“Basement spa doesn’t exactly conjure up visions of grandeur and sumptuousness, but Shibui Spa at the Greenwich Hotel is subterranean in the sense that diamond mines or truffle deposits are subterranean. Heaven is in the stratosphere, but paradise is in Tribeca, New York, where Shibui is an oasis modeled on the Japanese onsen. Its treatment rooms are pin-drop quiet, the enormous indoor pool is heated, and the entire scene is framed under a bamboo crosshatch roof that Japanese craftsmen imported and reassembled in a painstaking homage to ancient bathing ceremonies. Even the heated towels are soaked in hot sake.” – Mattie Kahn