Scarehouse Windsor: Immersive Dining & Haunted Houses

0:08 This Canadian Haunted attraction offers themed three course dinners as a pre show that's coming up on today's show from the Haunted Attraction Network. I'm Philip and this is our annual Hauntedthon, where we're counting down Halloween by celebrating haunted houses daily via videos, podcast articles, and more. Since this podcast is only one part of the Hauntedon, the best way to follow everything is by subscribing to our newsletter at the. Link in our show notes. Remember that the best way you can support us is by sharing our Hantathon. And the content that you like most was someone you think will enjoy it. Okay. Scarehouse Windsor in Windsor Canada offers full themed dinners to guests before the haunt opens for an additional charge. Guests arrive early and enjoy a three course themed dinner complete with live actors, before getting expedited entry into the three haunts that Scarehouse Windsor offers. I made the track up to Scare House Windsor and these dinners really don't disappoint.

1:07 They were delicious. Today I speak with co. Owners Sean and Dario about these dinners and how exactly they fit into the Haunted attraction. This interview goes fast and we jump straight in, so get ready. Here we go in the three two one. Okay, so we're sitting down. Tell me who you are and what you do here. I'm I'm Sean Lippert, co owner of Scarehouse Windsor. And I'm Dariel Silvadgie, co owner scare Host Windsor. Okay, so I just went through Scarehouse Windsor. It is such a fun integrated evening. I like how you have the opportunity to have a full dinner package, and we're talking like a three course dinner package ahead of the haunts. You can show up an ale on a little over an hour early and you sit down and you have a multi course dinner, and you have different rooms that you can put people in, so they could potentially multiple times and have different dinner experiences. But the experience says have a storyline, They have actors that come in. They each kind of have like a like a I don't want to say a shtick, but like an environmental effects that happened. So the when we were in had the lighting effects that allowed the whole room to be in black and white, and that tied into the story. But there's also a seance room where you have nomatics in the room that trigger and so each one has environment plus steaming, plus acting, plus the food itself that all kind of sits together.

2:24 It's everything that we know. Person. We come from a hospitality background first, and we asked backwards. Came into the haunted house industry just because we were kind of kind of dabbling in it, and we went in with that in mind, and it's just a natural progression for us to fuse everything together. And I mean, we're going tonight while you're here. It was a dinner to the haunt to there's a full show event happening after it closes, like with a full stage production and everything just we're. Ringing the rag. That's what we're doing. Yeah, I think what I like about it is that you're treating it. You're looking at it as entertainment first.

3:05 So it's like an entertainment venue that you've astacized, not. What it is. I don't like you said to me like twice on like it isn't haunted houses? Aren't they entertainment? Like? So yeah, I view haunted houses as the number one goal is to entertain your guests, and I think a lot of hunters get stuck in that it has to scare them or this or that, and it's like, well, not really, It's more like, what does your audience find entertaining? So if your audience is like, we have to be scared or we're going to leave, then sure, right, but if it most audiences are not like that or the majority. So how usually how it breaks down is that you have a percentage of people that really really want to get scared, but that's not most people. Because if you think about it, you know, we have all of the entertainment right, and then we have horror, and horror isn't even the majority of entertainment.

3:56 Most people like dramas, they. Like ra It's a very niche market is already niche, and then you're going to take that and you're going to make it even more niche by saying we want you to show up to a warehouse and walk through an area of chainling fans and the people are going to jump at you like that. You've you've by the time you've gotten there, you've niched down your audience too much. So my just hypothesis is just saying that you know we could we can start to look at niching up more of getting back a little bit further up to a larger audience. Okay, So. When we did this on a whim, we had a friend of ours that just said, hey, I want you to serve dinner inside the haunt because it was COVID at the time, and we were like, okay, let's do it. So we did it and it was fun. He had a blast, he brought in his own chef, and then we just kind of looked at each other one and say, this is kind of a thing.

