Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Uspenski. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Russian Banya (the Day spa and the Restaurant) was started in 2008 and became the unique place in Dallas where a piece of Russian culture and Russian cuisine were offered to American public. The Restaurant and Banya were shut for the covid restrictions and had hard times to come back to full capacity after reopening. In September 2021, the renovation has started under the new ownership. Russian Banya and the Restaurant were reopened late in April 2022 and since then are regaining faith and trust from the customers.
Michael, the new owner, is a recent political asylee from Moscow, Russia. He came in 2017 and worked as a claims analyst in medical insurance company in California until this Dallas business opportunity has appeared.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Right before the end of the renovation, Putin’s Russia has started the war against Ukraine. We had some financial reserves in the stock market, and the faint hope for the economy recovery vanished completely. Then we were not able to receive some of our funds from Russia. And the shipment of some authentic essential supplies for the Banya and Restaurant has stopped both from Russia and Ukraine. We end up looking for the hard loan here in the USA, and this obviously altered our financials and has affected even the projected admission fee to Banya. This actually made us for some time the most expensive public Bath of that class in the country. We had the very strong change in the client base. Which on one hand made it difficult to attract new clients, and on the other hand it was easier to prove that every cent of our price is worthy.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Russian Banya of Dallas?
We are the only one Russian restaurant in Dallas area and the only one Russian Public Banya (day spa, sauna complex). Banya means sauna in Russian. This is a wellness center where you can experience three different hot rooms (Finnish dry sauna, Turkish Hammam, and Russian parilka running on the wood-burning brick stove, which is unique for the US) and the cold plunge – a barrel of 45F cold water. The health benefits of both the hot sauna treatment, cold procedures as well as combination of them is well known and scientifically established.
The intensive thermal contrast of sauna treatment in combination with good food and relaxing atmosphere in the facility makes the huge stress-relieving effect and general impact to your personal wellness.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Backpacking and camping with parents and friends in the Siberian forests
Pricing:
- $70 general admission
- $60 admission for veterans and active service members (police, military, firefighters)
- $35 venik platza
- $30 scrubbing
Contact Info:
- Website: https://banyavolga.com/
- Instagram: russianbanyaofdallas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Russian-Banya-of-Dallas-100772309064696
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/russian-banya-carrollton-7
Image Credits
Michael Uspenski
Russian Banya of Dallas
