BADEN BADEN IN YOUR BACKYARD

BADEN BADEN IN YOUR BACK YARD

LET THE HOI POLLOI HAVE CHAMONIX

AND THE PEASANTS PELLEGRINO. WE’RE NEW YORK,HOME OF THE BEST SPAS IN THE WORLD AND IF YOU CAN RELAX HERE YOU CAN RELAX ANYWHERE.

BY JOSHUA DAVID STEIN

POOL PARTY: Wading at the QC NY spa

Take Me To the Waters

An ambitious Italian spa arrives in New York Harbor

New York is a city with few extant secrets. Every inch has been built up, crawled over, and occupied. But for years, Governors Island, which occupies 172 acres in the Upper New York Bay, was terra incognita to most New Yorkers. A military installation since 1776, and the home of Fort Jay since 1806, then passed through the armed forces from Army to Coast Guard, the island remained off limits to most civilians. Then in 2003, it was returned to the city of New York and her people, and the long and laborious process of adapting it for peacetime pursuits began. Today there’s an arts center, an annual Jazz Age lawn party, glamping, a high school, and vast swaths of green space meant for picnicking and strolls. But perhaps the most peaceful element opened in March: the QC NY Spa.

It is hard to imagine what soldiers, from grunts to the Coasties who were stationed in the barracks (now transformed into the Italian-based spa), would say if they saw hassled New Yorkers soaking in the two sleek azure pools set into what was once their mustering ground. It’s not hard, however, to imagine the wonder the soldiers would feel if they knew that their rooms would be turned into a labyrinthine and sprawling spa consisting of themed saunas, Vichy showers, foot baths, and relaxation rooms. Almost certainly an expletive would be used.

In some ways their surprise is no different than most of us might feel stumbling into the spa today. Firstly, taking the waters, a hallowed tradition among spa-goers since Roman times, isn’t exactly de rigueur in the Northeast. America’s spa culture is largely rooted in luxury hotels and focused on treatments rather than the nearly all-day affairs of soaking and lounging that characterize European baths. (Though this is changing too; see facing page.) Secondly, that QC Terme, a small Italian company, whose first baths were in that country’s Bagni di Bormio in the Italian Alps, was tapped to rehab three large barracks—Numbers 112, 113, and 114—in an ambitious five-year $50-million plan in the last great stretch of open space in New York beggars belief. Thirdly, and most important, it is a wonder to find such endless relaxation within a stone’s throw of those skyscraper stalagmite shards of the Manhattan skyline.

When the weather warms, two pools, beset by lounge chairs, will steam in the chill morning air. (They are not yet open.) The baths aren’t quite thermal but they are full of various salutary minerals. (And anyway, New York State law requires pools to be chlorinated.) Steam rooms and saunas occupy the barracks rooms, some themed, as in a slightly Germanic pine-sauna or a “Sauna in the City” that features cutouts of skyscrapers. (Today, only building 112 is open though the other two are slated to open shortly.) There is a rosemary-infused botanic steam room and a marbled Scottish-themed one. Relaxation rooms feature, among other frivolity, hanging cocoon chairs, harem-style pillows, and an “illusion” room that appears upside down. There’s a fireplace room, and one fitted out with a gramophone, and one meant to sit in and record one’s memories of the day. Spa-goers can travel an endless circuit of steaming, showering, and lounging for hours, made all the more relaxing as it unfolds in the shadow of the busiest metropolis in the world. qcny.com

