Would you pay $99 for a pour-over?
+ The most ordered food in Canada, Canada Goose shakes up leadership, and Daniel Ek’s body scan start-up is expanding.
Good afternoon everyone.
And a happy snow day to those who aren’t dedicated enough to their craft to honour their in-person work commitments. Really sets apart the makers from the fakers. Just kidding, you should have definitely stayed home if you needed to. Just know the rest of us put on our Moon Boots and got on with our day.
Kidding. I’m totally kidding. Stay safe (and warm) out there.
In today’s newsletter: People are buying $99 pour-overs from Denovia, the most ordered food in Canada is a slop bowl, Canada Goose hires a Burberry executive, and Daniel Ek’s body scan start-up is expanding to North America.
Denovia, a new coffee shop and wellness centre in Midtown, is selling $99 pour-overs. The beans are sourced from the Elida Estate in Panama, where the high elevation (the farm sits in the actual clouds) and volcanic soils are said to produce one of the world’s “highest quality coffees.” The other week, I felt pretty stupid for ordering what I thought was a $32 bag of coffee beans at Three Dots Coffee only to find out it was the price of a cup, without any explanation as to why it was priced that way. Had that interaction been followed by a video detailing the years-long process to produce the perfect beans on a pleasant-looking farm tucked away in the mountains of Guatemala, I could have been convinced. But maybe not.
In New York, there’s been some backlash to the $40 cups of coffee served at WatchHouse, a U.K.-based coffee chain that says they’re selling 400 out of their two Manhattan locations every month.
There are 20% fewer skiers on the slopes at Vail Resorts this year. Compared to last year, there is less snow (I know it’s hard to imagine that today), but also a day pass for Whistler Blackcomb is $351 this weekend.
Neko Health, a Swedish body scan start-up now worth $1.7 billion, is expanding to New York. The New York Times reports that Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, along with Hjalmar Nilsonne, will open their first location in the U.S. this spring, which matters considering the number of Canadians who are already heading south of the border for private MRI scans. As an aside, my piece about medical tourism in the Globe and Mail last year seems to have inspired a podcast series that I can’t share details on yet, and I’ve seen some reporters starting to post callouts for people who are travelling for health care. So expect to hear a lot about this in 2026.
According to Uber Eats, the most-ordered food in Canada in 2025 was a burrito bowl. Read: slop bowls, which experts say may be on the way out this year. I’m most surprised by the volume of ready-to-drink margaritas.
Canada Goose seems to be looking for someone to lead their North America business. Ana Mihaljevic is stepping down, former Burberry executive Niclas Ekerot joined as SVP of global stores, and Daniel Binder will lead the Asia business. Two other great gets: Judit Bankus from Stella McCartney (merchandising), and Haider Ackermann, who splits his time with Tom Ford and has led the recent push into warm weather clothing.
People are divided about the amount of homemade food on Facebook marketplace. There are still some concerning photos, but the overall quality is actually looking a lot better compared to a few years ago.
We’ve all overheard something we were not supposed to at the Dineen in Commerce Court. A couple of you sent me this article over the break, in which Robyn Dolittle pops into the cafe that hosts thousands of Bay Street types in their daily in-between moments. I realized why I like it there so much at the part where CEO Ruth Young points out it’s one of the few coffee shops in the city where people still talk to each other.
People have moved past home-swapping and are now buying each other’s non-refundable vacations.
Some interesting jobs that are open right now:
Left on Friday is hiring a Director of Brand. Someone with celebrity contacts and experience growing a brand to $100 million in revenue.
Greenhouse Juice is hiring a Head of Marketing. I wonder what the right answer is for the “how you should behave at work” question.
The Bloc Québécois is hiring a Director of Communications. Posted around the same time that Premier Legault announced his resignation.
