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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
FEBRUARY 2012
SAM POLCER (BATH CUISINE), AT RUSSIAN & TURKISH BATHS, NYC
LEVEL 3
AMATTER
OF COURSES
The brainchild of chef Gilles
Arzur and Spanish beauty
brand Natura Bissé, the
seven-course A Taste of Beauty
treatment/dinner at L.A.’s
BeverlyWilshire
appeals to
those with a serious appetite
for luxury. Think that might be
you? Check out the menu:
• After a “welcome inhalation”
of essential oils comes a
complementary drink featuring
many of the same relaxing
elements: lemon, sage, rosemary
and lavender.
• The skin-rejuvenating action of
an acid exfoliation is echoed in
the natural acid of a rhubarb salad
and the fizz of Pop Rocks.
• For the skin, a marine-based
serum and a menthol mist; for the
taste buds, scallops with mint jelly
and an atomized mint cocktail.
• Just like magic, magnets whisk
a shimmering black body scrub
away from the skin, and later off
a dish covering a croquette that
you cut open to reveal—presto!—
shimmering black risotto.
• A cool firming mask redolent
with calming lavender oil is
reflected in a perfectly chilled
scoop of honey-lavender sorbet
(pictured above).
• Aromatherapy comes to the
fore as spicy odors (pepper,
cardamom, incense) fire up the
senses—including taste, which is
rewarded with hay-smoked squab
in a richly spiced sauce.
• Fittingly, the crowning touch is
jewel-themed: a sparkling sugar
dessert and a take-home gift
from Natura Bissé’s Diamond
collection. (90 min., $1,500)
LEVEL 2
LIP SERVICE
A sweet new facial
treatment is the icing
on the cake
Well, it’s about time:
Pennsylvania’s
Hotel
Hershey
has finally
provided a satisfy-
ing answer to the
question on the lips
of every spa-goer who’s ever been wrapped in chocolate. This
month the hotel’s spa, which already offers a chocolate fondue
wrap, chocolate sugar scrub, chocolate beanpolishandwhipped
cocoa bath, will add a cocoa facial featuring edible dark choco-
late—becoming the first spa in North America to let guests
actually
eat
a cocoa treatment. (75 min., $170)
LEVEL 1
FROM RUSSIAWITH GRUB
New York’s Russian baths serve spa food you’ll actually
want
to eat
Deep within the banyas of New York City, Russian-Americans still embrace the
centuries-old tradition of lounging in 180-degree saunas and steam rooms for
health. But beyond all the sweat, these baths—such as the
Russian & Turkish Baths
(pictured) in the East Village—are celebrated for in-house restaurants where you can
dine on garlicky borscht with dumplings and sour cream, herring and pickled onions
and black tea stirred with cherry jamwhile still in your bathrobe. Chat up the servers
and they might bring a bo le of homemade
kvass
(a fermented beverage similar to
beer) for the table. Just don’t expect wheatgrass smoothies. This ain’t that kind of spa.
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