Miami has no shortage of places to work on yourself. After all, we ranked as the second most wellness-obsessed city in the U.S. However, after undergoing a lifestyle change of his own, Grotto founder Nathan Kaplan sensed that there was a social aspect missing from this world. His initial interest in bathing culture started as a daily cold plunge practice. There was an embodied feeling of connectedness and an instant surge in good mood and focus. He knew he wanted to share this with his friends, so naturally, he purchased one for his home, inviting people over to plunge and hang out after warming back up in the Miami sun. It was this social ritual that planted the seed that would become Grotto.
How a Founder, a Systems Thinker, a Hospitality Veteran, a Designer, and a Chef Ended Up at the Same Table
As Nathan got deeper into cold plunging, then sauna, then bathing culture in general, he started dreaming up the concept for a bathhouse in Miami with his co-founder Nick Anselmo. Nick has a knack for building systems and solving complex problems and shared Nate's love for concepts on the edge of wellness. The team soon found the right partners who shared their vision, including hospitality veteran Darryl Gibson (The Standard, Faena), Antoinette Marie Johnson, founder of Cohere, an agency that helped bring Pastis to Wynwood and has been instrumental to the development of hospitality concepts around the country, and Erik Oberholtzer, chef and founder of pioneering California restaurant group Tender Greens.
There's No Right Way to Do Wellness — So We Looked Back at 3,000 Years of Bathing Culture
As the team took the idea further, researching, visiting what existed, and filtering it through their own experience, they realized that there is no such thing as doing wellness "right." It was a time when the conversation around biohacking, self-care, and wellness was at its peak, but these labels felt one-dimensional, not fully expressing the complexity and relationship that real people have to health, joy, socialization, and the greater culture.
When looking to solve for this, the best place was to look back at the rich traditions around bathing culture from the past. Turkish hammams, Korean jjimjilbangs, Roman thermae, Mesoamerican temazcals, Russian banyas, Finnish saunas, Japanese onsens, and of course the Jewish shvitz, cemented into the history of old school New York, Chicago, and Detroit. A thread in all of these was that they served as communal spaces that catered to a group with shared culture. That got us thinking about what the Miami version of that space would be like. It was clear that we did not want to design a neutral space that imported spa aesthetics, and instead by making the space vibrant and playful, we could communicate a certain attitude and point of view that Miami would identify as their own. Like the aforementioned bathing cultures, we set out to create a true Miami Grotto.
The Design Draws From Tropical Modernism and a Venetian Architect Who Built Around Water
It blossomed from there. Cohere partnered with Stokes on the interior design of the space, taking cues from tropical modernism as well as architect Carlo Scarpa, who dreamed up designs that beautifully interacted with bodies of water in his hometown of Venice. You'll see this in Grotto's board-formed concrete walls, as well as the lobby's terrazzo floors.
The Café Was Built Around One Question: What Does Your Body Need After a Sauna?
Another area we were adamant about shaping intentionally was the café. We resonated deeply with the shift in people wanting to socialize somewhere that doesn't revolve around drinking and asked ourselves, "What if Grotto's beverage program actually offered health benefits over hangovers?" Chef Erik Oberholtzer designed Grotto's menu around what your body needs at each point in the experience — something to open you up before a sauna, restore electrolytes after a long sweat, or bring you down slowly at the end of a session.
Two Years In, We're Almost Ready to Open Our Doors
For over two years this small team has poured over every detail, making sure it reflects how we personally want to live and connect. We're almost there. The walls are up, the terrazzo is in, and we're getting close to the moment we've been working toward. We can't wait to meet the people who will make Grotto what it's meant to be: the collaborators, the regulars, the community we've been building for this whole time.
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A Moment in the Cold Plunge with Founder Nathan Kaplan
