The banya at Okeanos Spa.   (Photo: David Allee)

• Okeanos

  211 E. 51st St., 212-223-6773

  There aren’t many places in the city where you take a long steam in a banya, followed by a Platza (birch-leaf stroking) session, then down a couple shots of Zyr vodka while eating Petrossian smoked salmon and caviar. This alone is reason enough to go to Okeanos. It’s coed, but Okeanos is modeled after the traditional all-male Russian bathhouses where politicians and businessmen schmoozed while sweating, so it’s particularly man-friendly. Given its midtown location, this could be the new deal-making hot spot.

From the 2007 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine