Escaping the cold in New York City is a job unto itself. You can pile on the cashmere (dry cleaning bill be damned), furiously search for flights to warmer climes (President’s Day weekend is right around the corner), or spend a few hours in the steamy serenity of a sauna, where your only assignment is to sweat and forget just how bleak this time of year can feel.
For more than a decade, Manhattan’s Flatiron District has been synonymous with nouveau wellness. Boutique fitness classes, fancy gyms, acupuncturists, stretching, recovery—this area has it all. But now, as senior staff writer Marisa Meltzer reports, we are living in a bathhouse boom with new openings across the city.
As dedicated bathhouses compete with pricey members clubs, New Yorkers find themselves smack dab in the middle of what she calls, “the sauna wars.” Which side will you be on?