4:40 And then we expanded out on it, and. Here we are, we're in our fifth year and like you've seen what, we've gone to another a whole level and it is another whole vein. But the one thing that we noticed is that we're attracting people that would never be cut dead in a haunted house exactly. We've we've tricked them. It's crazy they are now coming here and then they're like, okay, we'll try the haunts and then they're like, wait a minute, we really like this. We're talking incomes well over a couple hundred thousand dollars a year for like that type of clientele coming and like a lot of people will put us into like lowbro entertainment and you know, like the lowest of the low and then it's kind of insulting, but it is what it is. Okay, that's what we're going to track, that's what we're going to market to. But this fell into our lap. And these people that are coming for dinner, if I said, hey, come to the Hanta House, Nope, never going to go. We would never see them come for dinner though from a chef that they're familiar with, and we present it with and then all of a sudden they're just dropping dimes.

5:38 Yeah. Yeah, this type of integrated experience I have seen before, so it you know, so I think that it does work. I think the key and I think. We talked about this earlier off off interview, but the key is finding a market that has enough tourism to sustain it. And so this type of thing has worked in Vegas, It's worked even in Tampa. You know, my good friend Scott Swinson does the vaulta Souls, and the Vault of Souls is a. Full dinner and cocktail experience plus a Haunt integration into it. And then they do a lounge with performers, entertainment. I mean, so it's not like we haven't seen this before. But I think the key, you know, is that you need to have a space where there's enough tourism and enough of that like economy that you know that makes sense, and you guys have enough, Like we were saying earlier.

6:24 We're on the We're we're not considered a large city by any means, right, We're just a mid sized city. Which are thousand people. Yeah, but the but where you're situated is very unique. There's so many people within. Four hours away million. You hit Chicago, Toronto, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Detroit, like when as a crow flies, you're hitting like between thirty and forty million people. Yeah, and I just think too, so the dinner helps you expand into a larger market. It also helps you with your per cap spending, right. It also helps you I think attract also more too, of the attention of Like you know, it's not just about the haunt, like you said, it upgrades the whole entertainment proposal. So if you're saying again, if it's just a haunt, you know that's basically theater or live performance. But you add the food and suddenly you know it's basically again every not everybody likes a musical, but everyone likes food. And so when you can niche into a higher like sphere of audience like that, I think it does help.

7:29 And then to me this is a no brainer. Yeah, it's like I think that the biggest problem I think with haunt, with haunts and what they have, is you do need a kitchen and you need someone who knows how to manage catering and a lot of haunts do not have that because a lot of haunts are built just for the haunt. But of course, back to our original think, I think that the better thing is to look as haunts becoming more like family entertainment centers where you do have kitchens and you have integrated food. But I think the key with your experience is because a lot of haunts are going to be listening and they're going to say, well, I have food, Okay, yeah, this food is good. And I think that's another big from a chef. Yeah, And I think that's another big element to it is it's from a chef and it's also.

8:12 And we have combined between us probably close to like what eighty or seventy years of hospitality industry business like behind us, like we understand it, yeah, and then just to integrate it the way that you say that we integrated. It's like at one time there was just a haunt and then escape rooms kind of they slid into that vernacular about about decade ago, and now it's it's haunts and escape rooms. You just can't get away from it. It's just that I think, although I think they're different audiences, that's what we've seen is that people who like escape rooms are different because it's a different type of entertainment. Like one is, why are they all together? I think it's that's. More has to do with our industry, Like we've put them together because we have Transworld that has the Escape Room show. But if a lot of the escape room owners I've talked to actually say they're different markets and they don't really like each other. So there is some crossover, sure, but it's not like everybody who likes to solve puzzles also likes to be scared, Okay, but.

9:14 It's almost like I guess, like I guess you can say it's Burger King McDonald's, like not go hand in hand where there's one, there's another not far away. Yeah, it is, it is weird. I think it's more to do with the building and and the fact that you know, a haunter already possesses all most of all the skills to do an escape room. Yea, And so it's more like it's an easy thing and it's year round revenue. Dinner room is basically the same thing, that's exactly. Yeah, I was thinking. I just think that a lot of them have never done food before, so they didn't think about it. But what but if you think about a escape room, it's the same as a haunt. In fact, you know the the Terror Isle in in Texas. His escape room was built so that he could take down walls and turn it into the haunt for two weeks and then put. It back into escape room.

