NEW YORK, NEW HOT SPOTS
Where to sweat in New York from the Polish countryside train
Cześć!!
I’m on the train from Zakopane to Warsaw, where we’ll pitstop for a few hours instead of connecting up to Gdansk as originally planned. My friend Lala (hey!) told us about a restaurant not to be missed, complete with raving reviews from the Amex/Resy team. So one night in Warsaw! Biiiig love for Poland so far. I’m writing up the first official WoW (World of Water) so you can expect that to hit your inbox soon :) I’ve also upgraded to a new iphone, maybe I’ll learn how to get the phone photos just right for splogging (although I will always prefer film).
If you have a top Warsaw sweat-spot, bath, or vintage store, do tell!
Xo, LoCo
NEWS DRIP:
Research: Cold plunging while pregnant?
Design: Tubpanga: An “alfresco bathing” design company that can make your wet dreams come true
Hospitality: AMEYALLI: Deepak Chopra, Chef Charlie Palmer And Appellation To Open Culinary Wellness Hotel In Utah
S.P.A. featured by
in Coveteur ♥‿♥ “Home is Where the Spa is”
NYC H1 SPA-CAP
As promised, I’m here with some reporting on some sweats in New York from the top of this year. I was in the city during February, where it snowed quite a few times, and naturally, my body went into heat-seeking mode while staying between Tribeca and Brooklyn. Did you know that a consistent sauna practice can help your body cool off faster during freak heat waves that seem to be more and more common? Food for thought this summer
Top of this list was Akari sauna club in Williamsburg. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get in for a visit, considering I had heard the members-only club had a waitlist of a few hundred. After a few email exchanges with Shayna we set up a time to come in and check it out. One of the things that I like most about Akari is how cozy it feels. There’s something so strange about walking off of one of the main drags in Williamsburg and into a setup that felt strangely familiar; a home spa outside of home. The facilities consist of:
Two flexi changing rooms with showers
One cold only shower
Two saunas- one hotter and bigger than the other
A row of cubbies that then ended into a drinks station and a seating area (built for reflection, not production) in a tranquil Japanese, almost even a Scandi hotel feel to it, complete with woven mats on the floor, with views of the outside
Two cold plunge pools out in the garden space
As the space is coed, I got into a bathing suit, had a first rinse, and headed into the bigger and hotter sauna. Comfortably, it can probably see around 20, and every 15 minutes or so, the Akari team would come and spray a mixture of water and essential oils which smelled of Japanese Cyprus, Hinoki, and something else I couldn’t quite name. I just spoke to Culture of Bathing about this »
Akari’s drink selection is one of my favorites since they had cans of LaCroix, hot water for tea (complete with a Japanese Zojirushi dispenser). I tried both the green and Hojicha kettl teas plus the Pocari sweat blend on the counter out of a Berkey-esque looking water filter.
A quick interview with Shayna of Akari:
You mentioned being raised in Japan, what does the word akari mean and what did that experience do to shape your views of sauna and communal bathing spaces?
“I was born and raised in Tokyo and moved to the US for college. The word Akari translates to 'light' but beyond that, it embodies warmth, comfort, and a sense of ease in everyday life. In Japan, bathing is ingrained in the cultural fabric. It's both a personal ritual and a communal experience. At home, you can take a bath whenever you need a reset, and in public, there are countless onsens (hot springs) and sentōs (public baths) where you can drop in alone or with family and friends. I've seen these spaces and bathing as offering deliberate pauses in people's lives. In a public setting, there’s a quiet understanding of respect — everyone is there to bathe and to relax. Maybe there’s a brief chat in the changing room, but it’s never intrusive. These experiences shaped my view of what a sauna and communal bathing mean to people; it's not a replacement for other social activities but rather a quiet space and an experience where people can disconnect.”
Tell me about the space. Where is the design inspo from and how is the layout meant to function best? What did you have in mind during the building process?
“Akari was designed with an intention of providing accessible, momentary escapes from the demands of city life. We took inspiration from sentōs, which are built for ease and regular use. Members are able to visit the space whenever they like, without the need for bookings; we wanted our members to treat it like an extension of their living room. We think saunas shouldn’t be an occasional ‘treat’, and our model is meant to ritualize it so that you can come everyday, a few times a week / month, or whenever you can fit it in. The space is small and it’s not meant to be a full day hangout spot. People come in, get changed, shower, sauna, plunge, and rest. No check-ins, we wanted to be as seamless as possible to come and flow through the space.”
Describe your founding members - what types of people are they? How often do they come? What was the biggest shock in who has shown up to be a part of the starting community?
Our members are hyperlocal and really mixed. It's a very broad spectrum of people across age groups and occupations, which we are very proud of. It depends on the individual but a mix of a few times a week, a month, and almost everyday.
If I lived anywhere near one of their locations, I would sprint to become a member. Thank you again, Shayna, and congrats on the Greenpoint location now open - go get a multipack or summer membership and visit for yourself!
