner earned $75, and 2nd winner earned a $25 gift card to a neighboring restaurant.

This night, there were around 10 teams, and in between questions, loud music played throughout the bar, along with the Diamondbacks game. 

At the night's end, a team of two elderly couples took home the $75 with 31 points. 

“Some of the bars downtown do trivia, but we have the best trivia in downtown, hands down,” said Harrison St. Pierre.