[Exclusive] A new arcana resort will open in 2027

A dispatch from the Venice Biennale, The NYT is hiring a Canadian reporter for $200K.

Good afternoon everyone.

Last night, I stopped by a preview of the new Badiali in Mirvish Village. And honestly, it couldn’t have come at a better time: I’ve come to accept that the only way to get your hands on these New York-style slices is to wait in a 20 or 30 person line, order weeks in advance, or pop in at a time when no normal person would consider eating, so either 3:30 p.m. or 9:30 p.m.

From the outside, the obvious (and annoying, I’m sure) question for co-founder Ryan Baddeley is, why not sooner? In between bites of grandma pizza, a menu item exclusive to this location, he told me the first order of business was meeting the high demand of the Dovercourt location, which required securing a second space just to prep enough ingredients day to day.

Baddeley said the timing ended up working perfectly, and I think it’s all upward for what this pizzeria can accomplish from here.

Milk Bag covers the business stories you won’t find on Apple News. If you have a story tip or want to work together, email me.

arcana, one of the country’s buzziest luxury hotel start-ups, has confirmed it’s opening a new resort on a 56-acre Muskoka property in summer 2027.

This brand first caught my attention back in 2021, when it unveiled a hospitality concept centred around getting you out of the city and into nature, featuring one-bedroom cabins with mirrored exteriors, set in a remote, and secretish property.

• The first location served as a pilot, to validate the demand and test ideas—think room design, guest experience—before moving to a permanent base.

By the next year, arcana had taken off. Today, wellness has become synonymous with luxury hospitality. Back then, less so. It was ahead of its time. Bookings for summer 2022 sold out in under an hour, a clear sign that it was time to expand.

What happened

Ahead the anticipated launch of a 23-cabin property in Muskoka, arcana, was again, sold out for the summer and had a waitlist of 24,000 people for the next year. But when the land agreement fell through, arcana chose to step back.

• The company refunded guests, promising they’d have first dibs on a stay at the new property, and listed their dwellings for sale under a new company.

Credit: arcana

What comes next

Co-founder Jeremy Hill told me arcana has full control this time around. They have acquired a resort, and the land that comes with it, and plan to establish a year-round destination with the same mission, but more community elements.

• The resort will have 30 cabins, a mix of two-bedrooms and some larger, two amenity-focused spaces, and offer more experiences and programming.

• The brand has tapped Ste Marie, a Vancouver-based designer, to work with Leckie Studios, the original designer, to carry forward the brand standards.

By some estimates, the wellness economy is set to grow to $9.8 trillion by 2029. The stress people face “has only increased,” says Hill. “People are adjusting their lives to try and reduce their stress, and we want to be able to be there for them.”

SKIM THIS

Mark Carney is in Toronto this afternoon to meet with Bay Street execs for an hourlong roundtable on fostering “public-private cooperation,” according to an invitation that was intercepted by The Globe and Mail.

Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 6.9% today, a change mostly driven by people who are quitting their jobs before finding new ones, according to an RBC economist. The youth unemployment rate has risen to 14.3%.

Ford will get $464 million from the federal government to support its own $5 billion investment that will go into renovating an Oakville plant for assembling gas and diesel-powered trucks, in a pivot away from EVs.

• Aryen Hoekstra wrote in to Milk Bag with a dispatch from the Venice Biennale. And we are so grateful. Aryen is the founder of Frank Kaka, the Canadian gallery representing Lotus Kang, the sole artist (and a Canadian) invited to present for the Bvlgari pavilion. It’s the first luxury brand to come on as an exclusive partner with the Biennale for three editions, which Aryen told me is a notable cultural investment. Here’s a summary of our texts:

  5:13 p.m. (GMT+2): Just leaving an incredible show at Fondazione Prada (Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince) and am on my way to the newly opened Fondazione Dries Van Noten, before a dinner hosted by the McMichael Collection of Canadian Art. My highlights so far include Lotus’ Bvlgari pavillion, and Canadian, Japanese German, French, and Cyprus pavilions.

  5:26 p.m. (GMT+2): Jen [Carvalho] saw Diane von Furstenberg while sipping a spritz, we had dinner at the same restaurant as Thom Yorke last night, and Willem Dafoe was in Lotus’ pavilion when I toured through with the McMichael curators. The Canada Party was Wednesday night, at the Palazzo del Cinema di Venezia on Lido, and ended at 3 in the morning.

  5:27 p.m (GMT+2): There was a wine and cheese bar, a contribution by Dean Baldwin and all sourced locally (editor’s note: red wine appears to have been served directly from barrels). No one stays on Lido and water busses are pretty rare after midnight. Jen and I were lucky to hail a water taxi, so we got home without much friction, but we were pretty fortunate.

  

  Credit: Freeze Magazine

  5:33 p.m. (GMT+2): The Canadian pavilion is strong in that it resists much of the spectacle of Venice. A greenhouse of Victoria water lilies [by Abbas Akhavan] will blossom and grow over the duration of the biennale. It’s quiet, doesn’t give itself all away at once, and requires a return visit.

  

  Credit: Artsy

  5:33 p.m. (GMT+2): Likewise, Lotus’ pavilion will continue to evolve over the duration of the installation, her continually sensitive photo films developing in relation to sun, architecture and atmosphere. There are places where she has really pushed her practice to meet the moment of Venice, in particular an installation of 35mm film on the windows of the pavilion and theatre lights on the exterior which are timed to the metre of a poem. The response I’ve received consider it a highlight of the Giardini and Venice more broadly.

  

  Credit: Lotus Kang

  5:36 p.m. (GMT+2): Dries Van Noten was a timed ticket 🙄 so we’re now at the Matthew Wong (also Canadian!) exhibition, not faraway.

• The New York Times is expanding its Canadian coverage with a reporter focused on Western news. The salary range of $158,000 to $235,000 is well ahead of what other national media outlets are paying for similar roles.

• Michael Buble will grace the stage of the World Cup opening ceremony.

• Don’t let your day job get in the way of launching the next big consumer brand. It’s incredible to see what some founders are able to accomplish over their evenings and weekends. Ginny co-founder Bianci Mensah says they’ve sold more than 6,000 cans of their new calming spritz in the last month.

• TD Bank’s “loose pledge” to help finance GameStop’s bid to buy eBay is pretty funny if you watched the Andrew Ross Sorkin interview. A Bloomberg article reported that the likeliest motivation is in preserving a relationship with GameStop, which was a major client, rather than a genuine financial commitment, since the deal is based on assumptions that are a “long shot.”