Inside the culture, chaos, and connection behind Sonoma County’s most beloved trivia night.
On any given Tuesday night at Old Caz Beer, you’ll find something rare.
A room packed shoulder-to-shoulder. Teams huddled around barrels. Someone shouting in celebration. Someone else arguing passionately about the color of Gatorade dumped at last year’s Super Bowl. And somewhere in the middle of it all–microphone in hand–is Rob Saccuzzo.
By now, Rob is something of a local legend. General Manager of Old Caz at SOMO Village, host of the now-150+ episode “Trivia Gauntlet,” and the orchestrator behind some of the most electric community moments in Rohnert Park, his events have grown so popular that people adjust flights and vacations to attend.
But the story didn’t start in a packed event space.
It started in a dusty parking lot.
“I started working at Old Caz in 2020,” Rob recalls. “My first bartending shift was the first night at the old tap room… in November of 2020.”
Back then, Old Caz was small–intimate, scrappy.
“The old tap room was about a quarter of this size… in a dusty parking lot. We only had like 15 taps. There was only three tables indoors.”
And yet, even then, it was packed.
“People would back their truck up to the patio and play trivia in the bed of their truck,” he laughs.
Fast forward to today: a sprawling taproom inside SOMO Village that still somehow feels too small on trivia nights.
“It’s standing room only,” Rob says. “People are huddling with their team of six around a barrel.”
Growth didn’t just come from square footage. It came from intention.
Rob’s trivia isn’t outsourced. It isn’t templated. It isn’t pulled from a subscription service.
“It’s not your grandmother’s trivia night for a reason,” he says.
Where many bars bring in outside hosts, Rob builds every episode himself–six rounds, six questions each–every week.
“When I’m making my schedule, I am allocating all the time in the world to make sure that I’m putting forth the best episode of trivia I can put forward every Tuesday.”
The payoff? Loyalty that borders on devotion.
“People planned their vacations around it,” he says. “We had somebody drive back from Palm Springs the day of to make it in time for the championship night. We’ve had people change their flights so they can be here for a trivia night.”
For Rob, that level of commitment demands reciprocity.
“If people are gonna be that dedicated at attending, then I’m definitely gonna be that dedicated to making sure that I’m putting forth the most entertaining trivia night for them.”
Unlike traditional trivia built from encyclopedias and stock categories, Rob pulls inspiration from everyday life.
“I truly pull it from my own curiosity,” he explains.
A highway sign becomes a question. A Super Bowl moment becomes a prompt. Even Googling what “HOV” stands for can end up on the scoreboard.
“I have a Google Doc backlog… it’s 17 pages long of just forward prompts that will hopefully lead to a question.”
The tone stays playful, unpredictable.
One recent crowd-stumper?
“Purple Mountain’s Majesty is the officially the longest name of what product?”
Tune into the full episode to find the answer!
“It’s not super academic,” Rob says. “You don’t have to be the smartest guy in the world. If you’re familiar with pop culture, science… we reward all facets of knowledge.”
The goal isn’t intimidation. It’s joy.
“If I can have one of those ‘that was a good one’ moments a night, then I’m in good shape.”
Ask Rob for the secret behind Old Caz’s community magnetism and he doesn’t hesitate.
“Invest in the relationships,” he says.
He remembers who just bought a new car, who went to Fiji, and whose kid is graduating.
“How was your trip? I haven’t seen you in a month. How was Fiji?”
He credits his team, too–including bartender Jocelyn, recently named Best Bartender in Sonoma County–for embodying that same ethos.
“When you create connections, when you create relationships, everything else will come.”
The beer may bring people in. The experience keeps them there.
“Infuse music, infuse culture… it helps that the beer is great. But if you create experiences and relationships–that’s everything.”
Old Caz can be chaos–or calm.
“If you want to get everybody rallied up and singing something together randomly on a Friday night, we will be that place,” Rob says.
Country Roads. Friends in Low Places. Trophy hoisting on the bar.
But the same space can also host deep conversations about hop profiles and flavor notes.
“If you want to deep dive the difference between Simcoe, Amarillo and Citra hops… we are ready and willing and able to have that conversation too.”
No matter the vibe, one rule stands firm:
“Ask questions… we’re happy to answer them no matter what.”
For Rob, the most meaningful part isn’t the mic time or the packed room.
It’s the pause.
“There’s times when there’s a couple thousand people in the parking lot… and I just take a second and I look at everybody doing their own thing.”
People dancing. High-fiving. Trying a new food for the first time.
“I take time intentionally to soak it all in,” he says.
And when asked how it’s changed him?
“Doing the events is truly a way to give back,” he says. “If people keep showing up, I’ll keep doing it because I love it. I love showing them that I’m just as invested in this community as they’re invested in supporting us.”
Whether you’re here for a standing-room-only trivia night, a championship celebration, a hop deep-dive, or just your first craft beer, Old Caz offers something rare: belonging.
And if you’re lucky, you might catch Rob mid-ridicule of a wildly incorrect answer–or mid-chant with a room full of neighbors turned friends.
Because at Old Caz, trivia isn’t just trivia.
It’s community.