Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Anna Kashlinsky, co-owner of El Paseo Day Spa in Saratoga, leans on the bed in the room where she and her staff members give facial treatments.
Owners add a personal touch to customers and spa's decor
By Rebecca Ray
West Valley Plaza in San Jose may be demolished soon, but one of the stores in the shopping center, El Paseo Day Spa, continues to thrive. Actually, the day spa is expanding.
Last month, the business moved to a second location, the Oak Creek shopping center in Saratoga at 12201 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road--a great location, co-owner Anna Kashlinsky said, because it was on a busy street.
Kashlinsky, Igor Aroni--who's been her husband and co-owner of the business for the past two years--and the other employees are also packing boxes at their 960-square-foot location at West Valley Plaza on the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Prospect Road. They plan to move from there into a 2,000-square-foot location on Moorpark Avenue and Williams Road in San Jose.
According to Kashlinsky, the day spa employees plan to open at Moorpark and Williams on May 1. They will offer hair-styling there, in addition to the facials, body wraps, massages and reflexology they currently offer at the spas at West Valley Plaza and Oak Creek. Like the stores at the West Valley Plaza and Oak Creek shopping centers, the store at Moorpark and Williams will also have a Jacuzzi.
The 850-square-foot location at Oak Creek was relatively easy to move into, since rooms for treatments were already there. All Kashlinsky had to do was install new tiles and a Jacuzzi. Aronin, who installed fixtures when he lived in Russia and has installed bathroom fixtures at the couple's home in south San Jose, installed both.
In the entry way, Aronin put in black marble tiles with touches of white and pink. Nightstands and four red-cushioned chairs surround a cherrywood coffee table on one side of the room, while another red-cushioned chair and the front desk sit on the other side. Five shelves full of beauty products lean against the wall near the coffee table.
A cream-, teal-, purple-, pink- and brown-striped curtain hangs over the front window. Another curtain exactly like it hangs over the entrance to the hall, which is covered with an olive green tapestry rug and leads to the treatment rooms and Jacuzzi. Along the cream-colored walls are modern paintings and white-stucco lamps.
The treatment rooms were already wallpapered when Kashlinsky moved in, and she left them as they were. In one room, used for body treatments, one of the walls is completely covered with a picture of the sun setting over water, and the colors in the picture match the earth tones on the other walls in the room. In the other body-treatment room, one wall is also completely covered, with a picture of trees and red-and-pink-flowered bushes.
In the manicure and pedicure room, greenish-blue wallpaper with pinkish squiggles covers the bottom halves of three walls, with the top halves white. Covering the other wall is a picture of a branch with pink blossoms hanging in front of a blue body of water and a snow-capped mountain.
On one wall in the facial room is a picture of a green patio door surrounded by tropical-looking plants.
Aronin installed tan marble tiles and the Jacuzzi, which holds two people, in a room toward the back of the store. Next to this room is a restroom, which also has a tan marble tile floor and white walls. Displayed throughout both rooms are red and white silk flowers.
Kashlinsky started her business nine years ago at El Paseo De Saratoga shopping center in San Jose, where she got her spa's namesake. She only did massages, but eventually received a license to also do facials. Three years later, she moved to West Valley Plaza, and her business expanded to include the services it offers today.
Although she still enjoys doing facials and massages, she plans to concentrate more on management and let the staff members take over most of the treatment duties.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
