U.P.’s first “rage room” a smashing success

What's happening: A new attraction has opened up at the Westwood Mall in Marquette. The Rampage Room opened up to a full crowd on Saturday, May 6. While popular downstate, this is the first “rage room” anywhere within 150 miles of Lake Superior in Michigan, Minnesota and Ontario. The business is a combination of Myles Moncalieri, Eric Curtis and Tim Paavola, who have all had various experiences in entrepreneurial adventures. They were looking to create other forms of entertainment in the Marquette area not dependent on outdoor activities. 

What is a rage room: Rage rooms are companies that allow customers the ability to break as many things as possible as both a recreational and cathartic experience. Once inside these reinforced rooms, customers use hammers, baseball bats, golf clubs and more to smash anything from dinette sets and furniture to broken electronics and copies of the “Twilight” movies. 

Once the customers are done, staff sweep up the debris. A trash compactor is on-site to help with the disposal and any items with valuable or dangerous components like batteries, Freon or computer motherboards have those parts removed before being smashed. 

The experience is not for everyone, but The Rampage Room was booked for the entire opening weekend.

What they're saying: “They’re kind of like what escape rooms use to be. Just because it’s new, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It’s just a great time to have fun and break stuff,” Moncalieri said. "Four months ago, we were sitting around thinking of what could we do to have fun, so we put this together. People will have fun with this, especially for those who may not want to be outdoors during the winter."

What's next: The Rampage Room will continue to provide additional entertainment options for tourists and locals on rainy days through the summer. While that is going on, the ownership group will look and see if this style of entertainment would be useful in other Upper Peninsula markets.