Home Sweat Home

A visit to the Oleon House

Reading List

Spa food for thought

Working out in loft-like spaces tucked into residential Manhattan neighborhoods has become a genre unto itself. But few are as intimate as Oleon House, a newly opened private wellness studio helmed by Carlos Leon and Menna Olvera. If the former name sounds familiar, that’s likely because Leon once upon a time dated Madonna and the two share a daughter, Lourdes (who happens to work out with her dad three times a week). But who among us hasn’t romanced a pop culture icon? Should that define us 20 years later? In the interim, Leon, an actor and a personal trainer, has deepened his expertise to the point of profundity and joined forces with Olvera, a functional medicine coach and integrative health practitioner. Oleon House is like a luxurious fitness mullet: business in the front, party in the back. A visit includes a very personal interview with both Leon and Olvera, followed by 30 minutes of intense work with Leon—think battle ropes, assault bikes, and medicine balls—and then 30 minutes of restorative yoga led by Olvera in the peaceful back room. First you sweat in a series of interval training periods, then you lollygag with various bolsters and accessories nestled around you. For those who value privacy and despise the untz-untz clubfeel of many gyms, Oleon House is your new fitness oasis. theoleonhouse.com There are many books about health and a few about wellness but precious little has been written about the wellness complex itself. Fariha Róisín’s newest title, Who Is Wellness For? An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind, out in June, is therefore a much needed wake-up call. Róisín, a Muslim queer Bangladeshi author, poet, and journalist, examines how Western wellness culture consistently appropriates global healing traditions. One chapter, for instance, is titled, “On White People Co-Opting Yoga.” Easy reading it is not but important perhaps for the challenge it poses to us reposing. Ultimately Róisín doesn’t reject the Western wellness complex entirely but realizes that “in the question of who is wellness for, I’ve come to understand that wellness isn’t for anyone if it isn’t

for everyone.” Who is Wellness For?, out June 14, is published by Random House.

Soak the Rich

AIRE ANCIENT BATHS

Tribeca

When Aire opened in New York in 2012, it was the only high-end soak game in town. (We love the Russian and Turkish baths in the East Village, but luxury they are not.) A series of lighted, heated pools ranging from 102 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit occupy the cavernous 16,000-squarefoot subterranean basement of a former textile factory on Franklin Street. Hundreds of candles glow, relaxing music plays quietly, argan oil (and sandalwood and grapeseed) massages are offered in private massage rooms. A hammam-style steam room turns its glass walls opaque. It’s equal parts monastic and sensual. For the particularly indulgent, there’s a wine bath filled with Ribera del Duero. Though public, Aire feels private since only 20 people are allowed in at a time for one-hour slots of highly concentrated relaxation. beaire.com

BATHHOUSE

Williamsburg

By far the most social and fun bath experience in the city, Bathhouse also perhaps hews most closely to the Roman baths of antiquity. Far from somber, quiet affairs, these were bustling, sweaty, and, at times, rowdy centers for civic life. Bathhouse, which occupies a 10,000-squarefoot section of the former Dr. Brown’s Soda Factory in Williamsburg, is all those things. Says cofounder Jason Goodman, “We’re really giving the middle finger to that idea of performative relaxation.” A younger crowd, between 20 and 50, shvitz and kibitz in a circuit of three pools, a steam room with the night sky glowing above it, saunas (dry and wet), and lounge areas. There are massages too, but deep-tissue sportsoriented bodywork from a team of elite therapists. And after all those toxins have been released, there’s an inhouse restaurant with juices and cocktails as well as fancified riffs on borscht, a bonya favorite. abathhouse.com

VESSEL FLOATS

Greenpoint

Sensory deprivation tanks have been soothing the minds and bodies of the slightly far-out since the 1970s. The trend peaked perhaps in the 1980s but has had a renaissance of late. After all, in these chaotic times who wouldn’t want to float in 1.5 tons of saltwater calibrated precisely to your skin’s temperature in complete darkness, until all external stimuli cease and one regains one’s center? At Vessel Floats, the new Brooklyn mindfulness-centered float studio, appeals to both newbies and old hands. The experience begins with a selection of tonics, including a botanical sleep aid and lucid dream tonic or a seven-mushroom immunity-enhancing elixir. Then you’ll be led to one of the four massive saltwater tanks for an hour of nude soaking. (The water is VERY filtered.) If doctrinaire silence and void isn’t your thing—and yes, they can be terrifying—they also offer custom sound and light baths to ease you into the world of floating. vesselfloats.com

Upstate of Mind

A crop of new luxury spas has replaced the summer camps of yore in New York State

PIAULE

A paradise of earth tones and linen, Piaule is a 50-acre retreat in the bosom of the Catskills. Opened last year, the resort features 24 private cabins, each a study in natural modernism, a restaurant (helmed by the extremely talented Manhattan émigré Ryan Tate) and, naturally, a spa whose cedar sauna has a mountain view, whose steam room is made with local bluestone, and whose treatments include an immersive sound bath (that is, if the sounds of the woods aren’t relaxing enough.) piaule.com

HUTTON BRICKYARDS

With the arrival of (mostly) Brooklyn transplants, Kingston has gone from small industrial town on the Hudson River to small postindustrial town with a very nice spa and hotel. That would be Hutton Brickyards, a hotel and spa which now includes barrel saunas overlooking the water, body brushing treatments, back facials (like a facial, for your back), and a “Thirsty” flag, the raising of which summons afternoon cocktails to your private cabin. huttonbrickyards.com

