Murphy's Pub


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Murphy's Pub

1928 N 45th St
Seattle WA 98103
(206) 634-2110
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About Murphy's Pub

On May 18, 1981, a year after Mt. St. Helen's blew, Seattle's first Irish bar opened: Murphy's Irish Pub. That's right. We've been around for more than thirty years. When Chris Barnes and Dan Cowan originally opened Murphy's, it stood where Starbucks stands today, a half a block to the east (a Radio Shack stood on the corner of 45th and Meridian, where Murphy's is today). Dan left shortly after (and went on to open The Tractor Tavern in Ballard), while Chris slowly built a Seattle institution. For years, its stage was host to the nationally syndicated Sandy Bradley's Potluck, a sort of Prairie Home Companion of Seattle, featuring traditional old-time American music, ragtime and blues to movie cartoon sound tracks and novelty songs. Being the first Irish pub, it managed to log a few firsts along the way: the first bar in Seattle to start a St. Patrick's Day tradition, the first bar in Seattle to pour micro brews from the tap (Redhook opened in Fremont in 1982), and first in the hearts of its patrons all the way. On February 12th, 2015, Murphy's Pub reopened under new management and ownership. The new crew is Phil and Chelley Bassett, and Eamonn Davey. After the much needed facelift, you'll find that Murphy's is still pretty much the same: a bar in the Irish tradition, where you can chit chat with friends over a Guinness or Murphy's and other great Northwest beers, dine on great tasting food, listen to some live music a few nights a week (Irish music jam session on Mondays), and just relax after a long day.

QUIZ RECAP

Tue Dec 12 2017
| by Quizmaster Max Needle
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Happy first night of Hannuka! Despite having a Hannuka round, none of the questions are "What are the three accepted spellings of this holiday?" The fire was burning in the central stone fireplace of Murphy's, and the Christmas tree on the stage allowed me to read the questions with in a clear backlight. Our winning team, Trump U, blasted off with two double-or-nothings, one of them being the cartoon villains. I personally loved the math problem in the Hannukah round ("How many candles total are used during the holiday of Hannukah?"). The final round was cool and probably upsetting to 90% of the teams who thought Ariane Grande was in the top-10-earning women in music this year; the big surprises were Barbara Streisand and J. Lo. All in all, it was a pretty tight game until the last two rounds. I had a lot of fun and so did the teams! All the best, -- Quizmaster Max

Game Rank Team # Team Name Score Teams Beaten Team Beat Average
1 11603 Trump University: Summa Covfefe 64 15 1.000
2 Pastafarians 44 14 0.933
3 True Blue 43 13 0.867
4 2nd best losers 40 11 0.767
4 Ziggy Starbux 40 11 0.767
6 We're here for the beer 39 9 0.633
6 This team is trivial 39 9 0.633
8 tacos tacos tacos 35 8 0.533
9 10728 Direwolves 33 7 0.467
10 10130 Bed, Bath, and Beyonce 31 3 0.300
10 Inspirationless 31 3 0.300
10 Mayonegg 31 3 0.300
10 We can stumble home from here 31 3 0.300
14 1000 miles to nowhere 27 2 0.133
15 11874 No Moore 25 1 0.067
16 Vegas Bound 18 0 0.000

QUIZ RECAP

Tue Dec 5 2017
| by Quizmaster Max Needle
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We had a great set of questions on Tuesday night. Eleven out of sixteen teams got at least 5/6 correct in the first round, with Bed Bath & Beyonce, 2nd to Last Judgements, and Yo! all succeeding with double-or-nothing. The second round (pictures of vehicles from TV shows) was also very successful. I was surprised to see almost every team identify the police car from Stranger Things without having a magnifying glass on hand to read "Hawkins" on the car door. In the guess-the-famous-person round, 3/4 of the teams correctly answered Gary Oldman after the 3rd clue. What gave it away -- the Sid Vicious part or the Tinker, Tailor, etc...? The Ex-Laxers had a very triumphant sixth round, matching the general fruit name with the Linnaean genus. Could there have been a pomologist on that team?

Congrats to all who played, and thanks for making Tuesday night special! See you next week, -- Quizmaster Max

Game Rank Team # Team Name Score Teams Beaten Team Beat Average
1 10130 Bed Bath and Beyonce 55 15 1.000
2 Thor's Hammer 46 14 0.933
3 Varun's Vikings 45 13 0.867
4 11603 2nd to last judgements 44 11 0.767
4 11874 Yo! 44 11 0.767
6 Team Dig Dug 42 9 0.633
6 True Blue 42 9 0.633
8 Ex-Laxers 41 7 0.500
8 Team Chrisgivingka 41 7 0.500
10 13110 Team Neckface 37 6 0.400
11 Sayonara Suckers 36 5 0.333
12 Russia Hacked our Answers 35 4 0.267
13 Scotch and Yoda 33 3 0.200
14 Soundaaaaars 28 2 0.133
15 Horse walks into a bar 26 1 0.067
16 Badass Bitches 11 0 0.000

QUIZ RECAP

Tue Nov 28 2017
| by Quizmaster Max Needle
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Tuesday was rainy until 7:30 rolled around for trivia and the sky cleared up to make Seattle a beautiful night. The stage (on which I host the game) was well-lit with a Christmas tree providing an atmosphere of warmth -- although, Murphy's always feels cheerful and warm 🙂

Round 3, "Rivers and Cakes" was a favorite this evening. There were two teams of geologists playing trivia, and BOTH of them successfully doubled-down on the Rivers and Cakes round. Another extremely high scoring round was round 6, "Latin Animal Names." Interestingly, the famous person round (answer: Michelle Pfeiffer) had bi-modal scores of 6 points and 2 points, and I suspect it was generationally split!

I look forward to another great game of trivia next Tuesday night at Murphy's. -- Quizmaster Max

Game Rank Team # Team Name Score Teams Beaten Team Beat Average
1* 10130 Bed Bath and Beyonce 48 10 0.955
1 11874 Chuck and Nancy would rather be here 48 10 0.955
3 Wellingtones 43 9 0.818
4 Mind-Flayers 41 8 0.727
5 Week of Mondays 40 7 0.636
6 10728 Direwolves 34 6 0.545
7 Tullamore Dudes 33 5 0.455
8 Whiskey and Cheeseburgers 31 4 0.364
9 Baby Boo Boo Pie 30 3 0.273
10 Sea Horse 29 2 0.182
11 Team Tim 26 0 0.045
11 Team C'mon 2nd to last place 26 0 0.045
* Won Tiebreaker
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