I Took Real Chefs to Esscape’s ‘Kitchen Nightmare’ Escape Room in NYC | Eater

"Set in a basement in Long Island City, this culinary-themed escape experience, conceived and run by Ess Hospitality partners Melanie Lemieux and Kyle Radzyminski and unveiled on Friday, September 13, forces players into the fictional backstory of a closed speakeasy bistro with a murderous chef. Guests are stripped of belongings, locked into a small waiting room, and guided through meticulously staged back-of-house environments — from a greasy fryer and a cluttered, grimy grill lined with order tickets and stained recipe pages, to a fog-choked hot room with chainsaw-like buzzing, an intercom-delivered bartender hint system, and a warped, slowed loop of Tom Jones’s “What’s New Pussycat.” The finale moves through a sterile walk-in freezer into a gore-filled chamber with whirring electric drills and a blood-dripping body bag; most set pieces and props were scavenged from the owners’ restaurant storage to create an unsettlingly authentic mise-en-scène. The puzzles are deliberately challenging — three professional chefs struggled and ultimately screamed at the concluding jump scare — and the attraction advertises a low success rate (roughly 60% reach the penultimate room, 30% don’t escape the kitchen, and only two groups have fully escaped)." - Jenny G. Zhang