Chuck the Writer says Bye Bye to Old Chicago

Man, did I kill another trivia bar?

The Old Chicago sports bar that opened in the summer of 2007 on Wolf Road in Colonie, and who offered Tuesday (and sometimes Thursday) night trivia was never the kind of place that would replace my Tuesday Night Trivia at the dearly departed Hooters, but it did have its own charm.

And it didn't take long for me to pick up win after win after win at the OC. Food wasn't anything to write home about, but I did like the fact that they set up a special single-person "champion's table" for me, halfway between the regular restaurant and the ancillary "Great Hall" that was also used for concerts.

Several of the veteran Hooters teams showed up at the OC, including Lynch's Mob, Clay Aiken's Skidmarks, Pimps from Oakland (rebranded as "A Few Cards Short of a Deck" and AtTax. Other teams popped in from time to time, including Tres Hombres and Pork is a Verb. Old Chicago did draw some new teams, including Surf Tulsa (who at one time invited me to their home trivia parlor, Noche, where I summarily won - before Noche shut down a few days later), Granny's One Night Stand, Bunga Bunga, Two Fat Guys, IDK, See You Next Tuesday (did they know their team's initials spelled SYNT?), Team Ramrod, Team Rawr, and My Couch Pulls Out (which in the past few weeks went through a name-change identity crisis of Paddle Faster I hear Banjos and Shut the Duck Up).

However, barely a year into its existence the ownership group for the Albany OC franchise declared Chapter 11. The restaurant stayed open for another six months, and I just heard that the place closed its doors over the weekend.

So let me see how this fits into Chuck's "I've Outlasted Your Trivia Parlor" scorecard -

HOOTERS (2005-07, won Trivia Bowl Championship and several first-places)
OLD CHICAGO (2007-08, won several times)
NOCHE (2007, won the only time I played there)
RECOVERY ROOM (still in existence, but I won so many times that other people complained and the management decided I was bad for business).

So whether or not I stay home on Tuesday nights (Brown's on Wednesdays and Elbo Room on Thursdays are still on), my choices for Trivia on Tuesday nights are McGeary's Pub (Irish bar downtown near Arbor Hill, decent parking availability), M Barley's on Madison and Quail (haven't been there since it was the meat market bar Lamp Post, probably no parking but decent neighborhood), and Pinhead Susan's (no way am I going to Schenectady for trivia unless they're offering money prizes).

Ah, decisions, decisions, decisions...