Many are drawn to Utah for its Swiss-Alps-esque ski slopes, the awe-inspiring national parks, its unique restaurants and more. Even if you’re looking for an experience to make you feel like you’ve been transported from Utah for a few hours, Utah businesses have that too. Whether it’s getting lost in the aisles of Pirate O’s, solving otherworldly puzzles in the heart of Himitsu Station or getting a visit from Krampus at Christkindlmarkt, Utahns and visitors alike have a wide variety of local escapes to choose from. Immersion is a tricky job, but the owners and organizers of these attractions share a few of their secrets on how they help visitors feel like they’ve been transported to another world.
Setting sail with Pirate O’s
If you happen to be in the Draper area and are in dire need of pickled herring, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Pirate O’s. Since 1997, this local grocery store has been supplying the Wasatch Front with traditional ingredients and diverse snacks from all over the world.
Owned by Orian Collinsworth — putting the “O” in Pirate O’s — and his family, this colorful shop has created a subculture all its own. “It’s called Pirate O’s because we didn’t have the guts to call it Trader O’s,” Collinsworth laughs. “We went with the pirate because whatever we called it, we wanted it to be a treasure hunt.”
Collinsworth’s background in wholesale natural foods led him all over the industry, including a brief stint running Walmart’s specialty food program. “I started with Walmart when they had 66 grocery stores and I worked with them until they had 600,” he says.
In the late 1990s, Collinsworth shifted to a retail market focus of his own. He and his wife had been using the building that is now Pirate O’s for a gift basket business they were trying out before transitioning the space into a market. “Having been in the grocery business, our concept was to buy wholesale, sell retail and cut the middle man out,” Collinsworth says.
Though Pirate O’s fanbase was built on the wide variety of international groceries available on the shelves, the building itself has a unique place in Utah history. Before it found its home in Draper, the building functioned as a theater on the grounds of Fort Douglas. “The building was built for the war effort during World War II in the early 40s,” Collinsworth says.
He went on to explain that the original owner, Eugene Ballard, was a prisoner of war and how the soldier who eventually opened the door of his cell ended up being a native of Sandy, Utah. Ballard purchased the building from Fort Douglas and relocated the whole structure to where it now stands in Draper.
Pirate O’s unique selection of products is enough to send anyone on a quick mental vacation, regardless of the time of year, but Collinsworth pulls out all the stops for the winter holiday season. “Our variety gets even deeper if you come back at Christmas,” Collinsworth says. “Food gifting is big that time of year, and when you come back at Christmas, you’ll be really impressed.”
Riding the rails at Himitsu Station
For the past decade or so, escape rooms have become a popular pastime. The ubiquity of local escape rooms — and how to take things to the next level — were huge inspirations for Jaysen and Destiny Batchelor, the brains behind Himitsu Station. “Every time we went to an escape room, we just felt like it was missing something,” Destiny says. “So we decided that if we can’t find an escape room that gives us what we want, why not just make one?”
Destiny’s background in real estate helped secure the downtown space, and Jaysen’s experience in art and design at Hale Centre Theatre provided the practical knowledge to bring Himitsu Station to life. The experience is marked by a singular artistic vision and the engineering chops to bring that vision to life, most of which Destiny and Jaysen have created themselves.
The couple spent nearly two years turning the basement office space in downtown Salt Lake City into a completely immersive collaborative experience. From the moment visitors descend the steps and enter Himitsu Station, the real world stays outside. “The concept behind Himitsu Station is a world between worlds,” Jaysen says. “The experience takes place in the spirit world, and it’s very much like a video game.”
While Himitsu Station incorporates escape room elements like critical thinking, teamwork and deduction, the challenges are part of the overall story. Since the experience — a blend of Studio Ghibli and “Blade Runner,” as Destiny puts it — is narrative-based, it’s designed to be consistently immersive for every group. “We really wanted to keep this closer to a Broadway show,” Jaysen says. “We want to make sure that everyone who comes through gets a consistent experience.”
An attraction like Himitsu Station takes a few pages from playbooks that have created magic in theme parks and haunted houses alike. A clever mix of ingenious engineering and sleight of hand is the bedrock of the experience’s immersive qualities, but the Batchelors have also meticulously curated many of the objects that visitors interact with. “One of our rules is that if you can touch it, it needs to either be real or feel very real,” Destiny says. “We did a whole bunch of research on different spaces in Japan and tried to recreate that, but still take it into the whimsical arena.”
Dashing through the snow with Christkindlmarkt
Given the popularity of Christkindlmarkt at This Is The Place Heritage Park, come December, you may want to start scoping out your parking spot right around now. Organized by Allyson Chard, Christkindlmarkt has become one of Utah’s most beloved — and well-attended — holiday experiences. When she’s not organizing volunteers and scouting event vendors, Chard is the director of public affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Washington, D.C.
Chard’s affection for this traditional European market blossomed when she and her family lived in Germany for two years. “We would go to all the Christmas markets,” she says. “When we came back to Utah, it was like a monkey on my back that I carried for five years; I finally thought if I don’t try, I will always regret it.”
The first Christkindlmarkt took place in 2012, and it’s gained enough momentum over the years to become the yuletide juggernaut that we now enjoy every December. Thanks to a large community of volunteers, vendors and the resources provided by This Is The Place Heritage Park, Christkindlmarkt consistently transports visitors to the Christmas markets of Western Europe. “All the magic comes from this wonderful display of volunteerism,” Chard says. “I think it’s just good-hearted people who want to do something for the community.”
Christkindlmarkt’s power to immerse visitors in an old-world holiday atmosphere is largely created by the event’s vendors, many of whose cultural ancestry can be traced back to these European holiday markets. “The vendors have to be really passionate, and we look for unique products,” Chard says. “Each year, our vendors have gotten better and better.”