A new reality for Toronto’s bathhouses

A new reality for Toronto’s bathhouses

A new reality for Toronto’s bathhouse

As industry crumbles in the U.S., Canadians turn upscale. 

CHRIS SO/THE TORONTO STAR

Robert Knight, left, president and director of Spa Excess, and his business and life partner, Michael Dorman.

By: Laura Armstrong Staff Reporter, Published on Sun Dec 21 2014

Come New Year’s Eve, 250 men will gather for a hot meal and celebration at Spa Excess, one of the city’s foremost bathhouses.

The festive meal comes complete with all the trimmings you’d expect of a celebratory feast over the holiday season: white and dark turkey, mashed and roast potatoes, cranberry sauce, salad, cookies, white and chocolate cake. 

And, at midnight, champagne. 

After 16 years in business, it’s tradition, said president and director Robert Knight. 

“It’s so popular and so wonderful an evening, because a lot of people are alone and not many people come as a couple,” said Knight, who co-owns Spa Excess with his treasurer, secretary and life partner, Michael Dorman. “It’s become like one big, huge family.” 

But the meal isn’t just an opportunity to gather and break bread; it’s a small sign of more significant changes that today’s bathhouses have had to make to remain relevant. 

Bathhouses date back to the Roman Empire, initially built to maintain hygiene in major cities. By the late 1950s and ’60s, as the need for a public place to wash up declined, bathhouses began drawing crowds by offering a discreet place for gay men to meet and have sex in a time when sodomy was still a crime. Bathhouses saw their heyday in the 1970s, before being vilified in the 1980s during the AIDS epidemic. 

Today, bathhouses face new challenges. The rising acceptance of homosexuality and the growing number of gay dating websites and hook-up apps are endangering the once-booming businesses. 

The Associated Press reported earlier this year that Damron, the publisher of an annual gay travel guide, found the number of bathhouses across the U.S. dropped from nearly 200 in the late 1970s to about 90 by 1990. In the last decade, the number of bathhouses nationwide dropped to 70 following closures in San Diego, Syracuse, Seattle and San Antonio.

In Canada, bathhouses are concentrated in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. The industry in Toronto has been tested more than once, most notably on Feb. 5, 1981, when police raided four of the city’s biggest operations. Close to 300 men were rounded up and herded into bathhouse lobbies, with the majority being apprehended in one of the country’s largest mass arrests. 

The raids prompted thousands to take to the city’s streets in protest that winter; the following spring, the city held its first Pride parade. Toronto was the first North American city to host WorldPride this year, more than three decades after the raids. 

At Spa Excess, Knight said business is still going strong. “We’ve always been a bathhouse city, for years and years and years,” he said.

Spa Excess welcomes 9,000 to 10,000 men a month, mostly middle aged and older, but age groups overlap, Knight said. “That doesn’t mean there are not young people, but the majority of people fall into the older demographic.”

Knight said he’s seen a handful of bathhouses — The Barracks, the Spa on Maitland, Club Toronto, St. Marc Spa and Bijou — go out of business in Toronto since he opened Spa Excess in late 1998. But others have also moved to the city, namely two chains: Steamworks Baths and Central Spa.

The city’s big-name bathhouses, he said, still see a lot of business, as do locations in other Canadians cities. The difference between bathhouses in Toronto and some of the ones facing closure in the United States is hospitality, Knight said.

“Typically, (American) owners put just enough money in to take money out. It’s not every bathhouse, but many don’t offer decent customer service,” Knight said. “A lot of them are seedy. A lot of them have been taken over by drug dealers and users.” 

At Spa Excess, Knight, Dorman and their late partner Peter Bochove have always focused on keeping their bathhouse upscale. Their location on Carlton St. offers free WiFi, clean towels, a licensed lounge, a pool table, tanning beds, a sundeck, a whirlpool and massages. 

“It’s a retreat. We encourage our guests to come here and get away from the real world,” Knight said. “You have to accommodate all of the customers and what their needs are.” 

Growing hospitality in the bathhouse industry is the same trend seen in coffee shops, hotels and gyms, said Chris Srnicek, owner of the bathhouse chain Central Spa and the president of the North American Bathhouse Association’s board. 

The majority of bathhouses now offer free WiFi, extra linens, towel swaps and cheap tanning, he said. At Central Spa, which has four locations across ontario including one in Hamilton and another on Dundas St. W, Srnicek follows the lead of night clubs by offering theme and specialty nights.

“Our stronger establishments partner with local sports organizations, DJs and party promoters to create new ideas all the time. We also offer discounted entry fees at different times of the week,” he wrote in an email to the Star. 

The U.S. bathhouse business was antagonized by governments, public health officials and local politicians in the late 1980 and early ’90s, which made it tough for any bathhouse to operate, Srnicek said. The U.S. industry did decline, he agreed.

In Canada during the same period, officials were more cautious, he said. Fewer clients passed through the doors, but owners were still able to invest in their facilities.

“Toronto has been able to maintain so many bathhouse since it’s a large city, and pretty open-minded,” Srnicek said. 

Still, like businesses in almost every sector, technology is creating strong new competition, in this case from apps such as Grindr and online dating sites such as gay.com. 

John Brodhagen, general manager of Steamworks, said they see thousands of clients a month but apps have still affected business. He encourages clients use his bathhouse on Church St. for get-togethers, so they don’t have to give out their home address. “Our platform is that we have staff here 24 hours a day,” he said. “Even if you’re going to cruise online, it’s still the safest place for you to meet up.” 

Bathhouses are part of the entertainment industry, a business that always takes a hit during recessions, he said.

“There has been a slight decline, but it’s going back up again,” Brodhagen said. “Overall, we haven’t really noticed a huge dip. It hasn’t been as bad as the bars” in Toronto’s gay village. 

Steamworks openly advertises, including through a billboard featuring two men on Church St. It’s something that never would have been done years ago, Brodhagen said.

“Our clients love it, because it’s big and bold,” he said. 

With files from The Associated Press and Star staff 

http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/12/21/a_new_reality_for_torontos_bathhouses.html