Earlier than you ask, Yevgen Yasenko has already heard all of your wisecracks in regards to the Federal Spa & Restaurant, his elegant hybrid eatery and bathhouse in Hollywood.
No, the grilled greens don’t come extra-steamed. The ribeyes aren’t cooked sous-vide within the jacuzzi. And bear in mind Kramer’s bathtub rubbish disposal from “Seinfeld”? Properly, neglect it: There’s no snacking within the Russian banyas.
“I’ve heard all of it, like, ‘If my steak is uncommon, end it within the sauna,’ ” Yasenko says with amusing.
Contained in the 9,000-square-foot restaurant-spa on North Federal Freeway, which held its grand opening in mid-June, prospects can order a Mediterranean-accented menu of branzino, grilled octopus, lamb chops and cocktails. After that, they will don robes and end their expertise with a scorching jacuzzi, a cold-plunge pool, a Finnish sauna, a steam room session or a conventional banya (a Russian steam bathtub), all positioned roughly 30 toes from the eating room.
Or diners can rejuvenate in reverse, filling up on vitamins they only sweated out within the sauna. Which is precisely the explanation Yasenko thought it was sensible to mix a bathhouse with beef tartare.
“If you go to a spa or bathhouse for 2 or three hours, you’re going to really feel scorching, dehydrated and fairly hungry,” Yasenko says. “As an alternative of leaving the spa to discover a place to eat, they will keep right here. Even in case you don’t need a bathtub, you may nonetheless have lunch or dinner.”
The Federal’s best-of-both-worlds expertise is similar to the conga line of A1A beachfront inns the place spa retreats and sit-down eating are an elevator journey away. However even posh resorts require gown codes. Not so on the Federal, the place friends can luxuriate with glowing pores and skin and acquire a newfound appreciation for consuming dinner of their bathrobes, he says.
“I would like my prospects to really feel so relaxed, perhaps they’re too lazy to depart,” provides Yasenko, of Aventura.
Yasenko, 41, is not any stranger to pampering different individuals. He says he operated bathhouses in his native Ukraine for a decade and vacationed in South Florida each few years. When Russia’s conflict with Ukraine broke out in 2022, “I made a decision to remain right here till the top of the conflict,” he says.
Pulling off a mix bathhouse-restaurant — a rarity in Hollywood, if not South Florida — required the kind of zen endurance one expects from a man who runs a temple of wellness. Figuring no landlord would let him convert a business house right into a hybrid enterprise, Yasenko says he purchased the Federal’s constructing and land from town of Hollywood in 2022. (He spent $1.8 million, in response to county property data.) Then got here a full 12 months of allowing and ready, adopted by 20 extra months of excavating and building.
The result’s a luxe rest house that feeds into an out of doors patio with a 25-foot-long swimming pool, sunbeds and a 10-seat full-liquor bar. Prospects eager to dine in bathrobes after their soak can accomplish that on the pool deck however not inside the three,500-square-foot restaurant, he says.
The price of a spa day go is $80 Mondays via Thursdays and $100 Fridays via Sundays, excluding meals. The spa space is adults-only, and for now shall be restricted to simply girls on Tuesdays and males on Wednesdays, he says.
“We simply need women to calm down with out different males’s consideration, and vice-versa,” Yasenko says.
The Federal’s 50-seat eating room, tastefully appointed in black globe lights and leather-based banquettes, leans into American staples with Mediterranean flavors beneath govt chef Vsevolod Leonov (ex-Shell Bay Membership in Hallandale Seashore). They embody cold and warm appetizers ($15-21) reminiscent of salmon tidadito in a kimchi-ponzi sauce, pan-seared royal shrimp in a aromatic coconut curry, or tzatziki with zucchini chips.
For mains, there’s a 12-ounce ribeye with royal oyster mushrooms, peppercorn sauce and golden hasselback potatoes ($48); a lamb rack glazed with spicy gochujang and chimichurri ($39); and roasted Atlantic salmon with child carrots, asparagus and tarragon beurre blanc ($28).
The spa’s pool deck, in the meantime, gives a handful of off-menu dishes catering to the Federal’s hottest clientele thus far: Russians and Ukrainians dwelling in Hollywood, Hallandale Seashore and Aventura, Yasenko says. Specialties embody okroshka ($18), a Russian summer season soup consisting of radishes, cucumbers, dill and a creamy yogurt base. Company may order bowls of soul-warming borscht ($18), piping-hot beef stroganoff ($30) or savory suluguni cheese wrapped round lavash bread ($16).
The Federal Spa & Restaurant, at 1203 N. Federal Freeway, in Hollywood, is now open. Name 305-488-5585 or go to FederalSpa.com and Instagram.com/Federal_Spa.
