Enter NYC’s Secret Weed Stores: Fire Types and Hidden Lounges
From Dirty Taxi to Coochie Runtz, New York City is packed with both exotic and homegrown strains—if you know where to look.
Although the first licensed recreational cannabis stores in New York City won’t open until this fall, you’d be forgiven for assuming the industry is already up and running.
From Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Washington Square Park to Brooklyn, Queens and beyond, New York City is teeming with cannabis retailers. Some of them proudly stand out in the open and in public, using a gift model (similar to the Washington DC market) where cannabis is thrown in for free with the purchase of a work of art or symbolic item. Other companies remain underground, members-only and elusive.
Most of these stores strive to obtain a state license as soon as they become available. And many of them sell top-notch weed straight from California.
Thanks to New York’s uniquely lax consumer laws, you don’t have to go far to notice the market is exploding: you can smell it everywhere.
On a brisk and blustery day in April, I toured a few of these stores—along with Calvin Stovall, East Coast Editor of Leafly—to learn what strains are hot, where it’s easy to find quality weed, and the exciting benefits of growing in to go underground.
NFTs with a side of grass
Take a tour of the Lower East Side and you can’t throw a stone without hitting a pot shop (or a condiment pizza place). While Empire Cannabis Clubs on Allen Street are the most outrageous — with a giant Pot Leaf sign hanging out front — a handful of other shops are quietly thriving on side streets.
Street Lawyer Services on nearby Stanton Street offers quality products in a more benign environment.
SLS — which also operates a similar store in DC and a hemp cannabinoid retail store in Miami — still makes little effort to obfuscate its wares. Walk through a glass door, show your ID to a bouncer, and you’re in a cheery, bright room. Behind a counter, video screens display digital art—NFTs—that you can purchase.
What do you know? This NFT comes with free weed! SLS offers a menu of “Content Packs” including branded sativa and indica bud nights, edibles, carts, and more. You can also view the menu online. By no means cheap, prices are still comparable to other NYC stores and delivery services.
The store opened last November. “Initially, people had no idea what to think about the NFT gift model,” manager Peter told Leafly.
But after six months they got it. Peter tells us that the flower remains the store’s best seller. The hottest strains? Cheetah Piss and Gushers. Both introduce loud, sweet gelato to their lineage.
I went with an infused kief-coated pre-roll and a small jar of the beloved Gushers. The latter proved to be perfectly cured, terpy, potent and adorned with superb frosty buds. I’ve bought solid weed from delivery services in NYC before and this felt on par with some of the best.
New York has opened the door to giving but now wants to close it
Businesses like Street Lawyer Services began setting up stores last year after then-Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) into law in March.
The bill makes it legal for adults to “transfer” cannabis up to three ounces of cannabis between themselves, as long as “no compensation” is exchanged. In response, many aspiring entrepreneurs quickly started “gift” pharmacies, such as those operated by Street Lawyer Services.
But then, in February of this year, the State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) sent cease and desist letters to over 50 of these “gift” shops. Ignore the cease and desist letter, the letter said, and you definitely won’t get a license.
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To stay in the state’s good graces and stay out of the limelight, many underground stores that haven’t received letters have largely shut down their press and privatized their Instagram accounts.
But going fully legal might still be a long way off for many of them. In March, New York announced it would issue the first 100 retail licenses to entrepreneurs affected by the War on Drugs. If these current shops don’t qualify as such, one would-be license holder told me they might wait a few years before even applying.
Take a journey underground, where designer weed reigns supreme
To learn more about the secret side of the industry, Calvin and I visited a members-only pharmacy and lounge in Manhattan that has gone to great lengths to remain undetected.
The business relies solely on word of mouth to attract new customers. It doesn’t have a public address, and even if you’re inside the building, it’s difficult to find the store.
But once you make it past a legitimate fake wall, you’ll find yourself in a cannabis connoisseur’s oasis: displays of pre-packaged, branded eighths sit on shelves like works of art, while a curated selection of vape carts and edibles sit on the counter.
Just like Street Lawyer Services, most of the weed comes from California.
“People trust the regulated market” in California, the shop manager explained. “It’s the terroir of cannabis.”
However, the store carries some strains grown in New York. The manager highlighted the funky Dirty Taxi, Wifi OG and Pancake.
“There are growers here that have been growing for ages,” he said, but “people don’t necessarily associate New York with quality cannabis.”
Some of the packaging made it clear that these New York growers wanted to emulate their West Coast counterparts. For example, the plastic tube for a New York-grown pre-roll featured the iconic California warning label, but the “CA” was changed to “NY.”
More gelato flavors and a ride in a dirty cab
Just like Street Lawyer Services, sweet, fruity strains were hot at this store. Gushers were sold out. The manager noted that Rainbow Sherbert #11 (aka RS11) was also selling well.
I bought a Black Cherry Gelato Pre-Roll: Pungent and earthy, it delivered a premium and airy high and smoked extremely smooth.
Calvin went for the diesel-y and uplifting Dirty Taxi. “It smells like a crazy ride in the back of a Queens cab, but delivers an exquisite high worthy of a five-star Uber ride,” he quipped.
He also grabbed an eighth of Jealousy. We walked into the lounge past the store. A bevy of skater bros whipped out high-end bongs and giggled loudly while Calvin rolled a phat backwoods at a separate table.
Fire as you please, Commander!
Dizzy and impressed, we left the store and ventured back into the noisy city, jealousy stump in hand.
While the burgeoning industry is exciting to watch, the ability to consume in public is even more surreal. Unsurprisingly, many New Yorkers find it incredibly annoying…and that includes many fans of the herb and advocates of legalization.
Calvin lit the Jealousy Blunt in the street. He confirmed that it was “sweet, thick, powdery and spicy” and noted that it was also quite arousing. (At that moment, though, he seemed mostly smitten with a classic New York slice of pizza.)
With a blunt smoking on the street, our pockets stuffed with top-shelf weed, I felt the momentum. New York is about to become a huge cannabis market, but in this strange purgatory, one could also feel the promise of its size.
Max Savage Levenson
Max Savage Levenson probably has the lowest cannabis tolerance of any author on the cannabis beat. He also writes about music for Pitchfork, Bandcamp and other bespectacled people. He is the co-host of the Hash podcast. His dream interview is Tyler the Creator.
Check out Max Savage Levenson’s articles
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