• D’mai Urban Spa

  157 Fifth Ave., Park Slope, Brooklyn, 718-398-2100

  To disclose a favorite spa location is the New York equivalent of a national-security breach—how can one blow the cover of an oasis?—but D’mai Urban Spa can probably withstand the attention and retain its calm. Luxe, unfussy, and feng shui–ed within an inch of its 3,000-square-foot life, the spa combines the chicness of a Soho design shop with the laissez-faire warmth of a Brooklyn restaurant. The people at the desk know your name. The sauna, a cedar box of heaven, is generally about 230 degrees, the aestheticians use Sonya Dakar products, and several of the massage therapists have earned their own celebrity clientele. (Ask for Micah, who reads sore backs the way farmers read soil.) And here’s the good news: You pay Brooklyn prices ($95 for a full hour, plus use of the facilities).

From the 2006 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine