Geeks Who Drink trivia night returns to the Tavern at St. Michael’s Square

The "Scottish Unicorns" deliberate over which landlocked country Lake Titicaca resides in during Geeks Who Drink trivia night at the Tavern at St. Michael's Square. Photo by Gabriel Allen.

By Gabriel Allen for the NoCo Optimist

After working as an account executive for Prairie Mountain Media, Rob Steinberg dons his faded jeans, packs his sticker-coated laptop and stage microphone and heads to the Tavern at St. Michael’s Square — at least on Thursdays. He’s been hosting the weekly Geeks Who Drink trivia night there so long that he has inside-jokes with all of the local factoid fanatics.

He knows the folks who have been coming for a year or two, and he knows the folks who’ve been coming to trivia night for half a decade. 

“If it sounds like I know everyone, it’s because I do,” he said. 

Steinberg represents what the Tavern was always meant to be: a neighborhood bar, a place where everybody knows your name, as the “Cheers” refrain goes. 

That’s part of what has drawn Margo Dempsey, Alexa Huguet, Eric Fisher and Kelly Morris, AKA “the Scottish Unicorns,” out for trivia every week for years. When the event finally returned this month after a coronavirus hiatus, they immediately returned to their old haunt.

Other teams included “The Strawberry Alarm Clocks,” the always sung “This Team is on Fire” and the timely “Vote Early Vote Often.”

“We were so excited,” said Dempsey.

Back in the early aughts, St. Michael’s Square was masterminded by real estate developer Dave Calvin. Calvin built a housing development and accompanying commercial space on the southwestern outskirts of Greeley, hoping to draw business and residents from the growing city. The town square was conceived as a cozy village center that would house locally-owned businesses. 

For a while, that dream was realized. Restaurants, coffee shops and retail businesses proliferated and patrons came from beyond the housing development to visit the bustling square.

But, when the housing bubble burst and the U.S. was sent into a deep recession in 2008, the businesses that were at the heart of St. Michael’s Square shut down. With each shuttered business, the commercial draw of the area decreased. Soon, almost every restaurant and shop front was empty.

But the Tavern at St. Michael’s Square was one of the first to come back. 

In 2010, brothers Brett and Brian Hill, along with head chef, Chad Young, reimagined the space. 

The Tavern at St. Michael's Square serves pub fare, hand fired pizzas and local beer under the direction of Greeley chef and restaurant owner Chad Young. Photo by Gabriel Allen.

“We were the first restaurant to come back and try to build back up the little neighborhood,” said Young, who now owns the restaurant with his wife, Wendi. “I believe we’re just about there now. We’ve got a little salon, a pharmacy and vets office.”

But 2020 brought on the second major U.S. economic crisis of the millenia, this time caused by the coronavirus, and the Tavern at the center of the square found itself in dire straits once again. 

“At one point, we weren’t sure we were going to make it through March,” said Young. 

After receiving money from the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program, a GoFundMe campaign and grants from the Small Business Administration, the Tavern was able to make it through the initial shutdown. 

The future of the restaurant is anything but certain as case numbers continue to climb in Weld County and throughout Colorado, but Young is optimistic that his business will make it through the winter.

“We’re in survival mode right now,” he said. “The goal is to make sure we can pay rent and pay our employees. Breaking even is a goal to strive for right now.”

Geeks Who Drink host Rob Steinberg chats with a patron at the Tavern at St. Michael’s Square. Photo by Gabriel Allen.

The bar has also implemented a regimen of sanitation policies to keep its customers safe. In addition to roping off half the tavern’s tables, condiments are served in single-serve packets, tables are sanitized after each use and high-touch surfaces like door handles are disinfected every hour. Customers are asked to wear masks whenever they are not eating or drinking.

If Thursday’s trivia night atmosphere is any indication, these policies have done nothing to dampen the mood of the Tavern’s loyal patrons. 

Even for Young, trivia night is a welcome respite from the day-to-day worries of being a restaurant owner. 

“My wife and I had been playing (trivia) for several years before we decided to bring it to the Tavern,” he said. “It’s nice to go out and have a couple of drinks and have fun with friends.”

For more 

For more information about Geeks Who Drink at the Tavern at St. Michael’s Square, go to http://www.greeleytavern.com/new-page-3.