"There's so many people like, 'Oh my God, I used to take my kids there,' or 'My husband and I used to date there,'" Kelly Isaac told Patch in August. She was talking about Eastside Billiards & Bar at 163 East 86th Street, between Lexington and Third avenues. Her company, ID Hot Yoga, is turning that space into a 75-mat heated studio. It will be the brand's largest yet.
The pool hall isn't the only old night-out spot on this stretch to get a new use. Just across Third Avenue, between Second and Third, the former City Cinemas at 210 East 86th Street has been dark since May 2019. In September, it signed a grocery tenant. Over the same few months, three heated studios announced plans for East 86th between Lexington and First. They don't really differ by concept. Two of them have published their room temperatures, and those numbers are seven degrees apart.
Two Places You Used to Sit Still
The billiards hall and the theater both lost the same thing: a reason to spend a few unhurried evening hours on 86th Street. City Cinemas showed both independent and mainstream films, and it held screenings for parents with babies. East Side Feed reports that it closed suddenly in May 2019, with "theater closed" and "the end" signs in the windows and a blank marquee.
The 20,500 square feet of the theater are now leased to Happier Grocery, which opened its first store on Canal Street in SoHo in 2023. The Upper East Side store is expected in the second half of 2027. By then the space will have been empty for more than eight years. Christian Stanton of Avison Young, the firm that represented the landlord, described the plan as "a vibrant, wellness-focused destination" on what he called "one of the Upper East Side's most active retail corridors."
The word "wellness" in that quote also describes the rest of the block. The pool hall is becoming a yoga room, and the theater is becoming a grocery the release calls wellness-focused. The new studios down the street are almost all heated.
The Thermostat Is the Real Difference
On paper the three new studios sound alike, since all of them offer some mix of yoga, Pilates and sculpt in a warm room. The temperatures are what separate them. ID Hot Yoga and Heatwise have posted theirs, and Ember hasn't yet.
Studio | Address | Heat, as published | Status as of early October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
ID Hot Yoga | 163 E. 86th St., Lexington–Third | 105°F, 40% humidity | Targeting mid-October |
Ember | 244 E. 86th St., Second–Third | Not yet published | "Preheating Now," no date |
Heatwise | 304 E. 86th St., First–Second | 98°F infrared; yin at 85°F; restorative and prenatal unheated | "Coming soon," no date |
New York Yoga, already open | 132 E. 85th St. | 105°F, 30–40% humidity | Operating |
ID Hot Yoga's site lists its New York rooms at 105 degrees with 40 percent humidity. It doesn't say how the rooms are heated. New York Yoga's hot studio, one block south on East 85th, runs at the same 105 degrees with humidity between 30 and 40 percent. Heatwise uses infrared heat and keeps most classes at 98 degrees. Its menu also includes yin at 85 degrees and unheated restorative and prenatal classes.
So the coolest heated room on the strip will be at the First Avenue end, and the hottest will be near Lexington, next to a studio that already runs at that same temperature.
Walking the Block From Lexington to First
Here is the corridor in order from west to east, with what's open and what isn't:
- 157 East 86th Street, third floor: The LIV Method. It's already open, offering personal training, small-group strength classes capped at 12 people, and a recovery suite called Rituals by LIV with an infrared sauna, steam room and cold plunge.
- 163 East 86th Street: ID Hot Yoga. This is the former Eastside Billiards & Bar. Isaac told Patch the studio will have sequence-based yoga, mat Pilates, a sculpt class and a cold plunge. The brand's site lists heated Flow, Sculpt, Strength and Restorative classes. The opening target is mid-October.
- 210 East 86th Street: Happier Grocery. This is the old City Cinemas space, with an expected opening in the second half of 2027.
- 237 East 86th Street: Barry's. It's already open and runs the brand's signature Red Room workout.
- 242 East 86th Street: LaserAway. The company has signed a lease for 1,800 square feet. No opening date has been reported.
- 244 East 86th Street: Ember. The studio describes itself as heated Pilates and sculpt. East Side Feed reported on September 30 that it hadn't posted an opening date, class schedule or pricing.
- 304 East 86th Street: Heatwise. This will be its third studio, after the Upper West Side and Brooklyn Heights. Classes center on music-driven vinyasa, and the studio says each class depends on the teacher leading it.
Ember and LaserAway will sit side by side at 244 and 242. Across the street, Barry's at 237 will face them. Once everything opens, the stretch between Second and Third avenues will have two heated or high-intensity studios and a lease for a long-vacant theater. Today it has one open studio.
Around the Corner on Lexington
The strip continues south on Lexington. CorePower Yoga's UES studio at 1253 Lexington Avenue, at 85th Street, advertises heated class rooms. Its posted schedule includes Yoga Sculpt and its C3 class.
Next door, at 1251 Lexington between 84th and 85th streets, Func Fit is aiming for a November opening. East Side Feed describes it as a longevity-focused fitness studio.
Isaac told Patch why her brand picked this stretch. "There's a huge amount of crossover in our clientele between the Hamptons and the Upper East Side," she said. "We're always getting asked when we're going to open on the Upper East since our first season in the Hamptons." ID already has Manhattan studios in Meatpacking, the Financial District, NoMad and the Lower East Side, plus two in Sag Harbor and East Hampton.
The Next Round Is Already Signed
The wave reaches past 86th Street and past this year. Solidcore has signed a lease for its second Upper East Side studio at 1695 Second Avenue, at East 88th Street. It's going into The Langdon, a new apartment tower along the Q line developed by Alchemy-ABR Investment Partners. The opening is planned for the first quarter of 2027. Its first Upper East Side location, at 166 East 67th Street, is nearly 20 blocks south. Its 50-minute classes are built around a Pilates-inspired reformer and slow, controlled movement.
Put the openings on a calendar and the corridor fills in over about a year:
- Mid-October 2026: ID Hot Yoga's target at 163 East 86th
- November 2026: Func Fit's target at 1251 Lexington
- No date yet: Ember at 244 East 86th, Heatwise at 304 East 86th, LaserAway at 242 East 86th
- First quarter of 2027: Solidcore at 1695 Second Avenue
- Second half of 2027: Happier Grocery at 210 East 86th
Trying One Before Committing
For neighbors who want to test the heat before signing up, only part of the pricing is public. ID Hot Yoga offers new members a $25 trial class at any of its Manhattan locations. The site doesn't say whether that offer will apply on 86th Street when the studio opens. It also says mats and towels are free on your first visit. Heatwise's site links to a new-client special but doesn't list its price or terms. Ember has no pricing posted. CorePower lists a $259 monthly membership on its 85th and Lex page.
Every opening date in this post is a target the business announced, not a confirmed opening. ID's mid-October date came from an August interview, and Ember's and Heatwise's own pages still say "Preheating Now" and "Coming soon." The studios' own sites and Instagram accounts will show the first class schedules before anything else does.
East 86th Street is quickly becoming the Upper East Side's Wellness Alley! Like I always say---It's ALL Here on the Upper East Side!