9:54 And so it's so similar that you could even have business models that are the same thing, right, Okay, So I think it's more has to do with it's a different skill set to cook food than it is to build. I don't think anybody needs to be afraid of it because you can always delegate it out. Correct. So you met Mandy. Mandy one time was working for Caesars like she was in hospitality there, like when I called her and I asked her, I said, hey, we're putting this together. You know, think you handle it. And she was like, Sean, I shit, nine hundred for lunch. That's it's not a problem for me. And I mean, that's what you can do as long as you go that route. But then I agree, you're combining the hospitality. And I don't like behind the scenes for the dinner room that you're in, which was frankly black and white. They're on flexes. There's just air. The things are bouncing off the walls. Frankenstein steaks in from a secret passage. I mean, like it's not all rocket science for us. Yeah, it's all the same stuff.

10:45 Yeah. And then let's talk about capacity. You have multiple rooms, so what's the capacity for your dinners proceeding, and how many sittings do you round a night with the Haunt? Two sittings it would be as we get closer, it will be two. Right now, it's. One, okay, and that's that's a good amount. One hundred and twenty five bucks of plate. Yeah, one twenty five bucks a plate, and then that gets them all fast pass access to the harms correctly. It ends up being around forty five dollars for the meal, and it's not it's reasonable. Yeah, it's reasonable. It's definitely not a big money maker for us on the meal. But we're attack fast pass. Yeah, we're attacking ninety percent of the market that would never come here. Yeah, so for us, it's awesome.

11:26 I think that themed bars have seen a huge surge at haunted houses recently, But to me, I actually think that the food is a is potentially a better maybe not better because the margins on drinks has. Always been high. We know that from the restaurant industry, and mars on alcohol is criminal almost. So well non Canada is regulated by the government. Yeah, well in the US it's insane. I think that the food good themed food, I think is the is the next natural progression. There's not much else you can do to meet your her cap. But I think the way you guys are doing it, where it's in a built environment and it's a scripted experience and it's part of it, I think that all fits together.

12:08 So I think if haunts, you know, if anybody was listening, I would say, like the first thing you need to look at of course, is your capacity, and then you need to look at your entertainment. You know, can you break up your haunts or you need people to be able to have the time to spend money, so you need to have the infrastructure that allows for that. So like at Hush, you know, there's not a parking, so it's always a balance between like you want them to stay so they'll buy more drinks, but if they stay too. Long, you run out of parking. And so I think that's the first step for the haunt is to figure out do we have the capacity and can we hold people here? And then I think you can get into doing food and it doesn't have to be a dinner experience. It can be good food just at your haunt that is themed to it.

12:49 There is like there is like a science to it. I guess whatever, right, Well, the way you guys are doing it alleviates all of that because since it's time in they're seatings. You don't have to worry about the parking because you know how many is going to be there for the seedings, and you know how it's all going to go, so it fits perfectly. I'm just singing. There are some markets that may not be able to handle that amount. Of because of the parking ticket price. Well, but more the ticket price. There are some markets that may not be able to do that ticket or may not be able to get that. You can, fuck you can, yeah, yeah, you can lower the food and maybe talking chicken fingers and fries here, like you got a London broil of a croquette, you know, like it was it was. Yeah, we didn't say what the menu was, but let explain what we ate because I don't think we heard the price that I won twenty five.

13:32 We didn't hear the menu items. Yeah, so yeah it was. So it's ninety nine dollars per tax and tip, and like I said before, it works out to vote forty five dollars for the food and then fifty five dollars for you fast pass, which is our normal price, and then so it starts over a shikouderie plate and then what you share and then everybody gets a salad. We did eliminate the pasta from last year because people were complaining it was just too much food. It is a lot of things and they couldn't finish it. Yeah, and we took that away and people are much happier with that, and then we go into a London boil croquette and and a mixed vegetable whatever the shop. Would you could you tell what your vedge was because it was in black and white, you can't tell.

