Exit Plan: Leesburg’s Escape Room

The intrigue plays out several days a week in a studio apartment in downtown Leesburg, accessible only through a small parking lot and up a steep flight of stairs. It is a “safe house” for a spy — a Russian agent now cooperating with the U.S. government.

Across the hall, several wayward students are hatching a plot to escape detention from a classroom with furnishings straight from the 1980s.

The safe house and the classroom — in a suite of rooms above MacDowell Brew Kitchen — are not real. Nor are the scenes that unfold there. They are the “escape rooms” run by Exit Plan, a locally owned business that creates puzzle-filled adventure games for groups of people to solve.

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Washington Post, August 28, 2016

Residents want more nightlife options

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They want more: more bars and restaurants, and more ways to get to them safely. More music and entertainment destinations. More housing options in urban, walkable environments.

Loudoun County residents who attended a public input session in Ashburn on Monday confirmed the preliminary recommendations of an ad hoc committee created by the Loudoun Economic Development Advisory Commission. That committee has been looking at ways of stimulating the nighttime economy to make Loudoun more attractive to businesses and the young workers they employ.

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Washington Post, March 20, 2016

Loudoun aiming for more nightlife

Loudoun County has recently been ranked among the wealthiest, happiest and best places to live in the country. But there is one list it is unlikely to make: places with the best nightlife. And that makes local business leaders unhappy.

The perception that there is little to do in Loudoun when the workday ends is making it hard for businesses to attract and keep qualified young workers, said Tony Howard, chief executive of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce.

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Washington Post, January 31, 2016

Moonshine in Marion

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In one block on Main Street in Marion, Va., you can enjoy first-rate barbecue at Wolfe’s, watch live bluegrass performances at the historic Lincoln Theatre and rest your head at the equally venerable General Francis Marion Hotel.

But what drew me here was the opportunity to sample some Virginia moonshine at its source.

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Washington Post, March 19, 2015