SweatHouz Old Town

1439 N Wells St, Chicago, IL

SweatHouz Old Town, the first of the SWTHZ contrast therapy studios to open in Chicago (September 2024), sits on the Second City stretch of Wells Street, a short walk from the Sedgwick Brown Line and North Avenue Beach. It serves Old Town, Lincoln Park, the Gold Coast and River North with the brand's signature private-suite format: no shared sauna floor, no communal plunge, just a quiet room with the heat, the cold and a shower, booked by the hour. Every session is 60 minutes in a private suite that holds all three modalities: a Clearlight full-spectrum infrared sauna you can set anywhere from 140°F to 175°F, a cold plunge held at 48-50°F, and a vitamin C-infused shower to rinse between the two. There is a TV with Bluetooth audio in the sauna and color-changing lights, and the suite is yours alone, so towel-only in the heat is fine; bring swimwear or spandex shorts for the plunge. Suites can be shared with a guest, which makes it one of the easier places in the city to introduce a partner to contrast therapy. A first session is $35 (or $59 for a two-visit Double Dose), and a drop-in after that is $90. Session packs run from three for $169 to twenty for $799 and work at any SWTHZ studio nationwide, and memberships start at $99 a month for two sessions and top out at $349 for unlimited. Red light therapy is an add-on at select studios. Book through the SWTHZ app; arrive a few minutes early to settle in.