14:13 Yes, it was mushrooms, and then squash and brushl sprats. No, no, no, there was also a parsnip with a carrot. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's weird. It's really hard. Yeah. Yeah, talking about that, it's like, what is this? And then we finished off with a really nice dessert. And I think at this point, I think we've we nailed it this time with the quantity of food. The quality I think is there, but the quantity is there now because people were coming out of there too tired. Yeah, they didn't want to do all the haunts. After you figure you had dinner. It was six thirty. What time is it now, it's almost ten, it's nine forty. And when we were coming in here to do this podcast, you still had people from your dinner sitting out there having a drink. And that was the other part about it is that we we made a bar in the center of it. That's not a pop up, it's an actual bar for people to relax and just talk about what just happened to them.

15:08 Yeah, which is part of that soul side of it. There's a dad that came in and came true with his two daughters. They were probably fourteen fifteen years old. He came up to me and he's like kind of looking around. I go, well, this is what you're gonna do. I said, you're gonna go to the bar, You're gonna get a drink. You're going to sit on the coach and watch your daughters come in and out of the haunts. And he's like, Okay, that's what you did. Yeah, yeah, that's great. I think that's another thing that we've noticed at Trending that I think is important is you want to be able to again, if you're going to expand your market outward, you need to be able to provide the entertainment for all of the dis and you know, just I don't know, like the old you get you don't care. About the haunts as much. Fine, it's fine, it's okay, you know, but you want your kids to experience it, right, And.

15:52 It's a lot of fun. A lot of parents have fun watching them running out of haunts and having fun having popcorn, getting a hot getting a pop Yeah. And then it's all indoor and we talked about that in the video, but it's important that it's Canada and it's all indoors. Like the entire experience. The bar is inside, the food is inside, so you're not it's not like you're like, oh, we're going to be outside in the snow. You know you're going to be protected. We are in Canada, and you had to think about that. Yeah, And that's that's critical. I think it is for for venues that are in bad weather locations. Yeah, yeah, which I mean we're on the verge here, the hurricanes coming up the court. I mean we're about to hit us, right and there's a lot of haunts right now that just got slammed all the way up, like it came straight up the gut of haunted house areas and they're all that hurts.

16:40 Yeah. Ohio had to close that, it closed down. Yeah yeah, I feel bad for them. Yeah, But I mean, honestly, like I have, I've talked about this a lot too. It's going to get worse. I mean we've already seen Disney making excuses for their summer numbers due to the heat and it's just going to get worse, okay, and the hurricanes is gonna work. Everything's gonna get worse. So I think venues like this that are planned to be all contained, I know it's I know haunts again, I know, I get it. I know it's difficult. I know that if you know you have a trail, I mean I think it woulds a terror. Okay, everything is outside, but you know they have but you know, even with woods a terear, like they are making the effort to replace sections of their haunt with buildings.

17:23 Okay, you know. They're they're going in and doing it. Like each year, we're taking out this and we're putting the building in. We're we are blessed to be in the situation that we're in. But at the same time, like we we fought for this. Yeah, we had all the locations. The hardest part, yeah, like it's the heart because then you know, it always comes back to bite the haunt because if the haunt then tries later to add alcohol but they're not in a location doesn't allow it, or no they don't have a kitchen building a commercial kitchens more than the building. I mean, it's like there's so many like, uh, you really have to think, you know, ten years in advance, it's been a yeah we. Have that's and our next are our I guess I don't know what the word is, but our obstacle is to really we used to be a location for Americans to come because we're like you took the tunnel here.

18:11 It was closer probably for you to go from the tunnel to here than it was from wherever you were to go to the tunnel. Yeah, that's how close we are to the border, Like we can go here and I can throw a rock and almost hit the downtown Detroit. We lost that huge amount of market coming over here because they shut that border down for two years. Like we were looking at each other from each side, like we really did. There was like people that were stuck and like they were on the phone waving to each other from the borders like it's it's it's upsetting even thinking about it. But that severed for two years really did do some damage. Any people kind of forgot. Yeah, I always thought the exchange where would always bring people back, like you're getting thirty five percent more on your dollar, you're and yet it still doesn't work.

