Jesse Hieb was checking on two patrons when Tosa Forward News paid a visit to his business last week. It was an unusually warm April afternoon at Hart Park, and Hieb’s goal was to get those patrons sweating even more. He put some additional wood into the furnace at the back of one of the three barrel-shaped saunas that have been stationed outside the Hart Park Senior Center all winter.
How are you two doing? Hieb called into the sauna.
Fine, one of the women said in response. Their session was almost over.
Heat Haven Sauna Park’s inaugural season in Wauwatosa is winding down — Hieb and his business partner, Ryan Bingham, are booking sessions through May 2 — and on this day, only four people were scheduled. But Hieb counted this first winter a success, with an estimated 2,400 individuals trying out this new sauna experience since November, some of them multiple times.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Hieb said. “We always thought Tosa would be a great place for it, that the community would be welcoming of different people.”
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He estimates about a fourth of Heat Haven’s patrons have been Wauwatosa residents, and those Tosans have spent the winter mingling inside the six-person saunas with visitors from all over the Milwaukee area and from Chicago and other places outside Wisconsin.