These are photos from the terrace of a restaurant in Old Montreal called Boris Bistro. It's not new -- it's been around since 1999 -- but that doesn't change the fact that its outdoor space is absolutely magical.

The terrace sits behind an old stone facade on McGill Street that is held up with a three-storey steel structure. Hello façadism! I have tried to figure out the vintage of the original building through a cursory look online, but I came up with nothing. (Drop it in comment section below if you happen to know.)

What we were told at the restaurant was that the original building burnt down, leaving just the facade and then an open space behind it. The size of the trees on the terrace do suggest that it's been this way for a long time.

There's an office building beside it that looks to be of a 90s vintage (465 McGill Street) and this open space was apparently a place for office workers to go smoke. But now the ground floor of the office building and the terrace function as one large contiguous space.

The result is what you see above. Magic.

Montréal has been city building for a lot longer than Toronto. Some 400 years depending on how you calculate it. This history has created one of the most beautiful built environments anywhere in the world.

//player.vimeo.com/video/113321361

It’s wintertime in Canada and that means people complaining about the cold and/or the fact that in our climate there are certain things that simply can’t (or shouldn’t) be done when it comes to city building.

But I don’t buy that.

A great counter example is Igloofest in Montreal. Unless you’re into electronic music (OK, fine, young people call it EDM today), you probably haven’t heard of it. But it’s basically an outdoor dance party on Montreal’s waterfront in the middle of the winter.

The opening night is tonight and the overnight low is expected to hit -27 degrees celsius. Take a look at the video at the top of this post though (click here if you can’t see it). That’s how many people are going to crowd outside in the cold and dance their hearts out this evening.

And so whether you’ve got harsh winters or summers, there are always creative ways to make it work for you. You just have to own it.

If anyone would like to take a trip to Montreal this winter, I promise to stand by my words and dance outside in the cold. Have a great weekend everyone.

These are photos from the terrace of a restaurant in Old Montreal called Boris Bistro. It's not new -- it's been around since 1999 -- but that doesn't change the fact that its outdoor space is absolutely magical.

The terrace sits behind an old stone facade on McGill Street that is held up with a three-storey steel structure. Hello façadism! I have tried to figure out the vintage of the original building through a cursory look online, but I came up with nothing. (Drop it in comment section below if you happen to know.)

What we were told at the restaurant was that the original building burnt down, leaving just the facade and then an open space behind it. The size of the trees on the terrace do suggest that it's been this way for a long time.

There's an office building beside it that looks to be of a 90s vintage (465 McGill Street) and this open space was apparently a place for office workers to go smoke. But now the ground floor of the office building and the terrace function as one large contiguous space.

The result is what you see above. Magic.

Montréal has been city building for a lot longer than Toronto. Some 400 years depending on how you calculate it. This history has created one of the most beautiful built environments anywhere in the world.

//player.vimeo.com/video/113321361

It’s wintertime in Canada and that means people complaining about the cold and/or the fact that in our climate there are certain things that simply can’t (or shouldn’t) be done when it comes to city building.

But I don’t buy that.

A great counter example is Igloofest in Montreal. Unless you’re into electronic music (OK, fine, young people call it EDM today), you probably haven’t heard of it. But it’s basically an outdoor dance party on Montreal’s waterfront in the middle of the winter.

The opening night is tonight and the overnight low is expected to hit -27 degrees celsius. Take a look at the video at the top of this post though (click here if you can’t see it). That’s how many people are going to crowd outside in the cold and dance their hearts out this evening.

And so whether you’ve got harsh winters or summers, there are always creative ways to make it work for you. You just have to own it.

If anyone would like to take a trip to Montreal this winter, I promise to stand by my words and dance outside in the cold. Have a great weekend everyone.