By Devan Mighton, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeshore News Reporter
Since 2008, for Shawn Lippert and Dario Silvaggi, what started off as a last-ditch effort to keep their building, turned into a 16-year Halloween odyssey.
In the early 2000’s, the pair were at the helm of some of Windsor’s most popular bars—Chubby Pickle, Dean Martini’s, Bentley’s Roadhouse, Woody’s Outhouse, and The Jungle. Unfortunately, such as life, times were changing.
“We got hit with a series of events, starting with September 11, 2001,” says Lippert. “Then, we went from smoking in bars to no smoking. Then, the thing that really affected the downtown was the passports—mandatory passports for visitors. That was detrimental to our one business—Bentley’s Roadhouse. Our crowd was all Americans. It was like a light switch turned off. One week, it was slammed, and then the next week—zero.”
As income from their bars slowly dwindled, the partners knew that it was only a matter of time before they couldn’t afford the rent anymore. They talked it over and decided to see if it would be feasible to run a haunted house.
The Scarehouse was born.
“We did it and it was a ton of fun,” recalls Lippert. “We didn’t make any money, and we made a lot of mistakes, but we were confident enough that if we did it again, we could fix those mistakes.”
Sixteen years later…
The Scarehouse, located at 1441 Mcdougall Street in Windsor has now grown from a haunted house to what Lippert calls an entertainment complex.
The Scarehouse features five different haunted houses: the main attraction—Scared Evil—complete with a pop-up bar with drinks for the folks and mocktails for the kiddies, Mirror Maze, Ward 13—a post-apocalyptic world, Fun House—for those who like clowns, and Haunted Darkness—a maze shrouded in complete black.
The Scarehouse, now, also features five different immersive dinner options.
“We started doing immersive dinners because of the pandemic,” explains Lippert. “We had a friend of ours—everybody was bored, we all were—and he said, ‘Why don’t you guys do a dinner inside the haunted house? I’ll hire a chef and we’ll serve and you guys just do what you do—and it will be really cool!'”
Since it was 2020, and they weren’t open due to the pandemic, it allowed them plenty of time to renovate and build a room for the dinner. They gave it a test run with just their friends and the dinner was a hit.
After consulting the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, it was determined that The Scarehouse could operate in that capacity, for the general public, and they soon opened to allow dining.
“We opened up and I think we turned out about 20 tables at the time,” says Lippert. “It was fun, and it was awesome.”
They soon chose to expand the experience and the gamble paid off as the public devoured the opportunity to mix a little Halloween fright with their fine dining.
Now, going into their fifth year of immersive dinners, The Scarehouse offers five different dining experiences—Cursed Manor, Miss Fortune, Cabin in the Woods, Mad as a Hatter, and new this year—Frankly, It’s Black and White.
“It’s a play on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein from the 1931 Universal Pictures film,” explains Lippert. “Our friend, Gavin Booth, was doing research for a film he is putting together right now. He came across a monochromatic light effect and he told us we might be interested in this light. We looked at it and what it does is it takes out all of the colour from the room.”
After consulting a university professor from England on how to properly set it up, they realized that they had created an amazing and unique dining and entertainment experience.
“When you go into that room, you are going into a black and white film from 1931,” he says. “You are looking at your friend that you’re sitting with, you are looking at your food, you know that on your plate is a carrot, but it’s not orange, it’s black and white.”
October is coming and the Scarehouse’s 16th season is on the horizon with more excitement than ever. Doors open for the Halloween season on Sept. 20 and remain open on select days until Nov. 2.
“It’s crazy what goes on in here in just 24 days,” says Lippert.
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