By JULIE ALPAUGH – Broadcast Staff
Teamwork and problem solving both come into play when participants have sixty minutes to find clues and solve puzzles in order to escape the space. A real life videogame is the idea of the newly opened business Escape the Space, located in the Bottleworks on Prince Ave.
The idea first came to owners Alicia Brasher and Andrew Brasher while on a trip in August.
“We were actually on vacation and I found something very similar to this and it’s called an escape room, it’s kinda this brand new type of entertainment popping up all over the world,” Alicia said.
Andrew was impressed with his experience and began to think if a similar business would be successful in Athens.
“We think this is really feasible, we talked to a lot of our friends and family,” Alicia said. “Pretty much everyone agreed that it’s something they would really enjoy and something that would be good for Athens.”
They spent the next six weeks adapting this idea to create their own space.
“It’s not a franchise, so we are not receiving all this information from another company, we did everything from the ground up,” Alicia said.
Participants walk in and are given a brief time to socialize before they are blindfolded and led into the escape room. Once in the room they are given a few instructions along with the storyline for the room and then are set free to try and escape.
“You get to take off the blindfold and you have sixty minutes of the most heart-pounding time of your life where you rummage through, try to find clues, tear everything apart and are trying to escape,” Alicia said.
Customers found the experience thrilling as well.
“Trying to figure out what piece went with what was really exciting and I guess trying to figure out before the time and being able to see the time count down was (nerveracking),” Valerie Rodrigez said.
Escape the Space currently has two themed rooms open.
“At first we thought about just opening the one space and then we realized that it would be really good to keep something new happening,” Alicia said. “We have two different rooms right now that we have open. One in the loft which is the office space and then the second halloween themed room.”
After being open only a few months, Escape the Space already has hopes for expansion in the future.
“In the end we definitely hope to open more rooms or possibly move into another space where it can be even larger and more elaborate,” Alicia said.
