If you’re seeking a truly bone-chilling experience without leaving Brooklyn, the Ridgewood Asylum is back and has moved, yet again, back into Bushwick. This time, the house is operating from inside Vacations, the two-floor rooftop bar on Cypress Avenue. Brought to life by Jorge Mdahuar and Jon Gneezy, owners of the Ridgewood bar the Deep End, the haunted house tests nerves with a series of interactive, “escape-room”-like tasks people have to complete to move into the next room.
Think of it as part escape room, part haunted house, where every room presents a something of a chilling puzzle. And there’s more than last year. On their move to Vacations, Mdahuar says the opportunity of doing all this on a rooftop was the main selling point for the pair.
“We decided to collab with Vacations because they have a bigger space to expand the haunted house, rooftop views, plus food and drinks.” It was important to them to have a space where they could both unwind and have room to play around and explore.
“And we’re adding more as we go along, so guests who’ve already been can come again and experience even more thrills,” says Mdahuar. For them, utilizing all the space is key so all guests can really dive deep into the Asylum. New additions this year include a crematorium and a clown trap room, designed to make the heart race even faster.
“I’ve been to haunted houses before, but nothing like this,” claims Bushwick local Gonzalo Fierro, a friend of mine who went into the haunted house with me. I asked him what his favorite part of it was and he told me “the interactive element makes it so much scarier because you actually feel trapped, like you have to earn your way out, instead of just screaming and crying.”
Outside of the ticketed haunted house, the bar at Vacations has also started serving a handful of custom Halloween-themed drinks to nurse while looking at the Manhattan skyline. For $13, you can get a “Pumpkin Spice Pina Colada,” fresh “Orchard Cider,” loaded with whiskey or rum, or a classic hot toddie. My personal favorite was the pumpkin spice colada, which just a bit fruity but still in the fall spirit of things.
Catch the ‘Ridgewood Asylum’ at 48 Cypress Avenue, inside Vacations, running until Nov. 1. Tickets are $33.85, get them here.
Photos taken by Malik Welton for Bushwick Daily.
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