Over (Organic) Dinner, These Fitness Studio Competitors Work It Out.
Follow @Mazana17
From left, the fitness entrepreneurs Alexandra Bonetti Pérez, Vanessa Packer and Sarah Larson-Levey at their monthly dinner club.
When Vanessa Packer, the founder of the fitness studio modelFIT, gets together for a monthly dinner with her fellow fitness-studio-owning friends Alexandra Bonetti Pérez (of the cardio-dance Bari studio) and Sarah Larson-Levey (of the yoga chain Y7), they indulge.
“Who
wants some rosé?” asked Ms. Packer, 32, as she finished preparations on
the kale salad with grilled halloumi cheese, zucchini carpaccio with
fresh herbs and toasted pistachios, and the warm farro with radish and
yams that is a riff on a salad at Charlie Bird, one of Ms. Packer’s favorite restaurants.
The
three women have a monthly supper club that rotates menu and locations.
“I emailed them one day and was like, ‘Let’s all meet up,’” said Ms.
Bonetti Pérez, who is 30 and a former financial and management
consultant.
Her
peers immediately saw the benefits. “Camaraderie is important,” Ms.
Packer said. “We all want to do something different within health and
wellness, so why not join as a united front instead of being catty and
judgey?”
On
this evening, they gathered in Ms. Packer’s SoHo loft. On the walls
were vintage posters from France, African masks and a drawing of a beer
bottle and a flower by the artist Aurel Schmidt.
There were collections of crystals on a windowsill, bowls of sage to
burn and pieces of orange Le Creuset cookware in the kitchen. Jazz from
her collection of vinyl records played softly in the background.
“Everything
is local and organic and delicious and amazing,” Ms. Packer, a
certified holistic nutritionist from the Institute for Integrative
Nutrition, said of the meal. “Running a business, having a social life,
cooking for an army, you know — just a normal day.”
While
the women ate, talk turned to the health scene in New York City versus
that of Los Angeles. “New York was late to the wellness game, but we
overpowered everything,” Ms. Packer said. “It’s in our DNA to make
things more intense. I’m working on a space in L.A., but it’s fickle,
and you need parking.”
“People don’t like to work out as hard in L.A.,” Ms. Bonetti Pérez said.
“Well, people are going hiking,” Ms. Packer said.
“They
like to be seen,” said Ms. Larson-Levey, 29. She has been spending time
in Los Angeles since opening a Y7 studio on Melrose Avenue this year.
“After I spend time in L.A., there’s nowhere I’d rather be than New
York,” she added.
All
three women were dressed in black — Ms. Packer in a slinky dress, Ms.
Larson-Levey in a tank and faded jeans and Ms. Bonetti Pérez in a
jumpsuit with cutouts.
They
recognize the connection among fitness, beauty and fashion, and the
importance for entrepreneurs to get ahead of trends. “People invest in
their workout wardrobe more than their dinner wardrobe now,” Ms. Packer
said. “I still wear my old concert tees but with cool leggings and rad
sneakers.”
Ms.
Bonetti Pérez, who is from Venezuela, said: “In South America, we make
fun of how Americans are all in their sweatpants. Now you see South
Americans come into New York to shop for leggings.”
She described herself as a “product junkie.”
“I’m into weird stuff: I use snail cream,” said Ms. Bonetti Pérez, who is pregnant with her first child. “I’m terrified of stretch marks.”
“I
like to do dry-brushing every day,” Ms. Packer said, referring to a
type of exfoliating. “I do oil-pulling sometimes twice a day. I do reiki
and acupuncture, too. For facials, I go to Sophie at Aida Bicaj.
I’m really big into face masks. I do them while I do other things.
Like, I’ll cook dinner, I’ll do emails, and then sometimes I forget and
the FedEx guy is there, and I’m wearing a mask.”
Ms. Larson-Levey recommended Kalisa Augustine,
a crystal healer in the city. “I started going to her a little over a
year ago,” she said. “She reads your energy. It’s a good way to connect
with your body.”
This
was the evening’s sole moment of contention. “I’m against them,” Ms.
Bonetti Pérez said of crystals. “I wish people wouldn’t take them from
where they grow.”
Over
dessert of medjool dates, vegan salted caramel ice cream and vanilla
ice cream made from goat’s milk, Ms. Packer pulled out a copy of Life
magazine that she had found at her mother’s apartment. It was an issue
from November 1978.
They
paused to look at an article on running. “Those shoes have no support
whatsoever,” Ms. Packer pointed out, and then began to read aloud from
an article about music: “The beat is literally a gallop.” She paused to
giggle. “The name of this latest epidemic of the dancing sickness is
disco.”
Elsewhere in the magazine, there was a long article about pandas, and an ad for Le Car (built by Renault) and many cigarette advertisements.
“Life was so wholesome then,” she said. Everyone laughed.
For more News and Entertainments,
follow Us at our Social Network :Follow @Mazana17
No comments :
Post a Comment