The owners of Deloraine’s Station X Escape Room and Coffee Bar have had to rethink their business plan when COVID restrictions took place.

Jamie Roberts and Holly Smith started renovating their building in January of 2019 and it didn’t take long for Escape-room-enthusiasts to sign up to find their way out of any of the 4 escape rooms.  Each room is designed with a specific theme in mind and up to 5 people work their way through a series of clues to find their way out of the room within an hour.

Business was going well until the pandemic hit and restrictions closed the escape room portion of their business.  “We decided to adapt to the COVID restrictions and open a coffee bar,” shares Roberts. “So, we have all sorts of things, from specialty coffees to hot chocolate bombs to cold drinks; you name it we can just about do it! The escape rooms are currently not allowed to be open,” she adds.

Smith says they started the escape rooms as a business just for the love of that sort of recreation, and it just took off from there.  “The escape rooms have been incredibly popular, we’ve had people come from all across Canada through them, and even farther away than that.  So, we’re pretty excited to get those open again.  Our first one will be ‘Escape From Oz’ which is a Wizard of Oz themed escape room.”

The two owners are waiting to hear when the restrictions will open and they will be allowed to unlock the doors to their escape rooms once again.  Having the coffee bar open allows them to stay connected to their community and connect with folks from across Southern Manitoba.  When restrictions are loosened up they feel one side of the business will inspired folks to participate in the other side of the business.

“We do custom baking here, custom cakes and custom cookies here,” shares Smith.  “We’ve kind of got the best of both worlds and I think that we are perfect partners for this!”