Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Friends open Elite Escape Room in Eagleview
Trio of friends opens Elite Escape Room in Chesco
“Our puzzles and clues don’t follow a linear path — there is more than one way to move forward.” – Todd Cericola, Elite Escape
EAGLEVIEW » Three friends have turned one of their favorite activities into a business they own and operate.
Todd Cericola, Mike Benson and Raymond Hoffman opened Elite Escape Room in October. The attraction, located at 264 Eagleview Blvd., features three escape rooms with a fourth one in the works.
Elite Escape currently offers: Escape From Oz; Andy’s Room and Escape Your Fears, with each room hosting groups of 8 to 10 people. The fourth room — Escape the Interrogation Room is scheduled to open in May and is geared for two guests.
“It will have no clues and no hints. We wanted to do something in a tight, claustrophobic area,” Cericola said.
From the beginning, Cericola and his partners set out to create a different experience from other escape room attractions.
“The biggest difference is: it’s an experience from the time you walk in,” he said. “It’s also putting you into that set and letting you feel like you are there. Our puzzles and clues don’t follow a linear path — there is more than one way to move forward.”
He said they wanted their business to be family friendly — where people can come in and relax before and after they have their escape room experience. The location features couches, tables and coffee stations.
“We’re selling an experience: we want to make sure
they feel comfortable. When they finish the room we don’t want them to feel like they have to leave right away,” he added.
According to Cericola, he and Hoffman were working together at the same marketing firm. They got along well, and for fun, started going to area escape rooms.
In the “small world” category, when Mike Benson also joined the firm, Cericola said the two recognized each other. It turns out they had been childhood friends who hadn’t seen each other in about 16 years.
“Mike and I went to middle and high school together at Chichester. We had played youth basketball together as well,” Cericola said. Benson currently lives in Coatesville, while Cericola lives in King of Prussia. Hoffman was raised in Havertown, and now lives in Ardmore.
Benson soon began joining Cericola and Hoffman on their escape room adventures.
“We were fans. We were doing them a lot and then started critiquing what we felt others were doing wrong,” Cericola said. Those discussions naturally led to talk of opening their own escape room. The discussions began in September 2016. “At first it was just ‘we can do it.’ But then we started thinking of ideas.”
While Cericola, Benson and Hoffman all worked in marketing — Cericola said it’s not that experience that has been most helpful in getting the business off the ground. Each one of them brought a different crucial skill to the table: creativity, financial acumen and construction knowledge. Everything in the building was conceived and built by the trio.
Once they decided to move ahead with the idea, Cericola said the partners started looking for locations and coming up with concepts.
And because they didn’t have the “never-ending pocketbook” that other escape room attractions had, they needed to make their experience about more than just cool props.
“We went in to building full on sets from the ground up. Our goal was to make sure we didn’t do a room that anyone else was doing,” Cericola added.
Elite Escape has been open six months, and doing well, according to Cericola.
“People are starting to know where we are and we’re getting some great feedback from our clients,” he said.
Groups looking to try Elite Escape need to make reservations for the date, time and room they want, and plan to arrive about 15 minutes early. The experience in the room lasts one hour: groups either solve the puzzle and escape, or they don’t.
Either way, Cericola said the goal is to create a fun experience.
“The first thing to expect is the complete unexpected. Anything can be a clue. We want you to feel you’re going from Kansas to Oz — we want people to feel as if they are there,” he explained. “Everything in that room can be a clue — look everywhere to find what you need to move forward.”
Cericola added that the experience is suitable for anyone five and up.
“Anyone can do an escape room and anyone can have fun. It’s about having a good time while they are here. I care if you have a good time — not if you get out of the room,” he said.
Cericola said the thing that is so appealing about escape room attractions is they don’t take a lot of time and they’re challenging.
That challenge he said is one of the things that makes escape room a great team building activity for companies or groups.
“It’s amazing for team building because you have to work together to solve it,” he said, adding that the teambuilding is something he and his partners are looking to expand.
Elite Escape Room is open Tuesday through Friday from 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., open Monday by appointment only.
Reservations can be made online by visiting https:// www.eliteescape.net/
For more information visit https://www.eliteescape.net/ or www.facebook.com/EliteEscapePA/