Check Out Courtney Burk’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Burk. 

Hi Courtney, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m a freelance writer with a focus on food and beverage. I write for multiple publications around the city and on the side run a pop-up, Ferndale Stock Pot, with my husband. 

I got involved in the hospitality industry at a young age. I always joke that I found my love of it while building forts out of empty boxes in dry storage. My parents own Pete’s Place, so I was quite literally raised in the industry and began working in it at a young age. I went to college at Western Michigan University, studied creative writing, and worked at some amazing restaurants in Kalamazoo. I spent a semester abroad in Prague, studying novel writing with Robert Eversz. After a workshop, we went to a local pub and one of my classmates told me, while they thought my piece was good, it was really the paragraphs that were centered around food that captured them. Approximately four paragraphs in the hundreds of pages. 

I came back to Southeast Michigan after college and worked at Batch Brewing Company while dappling in freelance writing. Over the past few years, I worked at various other restaurants, met amazing humans within the community, and continued writing. The broken systems within the industry became even more apparent over the past few years and I began focusing my writing on the narratives of those within the city working towards making a difference, creating new systems and ideas, and of those with a deep connection to the food and beverage their hands touched. A few months ago, I made the leap of going freelance full-time and have been rewarded with the opportunity to tell some amazing stories. 

As for the pop-up, Ferndale Stock Pot began with the pandemic. My husband, Ian Burk, and I began making soup and comfort food out of our house and dropping it on friends’ porches. Our focus was comfort food to us. In high school, we’d hang out at the local bakery that served the most amazing pizza and pepperoni rolls (shoutout to Grosse Ile Bakery), and my house was always filled with Polish dishes like beet borscht. Soon, our weekly deliveries were becoming orders, as the community got wind that soup and pizza puffs (our own adaptations) were being sold out of our front porch window. We now pop up at some of our favorite bars and breweries and cook food for our friends! 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Going freelance is never easy. I’ve attempted to do it a few times but have been pulled back into restaurant jobs that offered steady pay. However, the pandemic pushed me out of one of those steady paying jobs and it was my writing that provided more opportunities. That, and the idea of running a small pop-up with the hospitality knowledge I have, allowed us a more flexible schedule. Honestly, not having to work every night and weekend – was the biggest motivator. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a freelance writer. My husband and I are freelance creatives but we focus primarily on the hospitality industry. We offer copy, design, and consulting for the industry. Our work can be found here: www.courtneyandianburk.com 

We also run Ferndale Stock Pot pop-up. The weekly menu and schedule of pop-ups can be found here: www.instagram.com/ferndalestockpot 

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
We make the menu for Ferndale Stock Pot based on what’s growing in our backyard garden. We have to fight one of our dogs for the tomatoes though since they’re his favorite. He often breaks into our hoop house to eat them (and any vegetable) when we’re not paying attention. 

The yeast we use for the dough we use for Stock Pot actually comes from Poland. My family has a mother yeast that has been passed down for generations. 

I’m 31 and have worked in the hospitality industry for over fifteen years. 

Contact Info:

• Email: courtney.b.burk@gmail.com
• Website: www.courtneyandianburk.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/spoonfulof_ink
• Twitter: twitter.com/spoonfulof_ink

Image Credits
Michelle Gerard
Jenna Belevender