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Seoul-born Anne and Danny Lee put the “New” in front of the eight-year-old Model Nail salon in 2005, though the name change has yet to appear on its worn black awning. Inside the wood-floored, 1,500-square-foot space, staffers cater to familiar-faced locals coming in for rounds of cheap manis, pedis, and waxing before even cheaper rounds at Señor Swanky’s down the block. Given NYU’s proximity and the well-advertised student discount, backpacks are numerous. Frazzled, frugal-living students seek refuge here, plucking Antique Rose or Aperitif from a bin of some 200 Essie shades and grabbing a zone-out copy of Glamour from among the 30-odd magazine titles. Leaving term-paper worries at the door, they settle into spots at the ten-chair manicure bank or at one of nine massaging pedicure loungers. Toe treatments come with a ten-minute foot rub, but if that brief kneading doesn’t do the trick, Mr. Lee, a masseur at a Fifth Avenue spa uptown who makes biweekly appearances here, gives a killer neck rub that’s no pricier than the margaritas down the street—and you won’t suffer a hangover from this cure. — Rose Reis

Students receive 10 percent off all services. On your eleventh visit, you get a free manicure. And a combination manicure, pedicure, and twenty-minute massage costs just a tad more than 50 bucks.