It’s not enough to simply sell cannabis these days, you’ve got to provide a experience fit for the modern cannabis customer. Whether by featuring onsite consumption lounges, luxurious interior design, or a top-notch menu, new cannabis retail establishments must meet high customer expectations. It wasn’t always this way.
Under prohibition, most stores looked dingy. The threat of federal forfeiture keep capital investments minimal. But with legalization, investors have poured mega-millions of dollars into retail upgrades.
“Moe Green’s boasts three separate cannabis consumption areas—designated for vapes, joints and dabs…”
Today, California’s newest cannabis dispensaries feel more like high-end restaurants, where the welcoming hospitality makes you want to linger and enjoy the atmosphere. There are more than 600 licensed stores in the state, with new ones opening every week.
After visiting these stylish new storefronts, you’ll be impressed by how much care went into designing the environments, curating product selection, and training staff to recommend the right item for your needs.
These five newly opened dispensaries showcase the best of California cannabis in bigger and better ways than ever before.
San Francisco Cannabis Store Openings
Vapor Room
(Courtesy of Jen Siska)
79 9th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Open Monday—Saturday from 9am to 10pm, Sunday from noon to 8pm
The comeback story of the year, Vapor Room is a beloved, old-school dispensary from Haight Street circa 2004. It closed as part of the great federal medical crackdown of 2012. Persisting as a delivery service in the interim, owner Martin Olive never gave up on returning to a brick-and-mortar location, with his years of dogged determination resulting in a beautiful new store on 9th Street, just off Market St. and the Twitter building.
On the tightly curated menu, you’ll find San Francisco’s best boutique cannabis producers, including top-shelf flowers from Gold Seal and IC Collective, which you can consume on-premises. Eco-friendly mid-shelf flower from Flow Kana and Aster Farms rounds out the offerings, with 16 varieties to choose from at this small neighborhood boutique. Pax Era vape lovers, don’t miss out on the $34 African Queen full-spectrum pod from The Guild. Edibles fans, try Om Edibles’ delicately flavored lychee gummies, and Somatik’s award-winning Sparks Chocolate Goji Berries.
Moe Green’s
(Courtesy of Moe Greens)
1276 Market St., San Francisco, CA
Open Daily from 8am—9:45pm
Brought to you by the proprietors of Barbary Coast, the most popular cannabis lounge in San Francisco, the newly opened Moe Green’s is a sprawling 4,200 square-foot dispensary and lounge in the heart of the city. Its throwback aesthetic recalls a mid-century Vegas casino. Moe Green’s boasts three separate cannabis consumption areas—designated for vapes, joints and dabs—along with direct-to-table ordering service that enables guests to skip the line and get seated before choosing from the wide variety of premium cannabis on Moe’s menu. We needed this in our life!
Situated just around the corner from the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, this is the perfect place to pre-game before heading to concerts. Big spenders can splurge on a $212 hash-infused “cannabis cigar”, or an $88 eighth-ounce of the strain Gelonade to share with friends. (An eighth is about a handful of buds.) Savvy solo shoppers gravitate towards the five-pack of Lemon Tree cannabis joints —called “pre-rolls”— for $49, or an $8 soda that has a light kick of THC, cannabis’ main active ingredient.
ECO Oakland
(Courtesy of Tev Lee)
2435 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94612
Open everyday from 11am—9pm
At this bright, airy dispensary located in the heart of uptown Oakland, half of the employees were previously convicted of cannabis-related crimes during prohibition. Going beyond simply selling weed, Equity Cannabis of Oakland (ECO) addresses the social injustice of the drug war by placing those affected at the center of the operation. Offering new opportunities is only one part of the equation, however, and ECO also supports eight other equity start-ups, providing them with work space, so fledgling entrepreneurs can focus on building a business.
Hash lovers will find a robust selection of extract called “live resin” from Friendly Farms, Raw Garden, and Humboldt’s Finest. Yum. Gourmet edibles hunters will love the Kiva, Kikoko, and Defoncé brands. Eighth-ounces of flower range from $30 for Forbidden Fruit up to $60 for Gold Seal’s Red Congolese, a rare sativa.
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San Diego Cannabis Store Openings
March and Ash
(Courtesy of March and Ash)
2835 Camino del Rio S #100, San Diego, CA 92108
Open every day of the week from 7am—9pm (Pre-order for pickup with LEAFLY Pickup, right from your computer)
Bringing a high-end, department store vibe to San Diego dispensaries, March and Ash came on the scene in September of 2018. With vibrant interior design and an entire room dedicated to CBD, this is definitely the place to bring your skeptical stepmom or dubious roommate to experience a first-time cannabis shopping spree. New customers enjoy a 10% discount, while online ordering and delivery service make procuring cannabis convenient for busy buyers.
The menu is eclectic, with high-end heads seeking out the $60+ top-shelf eighths of Cookies’ Wedding Cake and Jet Fuel OG from LA Kush, while Cru Cannabis and Bloom Farms offer more affordable options, like Do-Si-Dos at $39 to $45. Connoisseur concentrate fans will find sought-after Field sauce pens, along with Moxie live resin. Look for locally based Kaneh Co. confections if you enjoy edibles, and newbies will love the Lowell’s preroll packs.
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Los Angeles Cannabis Store Openings
(Courtesy of Cannary West)
Cannary West
2435 Military Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90064
Open Sunday—Thursday from 10am—8pm, Friday & Saturday 10am—10pm
Officially re-opened in August of 2018, this large, modern dispensary in West LA lets customers explore products on their own, with spacious counters and plentiful displays. Helpful budtenders are on hand to dispense advice, and no-pressure browsing allows you to fully ponder what to buy without feeling rushed. And with more than 350 products in stock, it’ll take you awhile to decide!
This sensi superstore keeps over 100 vape cartridges in their inventory, so choose from a dizzying array of flavors made by Bloom Farms, Eel River Organics, Heavy Hitters and Kingpen among others. Edibles eaters should seek out local favorites like Dr. Norm’s chocolate chip cookies and Kiva’s new effects-specific Camino gummies, while tense folks seeking a mellow mood can find CBD-rich prerolls from Marley Natural and Henry’s Original. Flower fans will line up to sniff the top-shelf $50 eighths of Triple Seven Pound Cake, Pearl Pharma Lemon Shortcake, and deliciously terpy. premium live resin from Moxie Extracts, Field Reserve. and 710 Labs.
As always, excellent customer service, a wide variety of quality cannabis, and affordable pricing is ultimately what drives people to return to their favorite dispensary, so please leave a review on Leafly to let us know which places you prefer.
What’s your favorite store in California, and why?
