Water Front Spa has a flair that’s worthy of the East Village. When I approached the spa I was struck by its funky mural facet. Talk about hitting a brick wall. I literally had to stand there for a few minutes in awe, taking pictures of the vast assemblage of pictures – it’s that pretty. There’s a short set of stairs to get to the lobby of the spa. When you walk in there’s a desk on the right, before the stairs, where pamphlets and brochures are laid out. It takes the edge off walking into a new place, as you probably have to do when you see the mural, and having to get a treatment.

The second floor lobby is spacious and open. It has an elegant charm to its decoration although unfortunately the East Asian influence on the spa isn’t immediately apparent (obviously I think it would add to its character). I’m glad that at this spa, if there were products on displayed and for sale, I didn’t notice them. I decided to visit Water Front for a massage. I wasn’t sure what to get so instead I kind of got a sampling of all the massages there is to choose from. I figured I could use that kind of variety that day and it’d be cool to see what would work best for my body.

The massage started out the Swedish and Deep Tissue massages. Those two are the most popularly chosen of the selections but having gone through the sampling, I recommend you don’t miss out on the Thai and traditional back walk massages. Chances are you’ve never had it. When it came to that portion of my massage, I was quite surprised. A good surprise. It was unusual for me to have someone contort my body, even though I’m use to yoga poses. So was the back walk but the balanced and force of the weight worked out my kinks well. Don’t worry - the masseuses here are pretty light-weight. The whole massage loosened your muscles like nothing else. I’m glad I tried the varied approach.

There’s definitely a back-to-roots feel to the spa. The massage lasted an hour and it barely used any oil or products, making it a place I’d go to want to go to quite regularly as if I os vacationing on a beach in Thailand. After the massage, the spa offers you to tea, fruit, and traditional Chinese soup that’s made fresh every morning by the owner herself. Hmm. Tasty.