Staying in Williamsburg with my sister, the sauna in her building wasn’t cutting it so we went back to Bathhouse for a competitively priced night-time session, catching the last aufguss show of the day. Some of the standard issues at Bathhouse remained - drunk couple in the tepid pool and then the hot tub who couldn’t seem to catch a hint. And since it was the end of the day, the cold plunge had some clumps in the water that looked as if maybe someone spit in it… I’m burning through gift cards to this place and don’t know if I’ll be giving them my cash so they can make server coolant money out of me anymore. Has anyone been to the upgraded WB pools or rooftop?
I was meaning to go to the Flatiron location on my last trip, but instead, I opted for novelty with Othership and Elanhi.
I squeezed into Othership class at 8AM on a Sunday. The sound bath experience and the heat in their huge event sauna was gorgeous, and I will give them big props for the acoustic system in the space. You can tell that the interiors had a lot of thought put behind it – custom-blended incense, an amphitheater seating area, and the finishes like river stone and amber wall sconces all add bits of joy, designed by Futurestudio. Participants are referred to as “Journeyers” which reminds me of Burning Man for some reason.
One of the things I like most about Othership is how they started; in a backyard/garage of one of the founders, very communal. When you enter into their absolutely massive space in Manhattan, it’s hard to grasp that aspect of the facility but it is a nice way to disconnect from the outside world. The classes are what make Othership most different than any other kind of new wave contrast therapy and mostly fit into 3 categories: up, down, and all around. Now, do I think that everyone wants an emotional experience at a sauna and cold plunge? Probably not. But it does make sense to show people the ropes for what we can do without substances to evoke a change in mindset and feelings by only using heat and cold. An hour isn’t a very long time to produce these kinds of shifts, but I can see how implementing these classes as a benchmarking for a mini Esalen-style check-in or spiritual sensation meant to build intimacy with friends.
In my personal opinion, I think there’s a lot of wasted space in the space divided between the check-in area and the waiting room where you “lift off”. I guess they make more use of it during the social night, where you can kind of chat with other people - as it’s meant to be an incubator for some kind of love island experience waiting room versus a room where you are given some guidelines pre-session.
The missed opportunity here are the showers and locker rooms on the way in and out - since they are timed classes, you are battling for a space to ready and a space to prep yourself to go back into the outside world against 40 to 50 other people. Not enough showers resulting in a big queue and the locker room set up is pretty stacked - you’ll probably be touching buns to elbows with your neighbors. Has anyone seen Williamsburg yet?
OK so after Othership, I was still on the prowl for newness. The next night, I grabbed a slot at Elahni after speaking with the team there - shout out Keane and Nick!
What I really liked about Elahni is the dedication to nervous system practices, especially in the form of resetting, sympathetic and parasympathetic responses, the science behind it + the concept of nonlinear progress. If you’ve clocked it so far, I’m big into day-to-day living - one day at a time you could say.
My body tolerates heat and cold in different capacities during different seasons and different parts of the month i.e. menstrual cycles. I live in California so going to New York for a humid winter full of snow has me doubling down on heat seeking activities. My ability to cold plunge was wimpy at best; however, I don’t hold myself to standards of personal bests and maxxxing. Every day is a new day - sometimes a minute in the cold is all you need.
As I headed into the space, I met the three other group members who would become a part of the ritual. The woman who was paired with me had been before I was fairly new to the practice of sauna and cold plunging however, she was taking it on with velocity and we got to chatting about how in her monthly self-care routine she’s trying to go to Elahni at least once a month.
The other two were a couple who had never done an experience quite like this before. But I enjoyed was that the team at Elahni really takes out any kind of guess work which let’s you take exactly what you need from the experience since you are on autopilot.
Each session consists of three alternating rounds between a traditional Finnish sauna and ice bath. After the rounds, you are welcome to relax and have a beverage at the tea & tonic bar.
Our guide set us up in the sauna and started the group timers, so we did not have to pay attention at all! Seriously, full service from the new towels, electrolyte refills, cold plunge count down, and spritzing of sauna essential oils. The four of us sweating would overlap in the sauna sporadically, naturally creating space for us to check in with each other on how the experience was going.
At the end, we all sat and enjoyed the feeling of bliss that washed over us and started to sip on adaptogenic (mo)cktails - making the whole “first sauna speakeasy” tagline make sense. Mine was blue and had magnesium in it. As I walked outside, it had begun snowing again, making the perfect reentry into a very much more quiet and soft New York City February night.
I recommend starting with Elahni for a full guided practice (no matter your skill level or knowledge you think you have about contrast therapy), then trying out something at Othership (be BOLD), and ending with Akari to complete the new hot spot loop.
If you haven’t checked out any of these sweat spots yet, please give them a try and let me know what you think!
Have you seen me? Who wants to put up spa flyers in New York :)
Hit me up on instagram - @robbiebent and would love to host you at Othership williamsburg before we open to the public :)
Have added the Zakopane spa to my Gdansk > Warsaw itinerary in the fall, thank you! Would also love this Warsaw dining rec 👀