The Future of Cannabis Consumption Lounges | THCnet

Photo: Marina Thompson for Original Cannabis Cafe

This story originally ran on THCnet in 2020.

You can’t fault Austin Stevenson’s parents for being perplexed. Why would he leave his finance and tech career for the cannabis industry? Wasn’t that just about smoking joints beneath the high school bleachers?

“They’re as conservative as can be,” says Stevenson, who grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, firefighting and construction the blue-collar family careers.  

Stevenson is the vice president of product and innovation for Vertosa, a San Francisco company that creates cannabis infusion for beverages. They’re increasingly sold and sipped at cannabis consumption lounges such as San Francisco’s Barbary Coast Dispensary, where Stevenson took his visiting parents to show them the “whole new world.”

Barbary Coast customers can grab pre-rolls or THC-infused drinks such as California Dreamin’ sparkling soda or Hi-Fi Hops, from Lagunitas, then partake in the swanky lounge’s deep leather booths, big enough to fit, say, a family. “My parents were like, ‘Wow, this is no different than the cocktail lounge in our old neighborhood,’” Stevenson says. “Consumption lounges provide that aha moment for people to see that cannabis serves all.”

Bars and restaurants happily serve of-age customers their favorite mood-altering alcoholic drinks, maybe two or three, business as usual in all 50 states. Smoking, sipping and consuming cannabis products often occur in private, even in states that have legalized recreational sales, such as Nevada, Oregon, and Massachusetts, but not public consumption.

Now, as laws and attitudes loosen, cannabis is taking the legal stage at restaurants and lounges. These public spaces might be a crucial next step for bringing cannabis from the counterculture to popular culture, letting people THC and be seen.

“It is the real future of cannabis because it gives it an opportunity to exist in the same realm as social experiences,” says chef and cannabis consultant Holden Jagger.

San Francisco is steadily welcoming Amsterdam-style coffee houses that permit customers to purchase cannabis products, then consume them on premises. Hybrid dispensaries and lounges such as Barbary Coast and Moe Greens greet customers with well-designed spaces staffed by educated budtenders, high-tech HVAC systems circulating oxygen and keeping smoke contained.

“We get as many tourists as we do locals,” Moe Greens founder Nate Haas has said.

Denver, Colorado, has seen plenty of cannatourism since the state legalized recreational cannabis in 2014. However, enjoying a joint in public remained a no-no in the Mile High City.

In 2019, the vertically integrated company Cannabis One partnered with Tetra Tea House, a membership-only lounge located next door to the Joint, a dispensary owned by Cannabis One. If customers buy cannabis products at the Joint, they receive a temporary one-day pass to partake in their purchases at Tetra. It’s a “safe haven,” says PJ Rinker, the head of business development at Cannabis One.

Going forward, Colorado should offer more locations for public cannabis consumption. On January 1, House Bill 1230 legally permitted two new kinds of businesses, including tasting room–style cannabis dispensaries and “hospitality establishments” earmarked for cannabis consumption.

Such establishments will be “pretty important in America as we go forward,” Rinker says. “If you don’t have a place to consume cannabis legally, then it hasn’t really helped make that mainstream transition.”

As great gathering places, restaurants are also redefining social lubricants by swapping a wine list for a flower menu. “The common denominator in restaurants and social settings is alcohol,” says Red Rodriguez, the director of vendor relations at Original Cannabis Cafe, in West Hollywood, California. (Current laws forbid selling both cannabis products and alcohol.)

Customers at the Original Cannabis Cafe, which opened last fall as Lowell Farms: A Cannabis Cafe, receive one menu for food, the other for cannabis. Tacos are served alongside homemade corn dogs, smashed burgers and cannabis strains offered according to flavor, effect and potency.

“We can really curate the experience for our guests,” Rodriguez says, emphasizing his clientele’s diversity and openness. “Every table is really approachable,” he says. “In the land of socialites, it can be rare to engage with the table next to you on a social level. Everyone’s common denominator is cannabis.” 

West Hollywood will be a key test case for public cannabis consumption. California might be mired in a glacial dispensary licensing process, but the city has green-lit a handful of high-profile consumption lounges and edibles-only cafes, including the forthcoming Budberry, set to open early this year.

The all-day concept will feature a menu from executive chef and cannabis-cookbook author Jeff Danzer, better known as “Jeff the 420 Chef.” Customers will be able to order dishes made with Danzer’s line of FreeLeaf oils and “culinary cannabis herbs” that mimic the flavors of plants such as oregano and rosemary. Sprinkle them on, say, a slice of pizza to add taste and a calibrated dose of THC.

“There’s never been cannabis flower you can eat,” Danzer says. 

America’s state-by-state patchwork of legalization means that such elevated culinary experiences are not available everywhere. To fill in the void, numerous chefs operate clandestine dinners that elevate cannabis cuisine.

New York City chef Miguel Trinidad runs the 99th Floor, a company that operates a series of secret pop-up cannabis dinners. Since 2015, Trinidad has orchestrated private parties that combine fine dining with cannabis and education.

“We’re all about micro-dosing and sharing an experience with people that either have, or haven’t, consumed cannabis in a way that’s safe and makes them happy,” Trinidad says, likening his dinner experiences to enjoying a nice bottle of wine. “You’re not going to chug it. You’re going to sip it throughout the night. That alters your mood and energy.”

As cannabis becomes legally baked into polite society, spaces for public consumption will not just fit a high-end mold. Yes, there will be pricey edible restaurants, cannabis-friendly party buses and stylish lounges serving pre-rolls on a silver platter. But there will also be affordable gathering places such as Vehicle City Social, a private club in an old country bar in Flint, Michigan.

Members with valid medical cards pay a $20 annual fee to access the alcohol-free establishment and shoot pool, toss darts or even grab a stack of pancakes while perusing vendors’ flower selection.

“People can come in have breakfast and not be judged,” says Steve Craven, a founder. The club has more than 9,000 members, drawn from all walks of life to the venue’s eclectic event slate. Goat yoga one day, a comedy show the next, maybe burlesque or even a graffiti contest. Heck, Snoop Dogg even performed once.

“It’s not a place to get high and hide in a corner,” Craven says. The lively atmosphere brings people out of their homes and shells, giving cannabis consumers a communal hub to happily pass time while passing a joint. “It is the future.”