There’s more than one reason to stop tonight at Ireland’s Four Fields, the Cleveland Park watering hole and gathering place for Irish musicians that’s holding a wake for itself after operating for 34 years. (It used to be called Ireland’s Four Provinces, or the 4Ps.) Here’s one reason: Each week, the bar and restaurant hosted the D.C. area’s most hardcore pub quiz.
While most pub quizzes—-a topic, by the way, that I know way too much about—-involve a host reading questions, the Four Fields kept things simple. Each Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., you picked up a couple of sheets of paper containing 85 or so questions, and raced for the next 90 minutes to answer them. Then, owner Frank Hughes announced the answers and the winners.
Hughes has run the quiz for the last seven or so years, he says, writing the questions himself. He gets ideas “just randomly, off the Internet, in books, stuff like that,” he says. He assembles each week’s quiz “little by little”: “It takes time, believe me,” he says. “It’s time-consuming. It’s a pain in the butt, believe me.”
Hughes says he hasn’t quite figured out his next step once the Four Fields shuts down. “I think I’m either going to find a rich woman or open another place,” he says. “Hopefully a rich woman.”
Tonight’s quiz begins at the usual time. Hughes shared a sample quiz, which you can browse and download below. Answers after the jump.
Questions
Answers
Photo via Flickr user Mr. T in DC