KENOZA HALL

Above Kenoza Lake, the graceful manor Kenoza Hall sits high atop a hill. Opened in 2020, the old house has turned modern inn, thanks to hipster hoteliers Foster Supply Co. Even higher up the hill, next to 10 newly opened one-and-two bedroom bungalows, is the Hemlock Spa, where treatments are inspired by 19th-century naturopath Sebastian Kneipp. kenozahall.com

TROUTBECK

The 250-acre Hudson Valley estate once hosted poets like Thoreau and civil rights leaders like MLK Jr. (not at the same time). Now the manor house and adjoining buildings have been reborn as a luxurious hotel with a massive, airy, woodsy spa named the Barns, where you can meditate, soak, sweat, and be massaged until you find your own Thoreauvian poetic inspiration. troutbeck.com

INNESS

Taavo Somer, the mind behind Freemans Sporting Club, bellwether of mid-aughts hipsterism, recently opened this members-only club and hotel in Accord. There’s a 12-room farm house and 28 cabins and a Mediterranean restaurant. Until the spa opens in 2023, you’ll have to make do with the tennis, golf, swimming, and more. inness.co

THE CHATWAL LODGE

By far the splashiest opening this year is The Chatwal Lodge, the upstate branch of the iconic luxury hotel brand, which opened in April. This one, an 11-room lodge, is done in high Adirondack-lodge style and full of summer camp amenities (kayaking, horseback riding, stargazing) and also nonsummer camp amenities like en suite massages from the pros at the nearby YO1 Wellness Center. thechatwallodge.com

What the Flute?

Behind the spa soundtrack

You can’t walk into a wellness center without being subsumed by vaguely Eastern ambient music. Who makes it? And why? To find out, we asked Steve Gordon, who, with his brother David, runs Sequoia Records, by far the most prolific and popular spa music purveyors.

How would you describe your music?

You can use words that are music business words like ambient, relaxation music, meditation music, spa music. None of those would be wrong. But you can also let go of those kinds of words that are used by music industry types and say it is intentional music. The musician is composing music with an intention to relax you, to soothe your mind, to put you at ease.

How long have you been doing this?

Believe it or not, we’re in our 40th year. We used to be session musicians for rock bands in Los Angeles. But it was so stressful. One day we went hiking in the woods, heard nature sounds, and started recording them. Those albums were very successful.

How has the spa music business changed?

Back before streaming, everyone who was doing this kind of music was an artist. Now, there’s a lot of people who do it more like a business. There’s a lot of artists who have names like Spa Music or Music for Spas. So it’s gotten pretty cynical. David and I, though, still approach it as an art form.

What’s your best seller?

Right now, Gratitude: Relaxing Native American Flute Music is hugely popular. It has super ambient keyboards behind the flute.

FOR HIS FACE

Caldera + Lab “The Good” multifunctional serum. $97; calderalab.com

FOR THE HANDS

Czech & Speake leather-bound manicure set in gray. $805; mrporter.com

Spa at Home

Pamper in place

FOR THE HOME

Goodland wood-burning hot tub. $5,795; hellogoodland.com

FOR HER FACE Augustinus Bader

The Rich Cream. $280; augustinusbader.com

On Pins and Needles

A visit to Ora, the UES’s newest acupuncture spa

The Upper East Side doesn’t exactly seem to be a hotspot for traditional Chinese medicine. There are needles a-plenty up here but mostly they’re filled with Restylane and Botox. At Ora, however, a luxury acupuncture studio opened last December, the needles are tiny stainless steel narrow gauge pricks, which are inserted at your meridians, turning you into a relaxed collection of cells with free-flowing qi. With its David Rockwell-designed interior—lots of white marble and gold—Ora is anything but a standard acupuncture joint. The front is a minimalist “tea & tonic” lounge featuring constipation solving pu-erh blends and tonics made with ginseng, coconut water, and deer antler essence. Ora offers teen acupuncture—a popular mother-and-daughter activity—as well as 30-minute “Chi’ll” sessions and more serious 50-minute “Essential” sessions. But, according to founder and CEO Kim Ross, Upper East Siders have been flocking in for the Ora Acupuncture Facial, available only at this location. (Another Ora opened in NoHo in 2020.) The 75-minute treatment combines both traditional Chinese medicine with facial cleansing, facial cupping, and lymphatic drainage. For many first-time acupunctees, “It’s great at targeting your inside out,” says Ross, “you can’t look good if you don’t feel good.” The idea of being needled can be daunting, but Ora takes pains to be welcoming. Each of the five treatment rooms feel like cozy nests, with a heated bed at the center and a sense of humor. “Say Chi!” admonishes one cheeky mirror, and— after 75 minutes of acupuncture—it’s hard not to obey. oraspace.com

