HERB IN THE BURB

herb in the burbs

Open-concept cannabis store Burb: think a little more Apple, a little less Bob’s basement

Port Coquitlam’s new-age cannabis shop is not your fluorescently lit pot-shop of the past story by CHLOE FINN

Burb is a cannabis shop, yes—but its industry has a lot of stigmas.” flagship store is far from the classic fluorescently lit pot She was expecting Burb’s industrial-style building off shop of the past. The Port Coquitlam-based shop has more the Maryhill Bypass to be “cold and plain, with some green in common with a design gracing the pages of Architec- walls,” she laughs. As a budtender, she was required to get tural Digest than a bong-filled pot shop. her cannabis license before she was able to get behind the

Designed by B.C.-based interior designer Jennifer counter and sell non-medicinal cannabis and accessories Dunn—who’s known for her work on spaces like Aritzia at Burb or anywhere else in B.C. “I knew times were changand Saje—the open-concept space feels like both an Apple ing and the cannabis sales industry would be much more store and a spa in one. It’s open and airy, with high ceilings, modernized with the government finally supporting the a calming neutral palette, and lush, green plants descend- end of this ‘prohibition,’” she says. “But believe me when ing from the ceilings. I say, my initial outlook on the subculture of the cannabis

The Burb brand experience is intended to be a mod- sales industry was an uncomfortable one, with a fluoresern-day cannabis lifestyle, and the cently lit store front and the mob-boss design of this space succeeds in cre- sitting in the back room counting cash. ating an elevated retail space that not only appears calm, but exemplifies it. Deep Pot-Talk But this couldn’t be further from the case at Burb.” It’s the kind of next-wave cannabis All three of the founders, she notes, space that attracted Burb budtender are ready for expansion into the U.S. Kelly to work there—a job she never David Hershkovits,co-founder and She jokes that the managers have a manwould have expected to have taken Publisher of Paper Magazine is tra, calling it, “the Bieber or Drake effect: even a few years ago. hosting the editorially driven podcast start in Canada and leave Canada,” as

Kelly sits down with me on one called Light Culture, which is spon- they have no interest in expansion in of the shop’s vintage ’70s black sored by Burb. It explores the budding eastern Canada but are interested in leather couches by the window, and industry through provocative conver- sharing B.C. Bud culture with the rest of I suddenly feel like I’m in a chic New sations with cannabis legends such the Pacific Northwest in years to come. York City apartment instead of a as Joe Murray, the creator of Sour She never thought she’d pursue a storefront in PoCo. Dressed in Burb Diesel, and some of the world’s most career in the cannabis industry, but streetwear, the blue-eyed blonde is highly followed cannabis voices, she was “pleasantly surprised” by the in striking contrast to what’s pre- including Abdullah Saeed and Steve opportunities the cannabis industry has dominantly been depicted in the DeAngelo. opened up for her. Fresh out of Simon media (and real life) as a cannabis On the podcast, Hershkovits Fraser University with a degree in marindustry worker. discusses the budding cannabis keting, she hopes to further herself in the

Before landing her gig at Burb, industry and its relationship to our cannabis industry, and eventually work she’d worked in the service industry lives and times, told through the voices in either marketing or sales and confor seven years, but never managed to of many influential artists, activists and tinue to share her knowledge on safe and land a job that made her happy. When influencers, respecting the history of effective consumption. “Although you she spotted the posting at Burb, her cannabis and embracing its future. can’t publicly promote the consumption parents were far from supportive— of cannabis in B.C., I still think there’s and she was a bit reluctant herself. “I LISTEN ON a lot more growth to come,” she says. “I was nervous at first,” she says. “The feel like I’m in a good spot, having both cannabis industry is developed but shopburb.com/blogs/lightculture knowledge of the cannabis industry now still developing, and the growing and my degree.” n