“People are craving places where they can connect and have fun without alcohol being the focus of the experience. It’s nightlife that’s energizing rather than depleting.” Othership’s Robbie Bent
LIFT OFF: The sauna at Othership
Communal saunas and ice-cold plunge pools are the city’s newest hot spots for the social (and sober) set. Bathing suit required.
BY PETER DAVIS
New York’s PYTs are socializing in a whole different way, and it’s not happening in private members clubs or dimly lit cocktail lounges. The scene has shifted dramatically and has, quite literally, never been steamier. The city’s new hot spots, with names like Othership, Lore, AIRE and The Altar, may sound like nightclubs, but they are the opposite of late night, boozy, DJ-driven venues. The places to see and be seen? Communal saunas, cold plunges, and thermal pools.
The secret pre-opening of Othership’s Flatiron location was a true outlaw-style event. With Daybreaker—the early-morning sober dance party—the very attractive crowd, clad in bathing suits, moved from a large wood planked sauna (where “Guides” regularly toss scented snowballs on the coals, wafting the up to 185F room with cedar and eucalyptus) to cold plunges, then to a space where everyone danced with abandon to house music.
“People are craving places where they can connect and have fun without alcohol being the focus of the experience,” says Robbie Bent, who co-founded Othership during the 2020 pandemic in Toronto. He then opened locations in Flatiron and Williamsburg (UES is up next). “You can dance, laugh, meet new people, and leave feeling better than when you arrived. It’s nightlife that’s energizing rather than depleting. There’s a real appetite for that.” When “Shipheads” have clocked twenty-two sessions, they are awarded with a white wool felt sauna hat, now a coveted status symbol amongst sauna-heads. (The caps also help you sweat more thoroughly).
A few blocks away at The Altar, influencers like Brendan Fallis have hosted invite-only events. Visitors lounge around on the platform seating before a cold plunge or a session in the semi-circular sauna, which has an appropriately spiritual-like vibe. “I find myself socializing between sauna sessions. The ritual feels familiar, moving between spaces, meeting new people. Only here, tea replaces martinis and the cold plunge replaces the last call,” says devotee Ty Gaskins, a cultural strategist. “The communal sauna has become one of the most compelling spaces of our time. It has all the rhythm of a great cocktail bar, except everyone leaves with endorphins instead of a hangover.”
“The quality of attention and presence that you get when you’re not competing with your phone, when you’re in this sort of very primal state, it allows you to open up and get into a flow.” – James O’Reilly of Lore Bathing Club
TURNING UP THE HEAT: Lore Bathing Club founders James O’Reilly and Adam Elze
At Lore Bathing Club in NoHo, the modern space feels like a movie set where guests play a starring role. It’s the creation of James O’Reilly (a co-founder of Lifetime Fitness) and Adam Elzer (who came from NeueHouse) —Lore is a clubhouse for downtown’s creative class. “Lore means to spread wisdom or knowledge,” says Elzer. And the wisdom of Lore Bathing Club is that going from a hot Finnish sauna to a cold plunge immensely improves both physical and mental health. Lore attendants practice the German art of aufguss, where scents are wafted through the sauna using towels in a kind of acrobatic aroma therapy dance. “I’m not personally on a sober journey, but to me, the quality of attention and presence that you get when you’re not competing with your phone, when you’re in this sort of very primal state, it allows you to open up and get into a flow,” says O’Reilly.
Bathhouse, which has three locations in New York, is the mega-club of wellness destinations: big and action-packed with numerous plunge pools (ice-cold, salt baths, Jacuzzis) as well as saunas and steam rooms. The line for Bathhouse’s Williamsburg location resembles a throng outside a nightclub. Around the roof-top pool, clutches of cute people chat, read books, or look for their next date. “I have met so many cute guys at Bathhouse,” says Georgina, a fashion student. “And they aren’t drunk or just looking to hook up, like at some nightclub. You can really talk to someone. Plus, they are in bathing suits, so you know what they look like without their clothes on.”
“We’re over-digitized and under-connected, and a hot room with strangers in it turns out to be a pretty direct fix for that. Sauna has been central to cultures around the world for centuries.” – Robert Hammond of Therme Group US
TÊTE-Á-TÊTE: A sauna huddle at Othership
A pioneer of the trend is AIRE Ancient Baths, which opened their 16,000-square foot Tribeca location in 2012 in a restored 1883 textile factory. “AIRE was born from a desire to revive the ancient tradition of bathing as a meaningful ritual for relaxation, connection, and wellbeing,” says Andrea Trillo, Chief Growth Officer. “Inspired by the bathing cultures of the Roman, Greek, and Ottoman civilizations, AIRE envisioned creating a modern sanctuary where guests could reconnect with themselves through the healing power of water.” This includes a candle-lit Tepidarium (a relaxation room with heated walls, floors and loungers) under a skylight.
In the book Social Sauna, the writers reason, “Whether it’s for 2 people or 100, the bath is about balancing social behavior, the individual and the communal. The revival of the public sauna has emerged as a powerful social tool, building a sense of community.” Robert Hammond, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Therme Group US, which develops and operates large-scale wellbeing destinations around the globe, agrees. “This is a real cultural shift,” he says. “We’re over-digitized and under-connected, and a hot room with strangers in it turns out to be a pretty direct fix for that. Sauna has been central to cultures around the world for centuries.” Hammond was behind the wildly popular “Culture of Bathe-ing” pop-up sauna village at Domino Park. “It wasn’t a spa day, it was a gathering,” he explains. “We’re in the middle of a loneliness epidemic that has nothing to do with a lack of information about wellness, and everything to do with a lack of places to actually be with people. Bathing solves that directly.”
Aire Ancient BathsLore Bathing Club in NoHoAIRE Ancient BathsBathhouseThe Altar