To Well and Back

A very long treatment at a very nice spa

Most spa treatments last 60 minutes, 90 if you’re lucky. But at the Well, the luxe emporium of wellness that opened in 2019, treatment can last weeks, even months. Founded by Rebecca Parekh, former COO for Deepak Chopra; Kane Sarhan, former head of brand for Starwood Capital Group and 1 Hotels; and Sarrah Hallock, a former executive at Vitaminwater, the Well was originally a members-only club. For $375, 2,000 members could swan around the 18,000-square-foot space in the Flatiron, from meditation rooms with crystals embedded into the floor to steam rooms and saunas and lounges and a private fitness studio and a restaurant. Covid forced a change of plan, but the pause allowed the company to evolve further. The membership model has been dropped. The Well has expanded to two new branches: one at the Mayflower Inn in Connecticut and another, a Hacienda AltaGracia in Costa Rica. And, back in New York, in a revamped and deepened wellness programming. The ne plus ultra of the latter is the Well Way, a health-focused treatment that lasts between four to six weeks.

Developed by the chief medical officer, Dr. Frank Lipman, author of tomes such as The New Health Rules and Better Sleep, Better You, the program includes a team of caregivers, from functional medicine specialists to health coaches. Over a series of medical consultations, diagnostic tests, and coaching sessions, the Well way promises to address the hellish soup of acronyms that can make our insides miserable, from IBS to SIBO. Through a mixture of supplements and behavior and nutrition modifications, brain fog will be cleared, hormones will be rebalanced and your thyroid will go back to doing whatever a thyroid is meant to. The package, which also includes eight day passes and a hefty discount on other services, runs $1,425. the-well.com

SELFIE STEAM: Doing the work at The Well

Wake Up

It’s time to rethink the common wellness trope

BY LODRO RINZLER

Buddha statues and Buddhist imagery are omnipresent in spas and wellness centers. On one hand I think how nice that they’re putting out a statue of the Buddha. Maybe someone will be inspired and want to study the dharma, or Buddhist teachings. On the other hand, I do not think that is the intention. Often, the statue reads as another piece of furniture, as décor and not a representation of an actual person, someone who “woke up.” How would the owner feel about putting their own religious figures in a spa? Would Catholics consider putting Jesus near the massage table? If not, why do so with the Buddha. When you think about the actual journey of the Buddha, he was a prince who, some 2,500 years ago, left the comfort and luxury of his palace to seek enlightenment in the forests of India. He woke up by not chasing pleasure but accepting suffering.

Lodro Rinzler is the cofounder of MNDFL and the author, most recently, of Take Back Your Mind: Buddhist Advice For Anxious Times.

Hotel Motel Luxury Spa

Travel without leaving the city with these four spas

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ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE Bamford Haybarn Spa

It’s Dorset in DUMBO at the new Bamford Spa at 1 Brooklyn Hotel. The brand, developed by Carole Bamford, takes inspiration from the English countryside, here present in herby organic facials and massage treatments.

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SWITZERLAND Maison Valmont On the third floor of the Hotel Carlyle, Valmont has created a Swiss oasis where one can avail themselves of facials using their famed L’Elixir des Glaciers as well as treatments like an Alpine Vitality massage, leaving you with enough energy to bound down the stairs to the lobby.

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CALIFORNIA Spa de la Mer

At the Baccarat Hotel, the first dedicated spa from the cult skin care line includes plenty of Miracle Broth facials, developed in California (not France) by the mercurial astrophysicist Dr. Max Huber.

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JAPAN Shibui Spa In one of the stranger juxtapositions in New York, in the basement of the Greenwich Hotel a 250-year-old farmhouse has been reassembled as part of the trailblazing Shibui Spa. One of the first and still the best onsen-style spas, Shibui offers traditional massage as well as onsen (or bath) rituals.