The Brooklyn Papers / Tom Callan

Spa cuisine: Lite Bar chef Carolina Saenz's chicken breast in a whole wheat wrap with blue cheese, sundried cranberries, walnuts, celery, arugula and olive oil.

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Whether your hair is cut for $20, or you run into Manhattan for a styling with $600 diva clipper Sally Hershberger, your appointment will happen in a salon.

If you want to throw a massage and maybe some aromatherapy into the works, you’ll visit a salon-day spa.

But if you want true pampering and even a good meal, you’ll head to Cavale Tonuzi in Bay Ridge, one of Brooklyn’s uber-salon-and-spas.

Opened in 2000, the 6,000-square-foot space sprawls over three floors. The two that are open to the public include a cool, white upstairs area where black-clad stylists cut and color clients’ hair before long mirrors, with a Tantra Spa on the lower level that is all dark, Indonesian drama.

In the lower level’s manicure and pedicure areas, the lights are kept low and moody and mirrored pillows line plush banquettes while clients relax. Yanni-esque New Age music is piped into the four "tranquility rooms," where seemingly every variation on the massage, facial and waxing is administered. Each room has a different theme; for instance, in the water room, river rocks line the floor and the sound of a trickling stream lulls patrons.

A year ago, owners Violette Tonuzi, Georgette Franzone and Charbel Elias opened the Lite Bar, adjoining the salon. It’s a small, airy, all-white room with a counter that seats about five. Behind the counter, the eatery’s manager, Chris Daly, blends smoothies, pours freshly brewed teas and tops fresh fruit salad with yogurt and organic granola. Just across from the counter is a small kitchen where the chef, Carolina Saenz, turns out fare that is worth a visit, whether you’re having your hair streaked or not.

Everything you’d expect from a cafe in a health club or salon is available - smoothies, salads and sandwiches - but unlike dry sandwiches heaped with sprouts and under-dressed salads, Saenz’s fare is vibrant and full-flavored. There are smoothies galore - 12 on the menu - but they can be personalized, so the choices are endless. They’re fine as smoothies go, but the sandwiches and salads are far better than you’d expect from a tiny kitchen in a salon.

Saenz owned the now-defunct Grass Roots, a small Bay Ridge restaurant that, if you haven’t guessed, specialized in light, healthy cuisine. She uses mostly local, organic ingredients and good olive oil, and she doesn’t scrimp on seasoning. Saenz grills eggplants, tomatoes and peppers in that tiny kitchen and, unlike the flaccid vegetables that you sometimes find between dull bread, hers are velvety-textured with a concentrated, earthy taste.

Saenz isn’t afraid to use cheese. Her best sandwiches have a rich smear of full-flavored goat or a good, pungent blue cheese. All of her dressings are house-made, as is the pesto that lights up the vegetable panini.

The egg, chicken and tuna salads are constructed per order so there are no tubs of over-processed salads sitting around. The whole-grain breads and ciabatta used for crisp panini are delivered daily from Mazzola’s, a well-known Brooklyn purveyor. Even the wraps are fresh and pleasantly chewy.

The chicken wrap, says Saenz, is a customer favorite, and for good reason. The organic chicken sandwich is moist, the blue cheese is pungent and plentiful and sun-dried cranberries add a sweet note and enjoyable chewiness. Crisp walnuts and arugula mixed with olive oil freshen the filling. It’s like Thanksgiving on a roll.

I loved the grilled vegetable panini with goat cheese, pesto and vinaigrette. No one would call it light fare, but after consuming so many lusterless versions of this sandwich, I was okay with the calories.

And atop rich, grilled Portobello mushrooms and slices of marinated artichoke hearts were leaves of fresh basil, an unctuous dollop of pesto, delectably salty olive paste and goat cheese grilled in a fresh pita.

Come spring, I plan on taking that sandwich, or maybe the crisp baby spinach salad drizzled with a garlicky, yellow plum tomato dressing, into the shady garden behind the salon to enjoy a leisurely lunch.

Desserts made in-house are limited to fruit salads and yogurt with fruit and granola. On the counter there’s an enormous cookie jar filled with home-baked chocolate chip and all-chocolate cookies. They’re OK if you like the soft kind.

When you think of better salons, buzz-words like "pampering," "personalized care" and even "transformation" come to mind. Enjoying good food in a salon, however, is uncommon, and that’s where Cavale Tonuzi is a cut above the rest.

Lite Bar at Cavale Tonuzi (8211 Third Ave. at 82nd Street in Bay Ridge) accepts American Express, MasterCard and Visa. Salads and sandwiches: $5-$6.50. The Lite Bar is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm. Closed Mondays. Takeout and delivery is available to the surrounding neighborhood. For more information about the Lite Bar and services offered at Cavale Tonuzi and the Tantra Spa call (718) 748-9880.

©2005 Community Newspaper Group