Bliss of the Shvitz / Copyright The Los Angeles Times, April 14th, 2005 / By Valli Herman, Times Staff Writer
After my first-timer's tour of the City Spa, I am ready to pack up and drive back to work, thinking of the many reasons why I'm not going to be beaten with branches.
I've endured and observed lots of unusual rituals in the name of beauty and health. But at this Pico Boulevard institution, the pursuit takes on a manly swagger. I consider myself too much a sissy to withstand this Russian-style shvitz, the high-heat steam bath and the plaitza, a brief exfoliation treatment given in the steam room with a large, wet and blazing-hot oak-branch brush.
Heading toward the exit, I pass two friendly, skinny young guys paying $25 for spa admission. (Update 2012 $40) I find my courage, my credit card and my way to the women's locker room.
Women are fairly new to the City Spa, which admits only men 4 days a week. On coed days, bathing suits are required and business for the plaitza is slow, so the spa's Mr. Flagellator stays home (but women can ask a buddy for the treatment). Evidently, the spectacle of a man's naked body being flogged is best reserved only for other men.
It's just as well. It's humiliation enough sweating marbles with men in the Russian Rock room, a 180-degree cave featuring two oversized wall ovens filled with glowing cobblestones. For more heat, one of the two guys sprinkles warm water on the hot rocks, sending steam blasts to the upper benches. Some hearty patrons take a full 10 minutes of baking while wearing a dry, heat-absorbing bell-shaped wool hat, cheerfully embroidered with oak leaves.
As gentlemen, my sauna companions make sure I'm OK with the heat. And I am. It's the cold that pushes the extremes. Just steps beyond the Russian rock room is an aptly named "cold plunge," a small, deep pool of barely melted iceberg. I don't let the warning sign about sudden temperature changes and heart attacks scare me. The plunge is so incredibly cold -- and thrilling after the intense heat -- I have to experience it three times. Even Mark Twain recognized the pleasure in pain when he described his first Russian steam as "exquisite torture."
For more cooling, there's a sizable unheated indoor pool. Extra heat comes from a eucalyptus steam room, a whirlpool illuminated by a skylight and sunshine on the rooftop deck. Though many come here for the Russian sauna, the sprawling place also offers rooms for sleeping, massage, watching TV and playing cards, in addition to a VIP locker room and a cafe featuring Middle Eastern cuisine.
It's easy to understand the appeal of the shvitz. It was a popular ritual among Russian and immigrant Jews, who visited the public bathhouse in preparation for the Sabbath and to glory in indoor plumbing. The City Spa, which opened in 1955 as the Pico-Burnside Baths, is one of a few Russian-style spas in the country (the others are in New York, Chicago, Detroit and Miami). It also offers a glimpse of L.A.'s Jewish history on that stretch of Pico.
In 1989,Simon Cambiz, bought the bathhouse with his brothers and extensively remodeled it. Cambiz is an Iranian Jew of Russian heritage, remembers shvitzing all afternoon with his father as a kid. He's still a daily visitor. But now on Saturday nights, families from all walks of life and many regions of the world, bond through the power of sweat.
