Dreams of “San Fransterdam” — Amsterdam-style cannabis coffee shops in the city — seemed to puff into reality Monday after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law legalizing the establishments in California.
But it will be some time before you’ll be ripping a fat one while a server brings you a hot slice of ’za. Why? Because San Francisco will have to change its municipal codes before dispensary owners can even begin to think about opening consumption lounges.
To make cannabis cafes a reality, the city’s Planning Department and Office of Cannabis are awaiting guidance from the Department of Public Health. Health officials said Thursday that health codes won’t have to change but other requirements may be needed. The mayor’s office said it is working on legislation surrounding cannabis cafes but has not set a timeline for completion.
“I’m not holding my breath for dispensaries selling food,” said Ali Jamalian, chair of the city’s Cannabis Oversight Committee.
Jamalian did provide a glimmer of hope. He said the first cannabis cafes will likely be dispensaries that already have built-out lounge areas that allow food deliveries.
These are the San Francisco dispensaries that have cannabis lounges:
- Barbary Coast, 952 Mission St.
- Moe Greens, 1276 Market St.
- Mission Cannabis Club, 2441 Mission St.
- Russian Hill Cannabis Club, 2424 Polk St.
- Sparc on Polk, 1735 Polk St. (edibles and infused beverages only)
- Urbana, 4811 Geary Blvd. and 33 29th St.
- Vapor Room, 79 Ninth St.
- The Apothecarium, 2029 Market St. (edibles and infused beverages only)
- Union Station, 2075 Mission St.
Even when the city does greenlight food and drink inside weed lounges, it won’t feel as bohemian as Amsterdam, and it probably won’t be cost-effective, dispensary owners say.
Terrence Alan, owner of Castro dispensary Flore, called the law “a step in the right direction” for normalizing recreational cannabis use but said local restrictions on weed lounges — such as the requirement of an HVAC system to filter smoke and a rule that the lounge is not visible from the street — mean the spaces don’t feel open and inviting.
“You have to smoke in a black box with other people who had to show their ID to get in, and there’s no windows,” Alan said.
He added that the idea of building a kitchen inside a cannabis lounge is laughable in San Francisco, due to the immense costs and thin profit margins. Even when the new law allows it, Alan said, most weed cafes won’t be making food, just coffee.
“At the $10 per square foot I’m paying for the store? I’ll never get my money back on food,” he said, estimating that it would cost at least $100,000 to build a professional kitchen inside a lounge.
Union Station owner Joseph Hunt said he plans to offer only prepackaged snacks and drinks at his Mission dispensary, at least for now.
“It’s just to enhance the experience,” Hunt said. “We’re gonna start off simple and go from there.”
Ben Bleiman, head of the California Nightlife Association, said he estimates that city legislation for weed cafes will pass in four to five months.
“This law gives them flexibility, new revenue streams, and lets them create a new vibe,” Bleiman said.
Assemblymember Matt Haney offered a possible solution for business owners struggling with the high costs of construction, saying future dispensaries may try to lease spaces with preexisting kitchens.
“They could bring in pop-ups and certainly could bring in a coffee machine in many cases,” he said.
California’s new law goes into effect on Jan. 1. The San Francisco city attorney’s office said it typically takes cities months or longer to implement a law after the governor signs it.