Detroit — The Schvitz is a Motor City institution built around its steam room. Since it was founded in 1930, patrons have come to eat a steak and sweat it out in the buff—simple pleasures that make the winter more bearable.
Imagine turning your shower as hot as it can go and somehow standing under it for half an hour. Then imagine turning it to the coldest setting and standing underneath it for even two minutes.
That visceral shock is why 30 people were crowding in the steam room when I visited. The temperature said over 200 degrees. It would rise, too, depending on how much water was being thrown onto the hot rocks in the heater.
Regulars say there are 6,000 pounds of rocks heated by four open-flame heaters for eight hours. I can only imagine how many federal efficiency standards such a construction would violate—thankfully, it’s grandfathered in.
It’s powerful. The bathroom floor above the steam room noticeably radiates the heat. I was unaware of the protocol to bring a pitcher of water with you into the steam room. I quickly caught on and filled one for myself upstairs.
I had no intention of drinking it all. After about half an hour in the steam room, I looked down to find a few ice chips in the bottom of it. Nicole, a regular, says she’s had two already and that you don’t even need to use the restroom until about an hour after you leave.
Sweating profusely is the point. If it’s too hot, there’s no shame in getting under the shower that’s right in the steam room. The regulars use it to cool off their heads, especially those toward the top of the dark cage of heat.
Others wear wool hats soaked in water to keep their hair from burning and their heads a tad cooler.
Someone is getting a plaitza treatment on the top row, which involves rubbing oak leaves on the skin. Nicole says she’s done it and that it was a euphoric experience, especially with the cold plunge afterward. The cold plunge is a long, icy pool about 4-feet deep. It’s the main feature of the large room downstairs.
I wouldn’t call my experience in the cold plunge euphoric, but I certainly felt alive. In fact, I could tell that my survival instincts were working great when they screamed to get out before my feet and hands went numb.
The thermometer in the pool said it was 46 degrees. I could see my breath in the tile-lined basement on the way back to the steam room. I was grateful to be back in the steam, ready to be enveloped in heat again.
Nicole tells me the other heat option downstairs—a dry sauna—features Himalayan salt on the wall. It shares a wall with the steam room, and it’s 180 degrees. But Nicole and I agree the dry heat isn’t as pleasant.
It might be worth a few minutes, but the steam room is the center of the enterprise.
Before or after the steam room, there are chairs upstairs and downstairs where you can just relax or start up a game of chess. There is an undeniable social aspect of coming to The Schvitz. You should talk to people, bring friends, or make new ones.
It’s not hard. Between the wild extremes in temperature and everyone in bathing suits or towels, the social barriers break down.
There is a restaurant upstairs that serves a full menu. The steak is fantastic. Mine was perfectly seasoned. It’s what you need after spending hours in the steam room and the cold plunge.
They have non-alcoholic drink options for sale, and the management freely allows patrons to bring their own booze. They even have a community fridge to keep them cold.
Sure, you could walk around your house drinking in a robe, but it’s undeniably more fun to do it out. There’s also a smoking room and a patio when the weather is more amenable.
There’s an almost-everything-goes atmosphere that still lingers around the banya, which was originally called the Oakland Health Club. Back in the 20th century, rumor has it that the club was a Purple Gang hangout frequented by mobsters—no one can wear a wire when they’re naked in the steam room.
As late as 2016, The Schvitz hosted “Couple’s Night” on Saturdays. When new management took over the following year, they ended the swinger parties and focused instead on creating a “desexualized space.”
The upstairs is now an event space under construction. It’ll be great when it’s ready, but the main draw will always be the powerhouse of the steam room.
It’s remarkable how The Schvitz can invigorate your spirit by subjecting its corporeal form to intense heat and cold, a haven focused on feeling the difference between the extremes and the benefits of slowing down to experience them.
It’s why The Schvitz has been around for almost a century. The heater in the steam room is ripping hot, and it’s waiting for you.
Brendan Clarey is deputy editor of Michigan Enjoyer.
