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The Weekender: Boston's Saturday Morning Newsletter
From yoga to fine dining, these Mass. cannabis businesses are lighting up marijuana-centered spaces
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's Saturday morning newsletter, The Weekender. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
In the seven years since recreational cannabis was legalized in Massachusetts, opportunities for adults to spark up socially have definitely grown more creative.
Maybe it’s a cannabis-enhanced yoga night. Or a pop-up supper club with an “edible” menu. Throughout the state, entrepreneurs and chefs have sought out to change the way adults in Massachusetts can consume cannabis. And in the process, they’ve helped form enthusiastic communities focused on wellness, social support and culinary experimentation.
“It’s not something I necessarily saw coming when I started,” said Sam Kanter, the owner of Dinner at Mary’s, a cannabis event and catering company. “We have so many repeat clients and when people bring [their] friends, you really feel a community aspect.”
Kanter’s company provides a weed-infused catering menu for private events and “high-end” meal boxes. But friendships really form at canna-yoga, which Dinner at Mary’s hosts twice a month. At this teacher-led yoga session, adult attendees pay $40 for class admission, which includes an optional “gift” of an edible or smokeable product to enjoy while exercising. (Businesses like Kanter’s operate in a bit of a legal gray area; while cannabis cafes and other “social consumption” businesses have still not been legalized in Massachusetts, state law allows individuals to gift each other up to one ounce of marijuana.)
“It’s fun, and the combination of cannabis and yoga work really well together,” said Kanter. “Certainly, people interact with each other at [our] private events. But when it comes to community-building, canna-yoga does that best. It’s open, it’s nonjudgmental, and it’s a beautiful community.”
Making a space to congregate, connect and indulge was also the inspiration behind The Summit Lounge in Worcester. The Summit, which operates as a private club, adheres to a BYOC policy, since Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes remain in the works. (Its status as a private club also exempts the Summit from state laws against indoor smoking and marijuana use in most public places.)
To get access to the lounge, adults can pay a monthly fee of $30, annual fee of $300 or a cover charge of $10 each visit. There is also a cafe with a menu perfect for those who have a sweet tooth (or the munchies.) As of March, the club has around 10,000 members.
“On a regular night, you’ll find 15 to 25 people, hanging out, smoking, chilling, connecting. If we have a club event going on, you’ll see about 60 people there,” said Kyle Moon, the clerk at The Summit Lounge.
Moon doesn’t use cannabis, but prides himself in being able to provide a space where people can come together. “I’d rather be focused on the social connection rather than the cannabis,” said Moon. “We have board game nights, Mario Kart competitions and potlucks.”
Sacrilicious, a pop-up supper club from chef David Yusefzdeh, uses fine food to facilitate those social connections.
“People come for the food. No matter where you’re from, food is a big connector,” said Yusefzdeh, who started experimenting with infused cooking while working as a chef in Chicago. Of course, it also helps that some of the ingredients used to cook the food loosen up guests for conversation. After two or three courses, even shy clientele “open up a little bit,” said Yusefzdeh.
Adults who buy tickets to one of Sacrilicious’ cannabis-friendly dinner parties in Boston will pay $50 to enjoy a chef-inspired prix fixe menu with low doses of THC in each dish. Like Dinner at Mary’s, guests pay for dinner admission, and cannabis is technically gifted, not sold.
The chefs also host resort getaways in Vermont, which are a bit more “elevated” compared to the dinner parties. “We’ll invite eight guests, and cook [an infused] meal for each mealtime during the weekend … it’s a true bed-and-breakfast kind of vibe,” said Yusefzdeh. Guests at Sacrilicious events are welcome to opt for a cannabis-free dinner, so long as they’re excited to bond over food.
All three entrepreneurs look forward to a time when Massachusetts businesses focused on social cannabis consumption will be able to plant permanent roots. But ultimately, that’s not their main goal.
“I try to equate it to a bar,” said Moon. “You don’t go to a bar necessarily to drink, but to connect with other individuals. You can buy a six pack and drink it by yourself. That’s drinking. I want people coming here because they’re interested in connecting with like-minded individuals. You can consume cannabis, but that’s not the main purpose.”
P.S. — If you’re wondering about the holdup with social consumption sites and when they’ll actually arrive in Massachusetts, you’ll want to listen to Radio Boston‘s recent conversation with Cannabis Control Commissioner Bruce Stebbins. According to Stebbins, we’ll be hearing a lot more about social consumption over the course of this year.
