TANNERSVILLE, Pa. — The saying 'When one door closes, another one opens' rings true inside the Alice-in-Wonderland-themed escape room at Wonderland Madhouse at the Pocono Premium Outlets near Tannersville.
"You've got multiple four doors, and you have to solve the whole sequence of things to get the fifth door to open," said owner Anthony Purzycki.
But from all this work, you would never know that in June, his store along Route 611 in the Fountain Court Shopping Plaza near Bartonsville caught fire.
He lost the escape room and another business he was trying to get off the ground at the time—Madness Distillery.
"You never know truly what to expect in that scenario. Like, are we talking about a spark, or are we talking about an inferno, and it turns out it was an inferno," said Purzycki.
But there was never a doubt that he wouldn't rebuild either business. Three days after the fire, Purzycki was already talking lease negotiations on the space for Wonderland Madhouse, his next project.
"We got the outlets here and a lot of families walking through daily. They wanted family-friendly, so we wanted to avoid the boogeyman or zombies for this one."
He says that's how the Alice in Wonderland theme was chosen.
Work still needs to be done, like finishing up games in the escape room.
"We've got our 9-hole mini golf that is almost done. Upstairs, we have the Tipsy Tea Party, which is a cocktail experience, and once we get through licensing, we're also doing a raw bar in there," said Purzycki.
He says this project is his biggest one yet, but beware, there are several surprises.
Madness Distillery is set to open in a month, while Wonderland Madhouse opens March 1.