Get to know Burdock and venue coordinator Charlotte Cornfield

We have fallen in love with Burdock Brewery and Music Hall on Bloor St West. We sat down with venue coordinator Charlotte Cornfield to get to know Burdock a bit better.

1. Tell us about yourself and when you joined Burdock!

My name is Charlotte Cornfield - I am a songwriter and musician from Toronto, and I'm the venue coordinator and programming director at Burdock Music Hall. I joined the Burdock team in early 2015, a few months before we opened. So I have been with the space since close to the beginning!

2. Tell us a bit about the history of Burdock.

Burdock was dreamed up and created by my friends Jason Stein and Matt Park, who I know from when we were all living in Montreal. The idea was to create a space that housed a brewery, a bar/restaurant and a great music venue. Speaking to the venue side of things, all of us are musicians and music lovers, and we wanted to have a space that had great sound, that was artist-friendly, and that hosted a wide range of performances in a variety of different genres. So that's what we are doing! We opened in spring 2015, at which point we were doing a few shows a week. Now, a few short years later, we are doing over 550 shows a year. It's awesome!

3. A lot of breweries have entertainment, but it’s a little rare to see a full music hall as part of the building. Is music an important part of Burdock’s mandate?

Totally! That was part of the vision. We knew that there wasn't anything like this in Toronto and Jason and Matt saw an opportunity to build an innovative space. I feel really lucky to be involved.

4. Which is your favourite beer?

I am a big fan of the Te, which is a sour beer. It's really tasty and refreshing.

5. What’s your favourite musical act to come through? Do you host all different types of genres?

Wow, there have been so many great shows! A highlight that sticks out in my mind is Jeremy Dutcher (2018 Polaris Prize winner), who played our piano festival this past January. He is a brilliant performer and his show is etched in my mind so powerful.

And yes, we really do a variety of stuff: songwriters, indie rock, classical, avant garde, hip hop, jazz, spoken word, comedy, storytelling, theatre. It's been amazing - my eyes have been opened up to so much great stuff I was not yet familiar with.