Puzzled about what to do on Franklin Street? UNC student business offers fun escape.
Jane Doe is missing on the UNC campus, and it’s your job to find her, said Riley Harper with Chapel Thrill Escapes.
“The Lost Tar Heel,” a nonprofit escape room, opened in February at 128 E. Franklin St., next to Johnny T-Shirt. It’s the first escape room in the country designed and built by college students, said Harper, the company’s chief executive officer and a UNC junior.
The students spent six to eight months designing the room, he said. An established escape room on campus, “Rameses Lost in Wonderland,” took about a year. They plan to change the themes every year, he said.
“Typically, when you see an escape room, they buy a package or some pre-made puzzle bundle,” Harper said. “So from state to state, you can actually see the exact same escape room run by two different companies. ... Once you’ve solved it, you’ve solved the puzzle. It’s not going to be as exciting a second time.”
What is inside the room?
Players enter through a crime-scene-tape-covered door to find a typical dorm room with posters on the wall and a desk with a specially built computer. The room was inspired by the Michael Jordan dorm room at The Graduate hotel, Harper said.
Inside, players look for clues and work together to solve the puzzles before the time runs out. Players who finish all nine Lost Tar Heel puzzles with time to spare get a crack at the bonus room, behind a specially designed wardrobe.
“You want it to be hard, because no one wants an easy puzzle, because you’re paying for it, and an easy puzzle isn’t so fun,” Harper said. But “you don’t want it to be so hard that it’s unsolvable, because something that’s unsolvable ... frustrates you rather than excites you.”
What makes Chapel Thrill Escapes a nonprofit?
Chapel Thrill Escapes was started by four UNC students in 2019 with private funding and money from the Morehead-Cain scholarship program. The original room was about the size of a closet, Harper said, but “laid all the foundation to get us to where we are now.”
The team also partners with Allan Blattner, the executive director of Carolina Housing who is on the team’s advisory board, and the UNC startup lab Venture 1789, which is “one of our biggest funders and biggest supporters,” Harper said.
Profits are reinvested in student opportunities, so they can “interact with a real-world entrepreneurship, rather than just writing things on a chalkboard,” he said. They also want students to have a fun option that doesn’t involve alcohol, he said.
The Franklin Street lease is for 18 months, Harper said, but beyond that depends on whether the landlords — UNC, the state and Chapel Hill Foundation Real Estate Holdings Inc., a not-for-profit corporation founded by the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation — move ahead with the Porthole Alley redevelopment plan.
How do escape rooms work?
▪ A gamemaster lays out the rules and introduces teams to the mystery. Inside the room, players work together to find clues and solve puzzles, including specially designed “Rube Goldberg” machines and other interactive features.
▪ Players get 60 minutes to finish “The Lost Tar Heel” game.
▪ “Rameses in Wonderland, in Cobb Residence Hall at 110 Country Club Road, takes about 75 minutes.
▪ Online players can also try out the Bell Tower Room.
What are the hours and the cost?
▪ The Lost Tar Heel: 4-8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; noon to 8:30 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
▪ Rameses Lost in Wonderland: 3:45-10:15 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.
▪ Tickets: Adults are $26 per person and UNC students, faculty and children can get discounted tickets — priced at $14 to $20. Players under age 15 should be accompanied by an adult.
▪ Senior Week: Reservations made April 14-20 are $7 each for on-campus graduating seniors and their friends. Off-campus seniors and their friends can play for $14 each.
What else to know?
▪ The Lost Tar Heel is designed for 3-10 players. Rameses in Wonderland is designed for 3-8 players.
▪ Rooms can accommodate wheelchairs and players with sensory issues, according to the website.
▪ Make reservations 48 hours in advance at chapelthrillescapes.com. No refunds for cancellations.
Other local business news
▪ Moshi Moshi will reopen at 416 W. Franklin St. on Wednesday. The store closed after a July 22 fire gutted the Mediterranean Deli restaurant next door and caused $60,000 in damages to the Moshi Moshi hair salon. m.
Mediterranean Deli owner Jamil Kadoura hopes to reopen his restaurant by the end of the year. The interior has been stripped to the support beams and is ready for utilities to be re-installed, he said.
Med Deli continues to provide online ordering for takeout and delivery at 410 W. Franklin St. and is now open for catered events at The Story Venue, 450 W. Franklin St., which has three floors, including a rooftop space overlooking Franklin Street.
▪ Michelin star Chef Brandon Sharpe is planning a new Spanish tapas and wine spot at 173 E. Franklin St., which has been vacant since Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe closed in 2020. Próximo was inspired by trips to Spain that Sharp took with his wife, Chapel Hill Town Council member Elizabeth Sharp. They also own Hawthorne & Wood at East 54 and Bluebird in Meadowmont.
▪ A popular downtown cafe is celebrating 30 years in business. Restaurant owner Antoni Sustaita opened Bandido’s Mexican Cafe in 1994 at 159 1/2 E Franklin St. and has expanded the business to include event hosting, catering and deliveries to three UNC dining halls.
▪ Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop is officially closed, according to a worker removing equipment from the shop at 127 E. Franklin St. last week. No word yet on what could replace the shop, which opened in May 2023.
