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Jisun Lee considered turning this underground space into a karaoke bar, but her family longed for a traditional Korean bathhouse; in their native Seoul, there’s practically one per block, and most people go daily with friends. So in 2001, SPAdium was born. With separate zones for men and women, the spa offers Swedish, Shiatsu, and deep tissue massages. The house specialty, however, is Korean-style body scrubs: After twenty-five minutes of showering, steaming, and soaking in a hot tub, clients’ pruned, naked bodies are relieved of an entire pound of dead skin, exfoliated by nothing but a loofah and elbow-grease; scrub sessions include pressure-point shampoos and egg-white facials, the latter exclusively for women. There’s no small talk or fancy products here—most employees come from Korea and speak broken English, and most products are made in-house. A favorite of late-night detoxers, the 90-minute special package combines a scrub and massage with a hydrating egg yolk-soybean-cucumber facemask and a full-body milk rinse. A visit to the dry sauna or hot salt room completes the process. (Unlimited use of these facilities is included with services.) Treatments are done on bare plastic beds in a communal room, although a separate private area is available. Lounges divide saunas from the massage rooms; one, reserved for couples, is the spa’s only coed space. — Christine Ajudua