Russian turkish baths nyc gay


Step inside New York's oldest health club, where celebrities, millennials, and businessmen mingle over Dead Sea mud treatments and a degree steam room

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  • Russian and Turkish Baths is a health club in New York City's East Village neighborhood.
  • Open since , the bathhouse serves as a meeting place for the city's Russian and Jewish enclaves — and a hotspot for celebrities, millennials, businessmen, and tourists.
  • For over 30 years, the Baths have been owned by two Russian émigrés who manage the facilities on alternating weeks.

 

Step through the tenement door on 10

The American Man: A Sunday Morning at the Bath House

Sunday mornings are for men only at the Russian and Turkish Baths in the East Village, and I’m pretty sure that you know what that means. So I’m nervous in my red swim trunks on this warm August morning because I’m used to passing but, unlike the eyes-averse gym locker rooms I’ve grown accustomed to, I’m also relatively certain that for most dudes who go to a guys-only bathhouse on a Sunday morning, dicks are kind of the whole point.

I’m here because, for me, a straight, bearded, tattooed trans man with a different sort of anatomy, a bathhouse feels thrilling, risky even. Everything about me is self-made, hard-won: this hairy stomach, these chest muscles, this carefully trimmed beard—all of it a mosaic that makes my reflection strange but not dissonant, all of it my ticket into this grimy, foul-smelling, sexed-up space.

It’s one thing to exposure my body with needles and scalpels and the threat of cancer. It’s quite another to be exposed to a mob of dudes in a dank, dungeon-like basement of steam rooms and a sad-looking po

10th Street Turkish Bath

Update: They've cut back the hours for men to only 4 hours on Sunday morning. Admission is $
Store front has been renovated.
Crowd: Sunday is mostly gay, mix all ages and colors.
Facilities: Very nice, friendly management. They give robe, towels, slippers, lockers. Two saunas, one steam roo
No

Who's Coming

Sunday is mostly gay, mix all ages and colors.
Facilities

  • Crowd:Sunday is mostly gay, mix all ages and colors.
    Facilities: Very gentle , friendly management. They give robe, towels, slippers, lockers. Two saunas, one steam roo
    No
  • Hours:cruiser update 10/17/ Sunday is the men's only are now TWO men-only times:
    Sunday mornings 7am-2 p.m.
    Thursdays noon-5 p.m.
    clothing is optional in the wet area during men-only time.
    Best times: Sunday is the men's only day.
    Dates open: 7 am - 10 pm
  • Cruising Info/ Tips:It's not an openly gay place but when you go to the sauna or the steam room you can see the hands playing with .
    Cruisiest Spots: Sauna rooms, steam room and the lockers area.
  • Nudity / Policy:Allowed on Sunday mornings.
  • Wheelchair Accessi

    I’ve been living half a block away from the Russian-Turkish Baths on East 10th St for two years, and until the other day I’d never been inside. The sidewalk thereabouts smells faintly of eucalyptus, like parts of San Francisco, but not because of the trees (which are mainly gingko and ailanthus). Eucalyptus and lavender are infused in one of the underground bath’s Turkish steam rooms, and seep into the street through cracks in the ancient brick and cement walls. For about 13 steps it replaces the smells of stale coffee, melting garbage, and car exhaust that go with living on E 10th.

    It turns out the lobby of the RTB resembles a pizza place, with signed headshots of popular 80’s stars, artificial wood-grained walls, and a ceiling-mounted TV playing premiere league soccer. Sleeveless, red-armed Russian-looking men shift here and there with fresh towels and what look enjoy oak leaf pom-poms—the instruments, when soaked in olive oil soap, of the traditional platza massage. The board behind the front desk lists the Bath’s service fees, including one day admission for $30, a 45 minute Th