Where to Take Your Mom When She Visits NYC

Your mom is in town. You want to show her something real -- not Times Square, not a tourist restaurant where the menu has photographs of the food. Something that will make her understand why you chose to live here.

The Plan

Lore Bathing Club / 676 Broadway, SoHo

This is the one she will talk about for years.

Here is how to do it well: Tell her you're going somewhere special and she needs only a swimsuit or change of clothing. Don't overexplain. She will ask questions when she gets there and the staff will walk her through everything. Start with a shorter round and a moderate heat. Let her lead on the cold plunge -- don't push, but don't let her skip it without at least trying. Sit together in the rest area and talk. No phones. Just the two of you in robes in a beautiful space, with nowhere to be.

Something will happen in that rest space. Conversations that don't happen over dinner or in a museum. The heat and the quiet and the time open something.

What She Will Say

She will say it is not at all what she expected.

She will say the cold was too cold and then admit she felt incredible afterward.

She will say she wants to find something like this near her home.

And you will have given her a memory of New York that is not a museum or a store or a sight -- but a moment where the city showed her something genuinely good.

Lore is at 676 Broadway. Bring her.