Tactical Escape 101- Maplewood Mall

12/30/2025

12/30/2025

After six wonderful years in Maplewood, this location is closed. This decision was not easy, and we are so grateful for every guest, every memory, and every moment shared.

Thank you for six years. We wish you joy, happiness, and the hope that we’ll see you again at one of our other Tactical Escape 101 locations.

💛 All gift certificates will be honored at any regular Tactical Escape 101 location.

Thank you for your support, your laughter, and your adventures with us.
We hope to serve you again soon.

12/30/2025

🚨 LAST DAY. EVER. 🚨
Only a few spots remain to play our final room, The List before it, and we, disappear for good.

Six incredible years. Thousands of players. Countless memories.
Thank you for being part of our story.

This is it. The final chance. The door closes tonight.
👉 Reserve before we are gone forever: TACTICALESCAPE101.COM

12/28/2025

We didn’t want it to end for Company Like Fish or the Rattlesnake Saloon like this but… 🤷🏼‍♀️ Mother Nature will be Mother Nature! ❄️ WELL THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY!! ❄️
The snow came in HOT and heavy! (…okay, cold and heavy. 😂)

For the safety of our teams and guests, TACTICAL ESCAPE 101 is closed for reservations today.
A HUGE thank you to everyone who rescheduled—your flexibility keeps our staff safe and lets us all get home before we turn into popsicles. 🥶💙

We’ll dig out, warm up, and see you soon!
👉 Reserve future adventures at: TACTICALESCAPE101.COM

Stay safe. Stay cozy. Stay awesome.
– The Tactical Escape 101 Crew

12/27/2025

It’s hard to close a location.
It feels like shrinking… but sometimes even good things must be pruned so the rest can grow stronger.

Six and a half years ago, Maplewood Mall asked us to come to Minnesota.
“Please come to Minnesota.”
We were hesitant. We had a million questions in our hearts… but we felt led to say yes.

And we did what we always do.
We opened fast (because Jen only knows high gear if you haven’t noticed 😂).
Three rooms. A ton of heart.
We were greeted with love.

Then the pandemic hit.

Small businesses all around you are still fighting their way back. We got buried by the shutdown, and the ripple effects are still very real today. Your neighbors who own local businesses are working their butts off… many pouring personal money, time, and energy in just to keep going.

Meanwhile, we watch our communities go into debt at big corporations like Walmart while the places built by your friends, neighbors and families struggle to stay seen.

So I’m asking you for something simple:
Take just 10% of what you give to big box stores and spend it with local small businesses. Even if it gets you a little less, even if it takes a little more time,
it will return to your community tenfold.

Big corporations make mistakes every single day and we shrug it off.
A small business makes one mistake and social media tears it down.
Please… share posts from small businesses. Speak praise. Be generous with grace. Bring feedback to us like neighbors—not weapons.

These humans need it.
They need YOU.

As I write this final post from my hotel at a Tactical Escape 101 location near you, I’m asking you to keep living here, loving here, and spending here. In your community. With your people.

It’s been a great six years, Maplewood.
Thank you for letting us be a small part of your stories.

Keep finding joy.
It has been an honor to serve you.
We would LOVE to see your faces at a Tactical Escape 101 location soon. We remain open in Rice Lake, Eau Claire, Stevens Point and Antigo.

❤️
Jennifer Fonfara
Tactical Escape 101

12/18/2025

A Message to Our Maplewood Community:
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the upcoming closure of our Maplewood Mall location.
In September of 2019, Maplewood Mall encouraged us to bring Tactical Escape 101 to Minnesota. We opened our doors that November, excited to grow alongside a new community. Shortly thereafter came the pandemic, followed by multiple changes in mall ownership and management. Through it all, we did our best to adapt, persevere, and continue creating meaningful experiences for our guests.

In September of this year, we made the difficult decision to close at the end of our lease on November 1. Mall ownership asked that we remain open through the holiday season, “until end of February” so the mall could stay fully occupied. Wanting to leave on good terms, we agreed—on the understanding that we would not be required to vacate during the crucial final week of December, a time vital to our company across all locations.

Unfortunately, we have now been informed by ownership that January 3 will be our final day, at which time our doors will be locked. (Rather than the end of February as the mall requested) While this accelerates our timeline, we will do everything we can to serve as many guests as possible in the time remaining.

Please rest assured that all unredeemed gift certificates will be honored at any of our other Tactical Escape 101 locations.

Our Maplewood games will conclude as follows:
• Company Like Fish and The Rattlesnake Saloon will close after December 28
• The List will run through December 30

It has been an honor to serve this community for six years. We are deeply grateful to everyone who played with us, supported us, and voted us one of the Top Escape Rooms in Minnesota for four consecutive years. The joy, laughter, and connection we witnessed here are the true reasons we do this work.

Thank you for being part of our story.

With gratitude,
Jennifer Fonfara
and the Tactical Escape 101 Family

12/17/2025

Clutter fades.
Memories stay.
With multiple locations and unique adventures across Wisconsin, you can give the gift of time well spent — together.
Be the reason someone smiles, screams, solves, or celebrates this season.
Reserve your next adventure or purchase gift certificates at TACTICALESCAPE101.COM

12/16/2025

There’s thing that happens every once in a while… and I have to share it with you all…
I’m sitting down, writing checks, grateful for my staff. (I’m weird I guess… I’m so grateful for our amazing staff- I LOVE paying them.)

Gratefulness hits me hard sometimes and today it happened twice-
Payroll and then- picking up my phone to see all kinds of emails about the gift certificates you’re all buying…
at TACTICALESCAPE101.COM and endgameminigolf.com and theimperialsyndicate.com just emotional. Grateful and emotional.
From this small business owner…
Thank you. It’s an honor to be completing year 11 doing something I love this much.

12/14/2025

Memories= Gifts they’ll love!
When you choose Tactical Escape 101, the possibilities aren’t just fun…
they’re endless.
Become adventurers, sleuths, wizards, investigators, time-travelers, pirates, reindeer, cowboys, even geologists.
Each location has a world waiting for you — which one will you step into?
Book your holiday memories → TACTICALESCAPE101.COM

12/13/2025

One day only: Monday December 22nd we are opening the Eau Claire downtown escape location: SCHLEGELMILCH CVM fundraiser puzzle: THE ENCHANTED ORDER! Reservations available now at: TACTICALESCAPE101.COM room

12/12/2025

Are you giving them clutter… or are you giving them memories?
This year, skip the stuff that gathers dust.
Give them an hour they’ll never forget — laughing, thinking, discovering, and winning together.
Make memories in the time you have. ❤️
Reserve or grab a gift certificate at TACTICALESCAPE101.COM