I don't normally write about food on this blog. But hear me out. Yesterday was Bianca's birthday and we had an incredible experience at Osteria Giulia. We sat at the bar, as we like to do, and everything was perfect: the food, the service, and the interiors.

First, let's talk about the food.

Anchovies, grilled sourdough, and a lot of delicious butter:

Endive, pear, burnt honey vinaigrette, toasted almonds, and ricotta:

Ricotta filled pasta, mushrooms, and artichokes:

Sea bass, leeks, artichokes, fava beans, and charred tomatoes:

Now, let's talk about the interiors. They were designed by Guido Costantino Projects. And to get a good feel for their approach, I suggest you first check out their Instagram and then move onto their website. They do really beautiful and calming work.

Design always matters.

And I'm pretty sure that the cream-colored stones and light-oak details made everything taste that much better last night. If you haven't been and you get a chance, I would highly recommend you try Osteria Giulia. It's now one of our favorites in the city.

Happy birthday, Bianca!

"Luxury" is an overused term in the world of real estate. If you call everything luxury, then ultimately nothing is luxury, right? But let's ignore this particular debate for right now. I was recently in a meeting where our interior design team -- Mason Studio -- made what I think is an important distinction between "classic luxury" and "modern luxury."

Classic luxury is old school luxury. It is the kind of luxury that says, "you can't come in here unless you look like this." And I'm sure that all of you can think of brands that might speak to you in this way.

But I think this idea of luxury is quickly changing. Perhaps a good example of "modern luxury" is the recent collaboration between RTFKT -- the web3 digital fashion company that Nike bought last year -- and high-end luggage company RIMOWA.

This, to me, is a brilliant collaboration. It is a sign of what's to come -- an ongoing blurring of our physical and digital worlds -- and it is a less fussy kind of luxury; maybe I'll mint an exceptionally expensive piece of luggage, maybe I'll mint a digital collectible, or maybe I'll just hang out on Discord.

Now, one could argue that nothing has really changed and we're just talking about different kinds of trappings. But that doesn't feel exactly right. There is something about modern luxury that feels more inclusive to me. And I think that is why it is quickly becoming the dominant form of "luxury" -- whatever that means.

It has been cold and snowy in Toronto lately, which is great if you're looking to shred pow on a snowboard, but suboptimal if you're trying to construct buildings. It pains me deep inside my bone marrow when we lose productive days to weather. But what can you do?

I was, however, thrilled to see this first glimpse (pictured above) of the lobby / co-working space at Junction House this morning. The slightly elevated section (which is the point of view of the above rendering) is the co-working area.

The reason it's elevated is that we needed the clearance below for our parking ramp. We thought about trying to make it retail, but a place for residents to hang out and work seemed like a pretty good idea.

A lot of us on the team are big fans of a great hotel lobby bar, but that's kind of challenging to do in a residential condominium. This is maybe the next best thing. It's been very popular with purchasers so far, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs in real life.