Friday nights are for sitting in oxygen chambers
John Kozman on opening a longevity clinic in Yorkville.
Good evening everyone.
Milk Bag made it onto Toronto Life’s Rising Stars list this year, which is pretty cool for a Substack that launched just months ago. Since this newsletter is defined by the impossibly cool and smart people who read it, there’s equal mention given to everyone who tunes in here every other day. So thank you.
I’m off to the cocktail hour where I hope to run into Mark Carney and make it into one of Moez Kassam’s Instagram stories.
In today’s newsletter: Friday nights are for sitting in oxygen chambers, Powder Room is gifting caviar kits, the AGO was gifted 13 Andy Warhols.
News
Reader tip: TD Bank has stationed greeters in elevator bays as workers head back to the office. For two weeks, men in black suits have been hired to raise the vibe and push elevator buttons from 8 AM-2 PM.
People are pretty angry about a TTC ad by Halo Top ice cream.
A wellness clinic offering frequency therapy, oxygen chambers, and biomarker testing opened in Yorkville. Supernatural has an impressive (and dizzying) menu of treatments, therapies, and tests that promise to optimize health for those with deep pockets and an interest in looking and feeling their best. When Alex Charlebois, the broker of choice for splashy health and fitness retailers in the city, put this concept on my radar, I thought, great, another place to get a $300 IV drip. Not so. This place has every machine and substance that so-called biohackers are using to try to add years to their life (a recent move by Felix to offer longevity testing tells me we’ve barely scraped the surface of what this industry can be). Treatments can be stacked to create ‘protocols’ with different goals, so far attracting interest from clients I’m not allowed to name. I called John Kozman, the founder, this morning to get his take:
“Canada is so far behind, frankly. Toronto has become a hotbed for cold baths and contrast therapy, and that’s exciting to see, but some of these modalities [i.e. treatments] we offer are new to this market. Our RE:SET frequency therapy chair is like a hack for meditation that puts you into a parasympathetic state. Our oxygen chamber, which I used this morning, has fantastic benefits. I love all of it, but there’s a lot of education needed on what these modalities can do, and how they integrate into your life. With the retail concept, we’re trying to make it approachable: you don’t need an appointment, or a membership that costs thousands of dollars.”
Speaking of cold plunges, Sana opened a thermal bath on Geary.
It’s actually not a terrible time to be in private equity. Recent deals for Garda World Security and CI Financial contributed to a record-setting first nine months of the year, but firms are holding onto investments for longer than they’d like (ideally, it’s five years), which has contributed to the negative coverage you might have seen about ’zombie companies.’
Powder Room has sent everyone I know a PR package with caviar kits. Liberty, the group behind Blueblood Steakhouse and Don Alfonso 1890, is launching a restaurant (no prices on the menu) on Nov. 20.
Crave is bringing back Project Runway Canada after 16 years. The Bell-owned streamer also green lit a series where Snookie looks for ghosts.
Luxury resellers are getting crushed by counterfeits. The RealReal, Vestiaire, and Fashionphile are facing authentication challenges that risk undermining their business models, according to Maison Ops.
Still, the excitement around the secondhand luxury market is strong, with the RealReal’s stock price up 160% in the last six months.
The University of Toronto is spending $24 million to recruit academics from around the world. At the Logic Summit, Dr. Melanie Woodin, the school’s president, said there is fierce competition to attract talent away from the U.S., much of which comes down to dollar signs.
Separately, the federal budget included a $1.7 billion pledge to attract top international researchers over the next decade or more.
The school has welcomed Mark Duggan, a Stanford economist, MIT economist Jacquelyn Pless, and MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager.
“It’s a good day when somebody gives you 13 Andy Warhols.” The AGO told The Globe and Mail it received one the most “transformative” gifts seen in a decade, which will beef up programming in the coming years.
Overheard at Gusto 101 last night: “Is the $1 oz wine deal a recession indicator?” “No, still having $1 oz wine would mean its inflation proof. But us coming back here is a recession indicator.”