Bathhouse Williamsburg
Sauna · Williamsburg ·
Thermal pools, saunas, steam room, rooftop pool, modern design
Thermal pools, saunas, steam room, rooftop pool, modern design
"Head to the bathroom during your meal at Bathhouse, and there’s a good chance people will be standing around butt-ass-naked. On the way back to the dining room, you may pass employees wearing black overalls and rubber gloves. And once you settle back into your chair, the table next to you may have been filled by a group of suspiciously happy people wearing identical beige linen robes. Before you email Ronan Farrow or jump into the Mystery Machine, know that you don’t have the scoop on a new cult in Williamsburg. As the name suggests, this is just a bathhouse. And inside the giant spa, there’s a 40-seat restaurant with big windows, candlelit marble tables, and a small L-shaped bar. You could eat here independently of the spa, but the beef tartare just isn’t as exciting when there’s not a bath towel wrapped around your head. photo credit: Noah Devereaux This is some of the best food you can eat in a bathrobe. Despite the restorative ice plunge and guided stretching sessions a few feet away, the Eastern and Northern European dishes here aren’t light or healthy. The fried chicken skins are coated in farmer’s cheese, and the tender duck confit is served on a pretzel bun during the day, and alongside spaetzle at dinner. Thick stew with venison, wild boar sausage, and savory bread pudding would be ideal during a snowstorm in the mountains, but it also happens to be delicious after lounging in a tropical-themed sauna in a Williamsburg basement. And that’s exactly when you should eat here - holding a glass of Champagne in a robe after a 90-minute massage. But if you come in off the street and sit at a candlelit table like it’s any other restaurant, you’ll feel like an outsider. You’ll notice every waft of chlorine-scented air, and when your server asks if you’re pre- or post-spa, you’ll chug your drink so you’re not the only one here without flushed cheeks. Come to Bathhouse with a group or the person who takes up the other half of your bed, and spend the day soaking in thermal pools or doing absolutely nothing in sensory deprivation tanks downstairs. Then, head to the restaurant. By the time you finish your oysters and wine, you’ll be one of those suspiciously happy people in a beige linen robe. Food Rundown Bone Broth Bone broth should always be on your table here. The lunch version with roasted mushrooms and dinner one with duck egg are both light, but hearty enough to be served in a medieval banquet hall full of people drinking flagons of mead. Fried Chicken Skins Each sheet of these chicken skins tastes like a whole bird that wandered in front of a steamroller. But the farmer’s cheese takes away from the crunchy texture without adding much flavor, and there’s not enough roe to make a difference. Skip this. Roasted Celery Root If meat and potatoes got a job working for Miranda Priestly, it’d transform into this dish in no time. The disc of juicy celery root is served with celery root puree and mushroom jus. It’s listed as an entree, but we recommend ordering it as a starter to share. Beef Tartare The tender, very finely chopped meat is mild, and most of the flavor comes from the shaved horseradish on top. Order it, and ask for extra crunchy buttered bread that comes on the side. Hunter’s Stew As the name suggests, this thick stew would be great after a long day accumulating pelts, but you’ll also want it post-hot tub wearing spa slippers. Along with some intensely flavored venison and wild boar sausage, it comes with savory bread pudding you should soak in the meaty broth. This is the best dish here. Confit Duck Duck confit is the Jennifer Lawrence of the menu here. It’s just as comfortable hanging out with a beer during the day as it is being the center of attention at night. But whether it’s served as a sandwich on a pretzel bun or as a whole leg with a side of spaetzle, the juicy, fall-apart meat makes it a must-order. Chocolate Ganache We’ve never advised anyone against eating chocolate mousse in a bathrobe, and we’re not going to start now." - Matt Tervooren
"A wellness destination housed in a restored 1930s factory in Williamsburg offering thermal pools, heated marble hammams, saunas, a steam room, spa treatments like massages and body scrubs, plus an on-site bar and restaurant in a stylish industrial setting." - Lauren Dana Ellman Lauren Dana Ellman Lauren Dana Ellman is a New York-based writer and editor who specializes in travel, lifestyle, food, and shopping content. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines
