Pen & Paper Trivia started almost by accident by Paul Phillips on June 27th of 2013. You are not always the villain of your origin story but, we are. A former roommate of his had answered an ad to start hosting trivia at Renaldi’s Pizza (RIP) and when she had a conflict in her schedule Paul volunteered to fill in for a few weeks. Those “few weeks” were met with a great deal of positive feedback and that is when it was determined that the change would be permanent.
Paul hosted every Wednesday until Covid his in 2020. Thinking that his trivia days were behind him, a few loyal regulars reached out to ask if we could do virtual trivia. So, Pen & Paper trivia went digital for a while raising money for various charities while having fun. When everything started to open back up we started hosting at George St. Pub on August 18th of 2021.
During those 8 years, Paul was always very happy hosting once a week and was concerned about turning his hobby into a job. That is when his wife Rachel said, “Why don’t you actually try to make money on this?” From there, it became our mission to expand. Starting primarily in the neighborhood of Avondale we have since expanded to over a dozen locations throughout the city of Chicago. Although we continue to grow we never forget that it is the people who make our events special and try our best to make sure every event is an experience for you and your team. The greatest part of our week is being part of yours so please come to an event and see what over a decade of decent questions can add to your night out!