18:58 It's almost half off and it's not like this can of pop here was more it's still two dollars here or over there, but it's really only forty five cents less. Yeah, right, Yeah, It's really interesting because I mean I don't have the numbers to look at this, but it just it feels to me like like more people are going to Japan than coming to Canada, you. Know, which is crazy. You know, so many more people are going to like really far away place or whatever. It's so cheap there. I'm like, oh, you know, like Canada, this is literally right that you could just drive to it. So I think that's a really interesting point, is just really looking at how many people are within driving and you know, what can they come to do? And if this is a multi hour experience and they can add on to other things, I think that's.

19:44 Well, they can stay at the casino, they can get it, like there's so many different things. And I did in the last couple of weeks book, I think three or four dinners from US citizens and they're like, you know, we heard so much about it, we're going to try it. And that's a big deal for them to say, you know what, We're going to make the truck, the truck over here instead overnight. I mean, that's that's awesome. And yeah, it's just the passport thing that's the biggest problem for Americans. Yeah, Americans at least, it's just the passports. Yeah, so many of them don't know. I mean in Michigan, you can have what they called that government that government idea. It's like a special idea. You don't actually have to get a passport. Interesting. Yeah, So Michigan there's like I think there's like eight ron enhanced Yeah, there's like eight or nine states that are long borders and they kind of thought about that, and there's an enhanced driver's license so that when you go there you either pay I don't pay sixty dollars or you pay seventy five dollars and they take that at the border.

20:31 But it's the perception is you need a passport, and the casino's constantly fighting that. You're trying to market you don't need the passport, you need this, this or that right. This is Caesar's yeah. In Windsor the brand. Yeah, at the highest level in Vegas, and and they're they're combating it constantly. That's wild. Yeah, Hey, we're about a time. Okay, yeah, twenty minutes. What is there anything you would like to add? I mean we went very rapidly through a lot of very far rainen topics, but it does sound like, you know, what are you all working on here? What are you trying to still build for the future. Yeah, well, definitely are outside. We're building a whole outside parking lot that's gonna take our new entrance, new retail area, more food experience. And then there's also a market that we know we're missing out on, which is the younger, younger kids. Yeah, that we there is a huge market for that, and so we are going to be diving into that to get those parents with those young kids as well.

21:34 We started doing the lights on tour just say everybody else was doing. And last year we were just shy of a thousand people coming for the lights on Tour and I'm like, what is that table? Are really interested in that? Yeah? Yeah, there's a lot of haunts to do it in another world that's a huge but it's just Condlers. Yeah, It's like I feel bad, like these little kids are coming in and they're loving it and they're having so much fun, Like i mean barely can walk and the parents are there and we're like, okay, and. We do for charity. I mean, yeah, we only charge ten box and we make fun of it like it's ten dollars for twelve an underd but only five dollars for twelve n up, right, like just because it goes towards that, But the parents want them to experience it. Yeah, but a little because we spend so much time on ambience and.

22:15 The environment and creating that really eerie feeling. And then when they come for lights on tours, like we're cleaning. Yeah yeah, but we see it as all future customers are. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, well okay, thank you guys. Yeah, it was austome. Thank you so much. Today's episode was produced and edited by me Philip Hernandez, with post production by David Swape and original music composed. By Chris Thomas. We're counting down to Halloween with daily podcasts, at videos, and events in our sixty one day Hantathon. Follow along at the link in our show notes. Our Haunathon is made possible through generous support from Gantum, Lighty and Controls. Gantum illuminates attractions worldwide with the world's smallest intelligent Spotlights. See what you're missing with a free demo. Sign up at dantum dot com slash demo that gantum dot.

23:00 Com slash demo. Our Hantathon team includes Daryl Plunky, Emily Luis Rua, Megan Spells, Gavin Burns and omni Adventures, and our content partners for this year include Attractions Magazine, Creepy Kingdom, Freaks of Jgen, Hon Topic Radio, Kevin Heinbach News TV, Omniadventures, Scare Track, Sharp Productions, That Halloween Podcast, The Horror of Being, Emily The Scare Factor, and This Weekend with Nick Paliochini. The best way you can support us this Halloween season is by sharing our Haunted on with someone you think we'll enjoy it, and to follow along to our Hantathon, sign up for our weekly newsletter at Hanta Attraction Network dot com.

23:42 We'll catch you back here tomorrow and every day until Halloween until next time, say scary. This is a Haunted Attraction Network