Danvers Trio Hopes 'The Crypt' Will Be A Bloody Good Salem Spot

SALEM, MA — Dining out in Salem could soon be a horror show if Cailee Holmes and her business partners have anything to say about it.

A veteran of the restaurant business, Holmes said she long had plans with two of her Danvers High classmates to one day open up a restaurant. When the trio connected again within the past year, plans were hatched to open up a horror-themed restaurant called "The Crypt" at a location to be determined in Salem.

"If there is going to be one, and it's going to succeed anywhere, it will be in my hometown of Salem," Holmes told Patch. "There are a lot of people who come to Salem for that reason (horror-themed festivals and events) and this is the one missing piece. That's why I bought my house in Salem."

While her two business partners continue to work in the industry, Holmes has spent the better part of the last year planning the restaurant after her own health circumstances forced her to step away from a management position amid the coronavirus health crisis.

"I was quarantining for months at a time and that gave me the push," she said. "We decided that if we don't do it now then we'll never do it. You look around and see a lot of the restaurants were closing because of the shutdowns. That's horrible. But that is opening up a lot of stuff for new places."

Holmes said the time off has given her the chance to develop the bulk of the menu of horror-themed items for fans of the genre, including The Dawn of the Dead Burger, The Quint Sandwich, the Monster Mash (potato) and The Tattoo Artist cocktail, which she said is a tribute to a lafe friend.

"It was good to get back into creating," she said, "which I hadn't been able to do in some time being in restaurant management."

Holmes said the hope is to appeal to visitors looking for something extra spooky during their trips to Salem as The Crypt builds its customer base of locals who appreciate the food as much as the envisioned ambiance.

"From day one we said we didn't want this to be Planet Hollywood," she said. "We want them to come first for the allure and then come back for the food."

They also want the restaurant to be part of the horror community through a GoFundMe campaign to raise $10,000 for the spot Holmes said she hopes will open in a permanent spot next spring after teasing it with a handful of pop-up restaurants planned for this year.

She said they are developing a series of donation incentives such a possibly discount points or a membership horror-themed drink club, but mostly want horror fans to view The Crypt as their own creepy little lair as she's already built an active Facebook community where she plans to raffle off horror-themed memorabilia.

"We want it to be a place by the fans and for the fans," she said. "The horror community as a whole is so supportive of each other. We want them to feel like they were really involved in building this and that they can come and feel like this is 'our place.' This is a place 'we' can call home.

"There are horror fans who meet all over the country who have told us they will come to Salem once we open this restaurant."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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