Carrollton Chop Shop Sports Garage: A Trivial Pursuit of Good Eats

Carrollton Chop Shop Sports Garage is a little bar and grill at the corner of a strip mall in Carrollton. It has a good-sized square island bar as its focal point with a few tables and booths scattered about the perimeter, as well as some outside seating for those interested in the view of the parking lot. We got a hankering for some burgers and paid a visit on a recent Wednesday, which apparently is the day it holds a weekly bar trivia night with a $25 gift certificate as top prize. We went for burgers, not trivia, because we don’t like to show off in that manner. That didn’t stop us from listening in and answering all the questions to ourselves anyway while we enjoyed our meal.

1st question: Which television program debuted its book club in 1996 with “The Deep End of the Ocean”?

We started off with a couple of cocktails, both under $10: the Kentucky mule with Bulleit bourbon, lime juice and ginger beer, and the radiator fluid, consisting of Smirnoff Sour Berry Vodka, cranberry and Sprite. Both were fine if not a bit overly sweet as is so often the case in these local bar and grills.

Answer: “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

Next, it was onto the appetizer.

2nd question: Which instrument, named for its Belgian inventor, is traditionally made of brass but has a reed and is actually considered a woodwind?

Trash can nachos caught our eye, the picture leading us to believe that they would arrive in a small stylized garbage can, and we’re all about cute presentations. We were a bit disappointed, however, when they were served on a normal platter. Oh well. They consisted of tortilla chips, bacon, queso blanco, jalapeños, salsa and sour cream and were serviceable if a bit pedestrian.

Answer: The saxophone

With those out of the way, and being two-for-two (unofficially) in the trivia contest, we selected our burgers.

3rd question: In trigonometry, what is the name of the ratio of the side opposite a right-angled triangle to its hypotenuse?

We decided on the straight pipe stacker and the Buick as our hamburger choices. The stacker had pepper Jack cheese, jalapeños, diced onions, bacon mayo and a large onion ring topping it all, and arrived with the house spicy mayo and a side of waffle fries. The Buick came with an Angus burger patty, Swiss cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms, served with the spicy mayo on sourdough toast. At the end of the day this was a patty melt by another name more in keeping with the establishment’s auto shop theme. It was well cooked and came with waffle fries as well.

Answer: The sine

As we finished our meal and waited for the check, we patted ourselves on the back for doing so well (unofficially) in the trivia contest, before crashing and burning on this question:

4th question: Which cultural movement is most associated with the 1920s and 30s and with noted figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes?

 …the answer to which, of course, is:

Answer: The Harlem Renaissance.

Maybe we’ll have to return another Wednesday night.

2661 Midway Road, Carrollton. Sunday – Thursday, 11 a.m. – midnight; Friday & Saturday, 11 a.m. – 2 a.m.