Trivia, bingo, board games and other game nights have become increasingly popular in Bellingham as people are looking for weeknight activities. Restaurants have begun to offer them as a way to bring in customers during the week.
Game nights offer a community activity to enjoy while going out for food and drinks. This has helped restaurants create a weekly spot for friends and families to meet and compete.
Whether it is bingo at Corner Taphouse, trivia at Stones Throw Brewing Co., or playing board games at Nelson's Market, there are a variety of options available.
Trivia nights were started at Stones Throw Brewing Co. in 2019 by owner Tony Luciano but after taking a vacation he asked Tim Crandell to take over for him and since then Crandell has run the weekly trivia nights.
Stones Throw trivia starts at 7 p.m. every Thursday and requires a $2 buy-in to play. Most trivia nights average around 100 players, with teams up to four. Players compete in a game lasting eight rounds, each round a different category.
“There are no themes for the night,” Crandell said. “Geography, science, history, famous people. There is always a picture round and a music round.”
Crandell aims to make each trivia night unique and present a wide range of categories so more people have a chance at winning. The prize for first place is two-thirds of the money from the buy-in pot, second place receives the leftover one-third, and third place gets a pint glass. Even last place gets a bonus.
“The lowest-scoring team always gets to choose a category for next week,” Crandell said. “So hopefully they come back and they have a little bit of a lift.”
Corner Taphouse welcomes in customers to enjoy a drink in Bellingham, Wash., on May 3, 2024. The taphouse offers weekly Bingo games every Wednesday at 7 p.m. // Photo by Miles Vander Vennet
If you aren't into trivia, bingo nights are another option. Corner Taphouse bingo started in January 2024 when business was slow and they needed a night to help bring in guests.
“Bingo got started out of necessity,” Teigan Peace, general manager at Corner Taphouse said. “I was looking at Wednesdays, thinking of some sort of event that would fit into Wednesdays and bring in people to hang out at the taphouse.”
With Bellingham being home to a wide variety of breweries, businesses like Corner Taphouse rely on these weekly game nights to bring in customers.
“Without events, it’s a drastic change in business,” Peace said. “We realized here we need a little incentive to bring people in because on any given night if there wasn’t an event it would be a slow night.”
Corner Taphouse enhanced their bingo nights by hosting a Bingo for a Cause event once a month that gives $1 from every beer or glass of wine to the charity of that month's event.
Nelson’s Market open for breakfast on the morning of May 4, 2024 in Bellingham, Wash. Nelson’s Market hosts board game nights every Monday at 6 p.m. // Photo by Miles Vander Vennet
If trivia and bingo aren’t your thing, Nelson’s Market has Monday board game nights, starting at 6 p.m.
Board game nights at Nelson’s Market were started by Lucas Warford after he moved to Bellingham from Oregon. He is passionate about hosting board game nights and was looking for a place in town to get an established weekly night going.
“It was important for me to find a place that wasn’t a board game shop but a public space where people could show up,” Warford said. “Nelson’s was really into the idea and it has been going for about a year and a half now.”
Warford believes board game nights give people a better chance to connect compared to game nights like trivia.
“It’s an amazing way to get to know people. You get to learn about the people you play games with every week; how their minds work, what they think about,” Warford said. “Especially for people with social anxiety, who have a hard time going out, it’s an amazing structured hang time.”
Grant Law, a regular at the game nights, came across the event through a local Discord group. Finding the board game nights helped him integrate into the community. After a while, he found himself helping out on the weekly nights.
“When I first moved here, I didn’t know anybody so immediately it was a community,” Law said. “I enjoyed organizing, hosting, and helping facilitate events. It’s nice to be able to identify when people are coming in, greeting them, making sure there are a variety of games available and the structure of the evening making sure everyone is involved.”
More information about current weekly game nights can be found on the Bellingham events calendar.
Miles Vander Vennet (he/him) is a city life reporter for The Front. He is a junior transfer student and is going into the public relations major. In his free time he likes playing video games, going on hikes with his dog and playing basketball and lacrosse. You can contact him at milesvandervennet.thefront@gmail.com.