"Inside a large, brick 1930s factory building in Williamsburg, I discovered a 6,500-square-foot basement wellness destination called Bathhouse whose designers preserved the building's vaulted ceilings, brickwork and even the old 100-foot smokestack — now the centerpiece of a semi-secret ritual room in the women's locker area. I entered through a neat waiting room and followed an attendant down a black-lit hallway that tunnels through a glass-enclosed chamber of glowing tropical plants; in the locker rooms I showered, anointed myself with cedar-scented tinctures, slipped on a kimono robe and descended into the baths. A massive Amit Greenberg mural evokes ancient Roman thermae above three thermal pools (104°F hot soak, 52°F cold plunge and 94°F neutral) with two heated hammam stones nearby, and radiating off the bath area are saunas — a humid “tropical” sauna set to 185°F (feels like 200°F), a dry Finnish sauna at 175–190°F — plus a dim steam room whose ceiling is lit like a starry sky. The facility also includes private treatment rooms, a marble scrub room, a cryotherapy chamber and a sensory-deprivation tank, and instead of standard spa fluff the team brought in fitness and sports-medicine experts (including a former Brooklyn Nets staffer) to offer athletic-recovery treatments. The vibe is social rather than silent — when I visited it was comfortably busy with conversation — and the site also houses a 40-seat restaurant by Akiva Elstein with marble tables, tropical plants, a soaring geometric bar of natural wines and custom dining robes by Tilit; chef Nejc Šeruga (Agern, Eleven Madison Park) serves a pronounced borscht that Goodman called "the best borscht in the city" along with house-made vodka infusions (jalapeño & serrano; cucumber & dill). Day passes start at $45 for early-bird (Mon–Fri until 11 a.m.), $55 Mon–Fri and $70 for Sat–Sun, with Night Owl passes available for 10 p.m.–midnight." - Hannah Walhout Hannah Walhout Hannah Walhout is a senior editor at Travel + Leisure, where she edits the Discoveries section of the print magazine and develops longer stories focusing on food, wine, and spirits. She has previously worked at Food & Wine and in the writing program at NYU Abu Dhabi. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines
"Modern bathhouse-esque spots in Montreal and Brooklyn offer a different experience from the indulgent Turkish hammam, with menus including items like Little Gem salad and ginger juice." - Oset Babür-Winter
"On a recent visit to the ten-thousand-square-foot underground spa and restaurant in Williamsburg that opened in 2019, I experienced a deliberately nontraditional bath complex that integrates elements of Turkish hammams, Russian banyas, and Korean jjimjilbangs without committing to any single tradition; founder Jason Goodman envisioned a cosmopolitan spiritual sanatorium offering “an uncomplicated borderline-primal human experience,” inspired by everything from a National Geographic photo of snow monkeys in hot springs to a sweat-lodge ceremony in north Georgia. During a two-hour “journey” of alternating dry sauna (190°F), cold-plunge pool (52°F), and steam room (115°F) I slipped into the relaxed “spa brain” regulars praise, and then ate at Bathhouse Kitchen (where, on a heated patio, you can dine without purchasing spa entry), whose chef Anthony Sousa—veteran of Chez Ma Tante and Eleven Madison Park—was instructed to build a menu that would leave eaters feeling “alive” and avoid anything likely to spike insulin. I left the tasting feeling exactly that: Nantucket Bay scallops glazed in compound butter with Calabrian chilies, lemon zest, briny sea beans, and seaweed-stock potatoes; Cognac- and sherry-vinegar–braised pork cheeks in mushroom bouillon with chunky parsley oil; a week-aged duck rubbed with black-garlic and sherry glaze served over foraged mountain huckleberries; and standout vegetables—charred, steamed caraflex cabbage dressed with miso, lemon, garlic, chives, smoked Pecorino, and onion jam, plus a raw, thinly sliced butternut-squash salad with golden raisins, pecans, tarragon, onion, and blue cheese—followed by a pear sorbet with pecan-and-coconut crumble. The four-course Chef’s Tasting ($85; à la carte dishes $8–$37) was whimsical and excellent, set to hidden speakers playing 1970s British funk and scented faintly with a house incense that includes resin left over from psychedelic religious ceremonies; Goodman’s wellness-first ethos (including a long-standing grain- and processed-sugar-free diet and a mission to “keep all you peak performers out there fully optimized”) is evident throughout the experience." - David Kortava