THE TALE END
Dominique and Mark Fruchtman
Owners, Escape Room Palm Springs
2500 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite B3, Palm Springs;
escapeps.com
The faint glow of candlelight illuminates your room, and adrenaline pulses through your veins as you search for the puzzle piece that will grant you release. You fumble through each task as time ticks off the clock. Just as you think you have solved your captor’s cryptic riddles and unlocked the doors to freedom, a voice echoes through the walls: “Your time is up.”
Dominique and Mark Fruchtman, husband-and-wife owners of Escape Room Palm Springs, moved to the area in 2010, when they began to notice a lack of activities for young people and families. So they parlayed their love for “escape room” attractions into their own venture in 2015 — the Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce recognized them with its 2017 Small Business of the Year award.
Escape Room Palm Springs offers six themed rooms, including a vampire’s lair and Jack the Ripper’s secret hideout. Guests have one hour to escape using clues designed by the Fruchtmans.
Each space is a labor of love with props acquired from antique stores across Greater Palm Springs. “Making the rooms as immersive and interactive as possible creates the magic of an escape room, no matter the theme,” Mark says.
The Fruchtmans’ favorite part of running their business is bridging the gap between generations and creating a lasting experience to share with one another.
“People aren’t just escaping from a room,” Dominique says. “They’re escaping from the rest of the world for an hour with no cellphones or technology. It allows people to bond [through] authentic human interaction.”
Dominique recommends
“4 Paws Coffee Co. is a must before we go to work in the morning. Not only is the coffee great, but they’re pet-friendly, too, which is convenient for us because we have two dogs and two cats.”