The communal bathhouse, once a fading immigrant tradition, is thriving again in Brooklyn. Russian banyas in Sheepshead Bay and new Nordic-style spas in Greenpoint are packed with a generation that grew up online and now craves the analog ritual of heat and cold.

At the fictional Steam & Stone in Gowanus, members rotate between a wood-fired sauna and a plunge pool, phones locked away at the door. Its owners describe the appeal as forced presence — an hour where there's nothing to do but sweat and talk to a stranger.

The revival blends cultures, borrowing from Finnish saunas, Turkish hammams, and Korean jjimjilbangs. What unites them, regulars say, is the rare New York experience of slowing down in a room full of people doing the same.