- October 21, 2021
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The Revamped Evensong Spa features a pool at the center of the building, offering a co-ed space for individuals to relax.
One of the main changes to Evensong Spa is the inclusion of a salon with access to natural lighting.
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The Revamped Evensong Spa features a pool at the center of the building, offering a co-ed space for individuals to relax.
One of the main changes to Evensong Spa is the inclusion of a salon with access to natural lighting.
Evensong Spa is open, but a lack of staffing and supply chain hiccups are causing the business to have a “soft launch” as spa and salon services will be available in the coming weeks and are expected to increase incrementally as things progress.
That’s according to owner Mike White and General Manager Dru Kosti.
They noted construction on the $600,000 renovation is finished and the spa is in the process of increasing its marketing efforts and staffing levels.
“We’ve got this beautiful asset ready to go, so we’re switching gears,” White said. “We’re spending a lot more time now on trying to recruit people and do ad testing.”
The spa has been reconfigured to include a pool in the center of the building, a hair salon and more amenities for couples.
In November 2020, White announced that his offer to purchase Evensong Spa had been accepted. The sale closed the following month and included nine other nearby properties.
This summer was spent renovating and modernizing the spa.
During the renovation, Kosti said a sense of community was built between herself, White and several other Evensong Spa staff members who worked together to do painting and redecorating.
“Mike and a couple his friends were coming out on the weekends cutting down the dead trees, my husband came in to help paint, our nail technician came in on weekends and her husband came in,” she said. “We just all really pulled together as a team.”
Although the Heidel House Hotel and Conference Center isn’t connected to Evensong Spa anymore, both entities will work to cross-promote each other, White added.
As a former Evensong Spa employee, Kosti is thrilled with the renovation, describing it as “beautiful.”
When patrons enter the spa, they are greeted by a lobby and retail area. If they go to the left, they’ll enter the salon. Walking through the right side of the building reveals the spa amenities.
Kosti said keeping the salon and the spa separated helps keep a consistent vibe in each part of the property as salons are typically “a little more upbeat” than spas.
“For years, salons and barbershops were social clubs on top of just getting your hair done,” she said. “It’s just a place where people congregate and get beautiful, so having that kind of upbeat positive vibe is opposite of the spa. Spas are very relaxed, very quiet [and] very zen.”
The other big addition to Evensong Spa is the pool in the center of the building, which enabled the spa to offer a co-ed space where individuals can relax, Kosti noted.
Instead of chlorine, which smells and can undo some of the skin treatments offered at the spa, the pool utilizes salt sanitizer.
Kosti said the salt sanitizer is better for skin, helps relieve muscle and joint aches and acts as a decongestant.
Evensong Spa will continue trying to recruit staff, but it faces an uphill battle with a tight labor market.
Kosti said the spa and salon industry has seen a trend over the last decade of a slimmer worker pool for massage therapists and hairstylists, while also seeing an increased number of salons and spas vying to recruit from a diminishing pool of potential applicants.
Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic forced some individuals to leave the industry all together as stay-at-home orders closed many salons and spas across the country, she noted.
At the same time, Kosti noted some workers in the Fox Valley view Green Lake as a far-away destination, not realizing the commute from Fond du Lac to Green Lake is roughly the same as the commute from Fond du Lac to Appleton.
“Once you get them here, they’re sold because of the quality of our products that we use and the amazing facility,” Kosti said, noting getting people in the door has been the hard part.
Even so, the spa is getting numerous inquiries for service.
When fully up and running, Kosti’s goal is to return Evensong Spa to the list of the top-10 spas in the United States, which it achieved during her tenure under the previous ownership.
“We’re not looking just to hire employees,” she said. “We’re looking for a team, so we can work together and build this together.”
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Written By
Joe Schulz served as the reporter of the Green Laker in 2019 and 2020, before being hired as a reporter for the Commonwealth in October 2020. He is from Oshkosh and graduated from UW-Oshkosh in December with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
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