Dr. Steve Lomazow looks up from his half-eaten salad and poses a serious question to his companions.

"What was the name of television's most famous beatnik and who was the actor that played him?"

The answer comes in a flash- "Maynard G. Cribbs" as played by Bob Denver. "Right," Dr Lomazow says, "but what was his girlfriend's name on the show and who played her?"

		It's trivia night at A&M Roadhouse, 57 Murray St., and the usual bunch-among them a neurologist (Dr. Lomazow), a history of science grad student, an author of young adult fiction, and a three-time Jeopardy winner-are boning up on their greatest weakness, pop culture, for the night's game. "These are probably the smartest bunch of guys in a bar in New York City on a Tuesday night," A&M Roadhouse owner Arthur Gregory boasts of the group, who weekly match wits with other players nationwide, most of them also in bars. Players watch the questions on TV monitors and punch in the answers on computer keypads. The teams represent the place that hosts them much like in a softball league. "I have a lot of teams here-dart teams, pool teams, softball teams-but I think they have the most fun of all of
them," Gregory said of the group which has been meeting regularly at his bar for more than a year. Only one other bar in Manhattan carries the game. It's on the Upper East Side. "We weren't made to feel comfortable there," said Ed Stroligo, of Queens, who scouted out both locations when the Astoria bar where he used to play closed. "We've made this our home," added Dave Kraut, who followed Stroligo from Queens to keep the team together. Indeed, the team's table is always saved for them, the servers know the players by name, and Gregory even let the group hang a large chart of the periodic table of elements on the wall-in case they need a quick reference. "OK, game-faces, everybody," says Lomazow. "We're starting." The first few multiple choice questions are softballs for this team. What is the largest country in Africa? "LIBERIA!," shouts Stroligo. "Duh," says Laurel Brown, the grad student. The team nails a few more geography questions, has little trouble identifying the Crimean War as the birthplace of the legend of the "lady of the lamp" or Florence Nightingale, though seems stumped when asked what it is that joins proteins, nucleic acid and lipids to make up a cell. "Carbohydrates!" shouts the doctor after a few tense seconds of silence. But the team is later tripped up on the name of this year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. They settle on last year's winner, Michael Chabon. The wrong answer cost them a shot at capturing first place from a high-scoring team in Washington, D.C. Instead, they come in second. "They're hard to beat," says Marilynn Lomazow. 'They have a lot more players than we do." The Roadhouse team says they welcome new talent, particularly anyone strong on pop culture and sports. "We're a little weak on NASCAR and country music," says Jesse Emery. "Go figure."