America’s first official cannabis cafe opens in California, and the design has us blowing smoke.
The end of prohibition is here. As of October 1, 2019, you can now eat, drink and smoke cannabis at America’s first cannabis cafe. Lowell Farms: A Cannabis Cafe located in West Hollywood, California, offers a “farm-to-table experience for both cuisine and cannabis,” according to its website.
Clear ph has chosen to highlight this story because not only is the arrival of cannabis consumption a monumental moment in today’s society, but also for the overarching reason that we are going gaga over Lowell Cafe’s restaurant design.
Renderings of Lowell Cafe by Lowell Herb Co. West Hollywood, California.
With Cannabis Lounges, On-Site Consumption, Marijuana-Infused Meals Go Legit
Can this century’s Roaring ’20s repeat history but with pre-rolled joints instead of whiskey flasks and soccer moms as the new flappers? This month, West Hollywood will see the opening of the nation’s first at least quasi-legal cannabis consumption lounge, officially dubbed Lowell Farms: A Cannabis Café, located at 1211 N. La Brea between Fountain and Santa Monica Boulevard at the former site of the Loreley Restaurant and Beer Garden.
“For us, this is the real end of prohibition,” says David Elias, co-founder/CEO of the Hacienda, the parent company of Lowell Herb Co., the financial and creative force behind the café. “This restaurant is a historic moment for the cannabis movement. We want to make sure we do this right. We feel very well-suited as a brand to be doing this.”
Photo by Wonho Frank Lee, courtesy of Los Angeles Magazine.
Indeed, with major investments from retail giant Med Men and co-signs by celebrities including Chris Rock, Miley Cyrus and Sarah Silverman, Lowell, the leading seller of pre-rolls in California, is perfectly positioned to showcase its product — and brand — with the new consumption lounge. Featuring a separate room for smoking and vaping, as well as a full-service, non-infused menu from celebrated chef Andrea Drummer, author of “Cannabis Cuisine,” the Cannabis Café went through a lengthy approval process that stretched out over two years since being awarded the license in 2017 by the city of West Hollywood.
Lowell’s director of restaurants Kevin Brady, a graduate of Cornell’s prestigious Hotel Administration and Hospitality School, and a 13-year veteran of the Tao Group (Hollywood’s Beauty & Essex and the LAVO nightclub in Las Vegas, among others) was in charge of getting the venue up and running. This required, among other things, filling out a 75-page application.
“The challenges were pretty formidable,” he says. “Nothing has transformed the cannabis and restaurant industries like this will, though. It’s a new frontier. We needed to find a yes for every no, with ongoing negotiations on the municipal and state levels.”
The Lowell group was awarded one of 16 licenses by West Hollywood from more than 300 applications, half of which allow smoking, vaping and edibles on-site, while the other eight are for edibles and infused meals only.
In conforming to the new guidelines, dining at the Lowell Café — where management says beer and wine will be available with the previous tenant’s license — goes in tandem with its flower, vape and edible offerings, including Lowell’s recently introduced micro-dose mints.
Servers — flower hosts, budtenders and even cannabisseurs are some of the names being bandied about — will offer selections on the menu and bring orders to the table, where patrons can sit and partake to their heart’s, and head’s, delight.
“The whole idea is to educate and guide first-timers through the process,” Brady says. “Or simply recommend which variety goes best with each dish. It’s like a sommelier but without the pretensions. It reflects the ritual of opening the bottle and allowing everyone a sniff and taste.”
Renderings of Lowell Cafe by Lowell Herb Co. West Hollywood, California.
“The whole idea is to educate and guide first-timers through the process,” Brady says. “Or simply recommend which variety goes best with each dish. It’s like a sommelier but without the pretensions. It reflects the ritual of opening the bottle and allowing everyone a sniff and taste.”
The renowned Houston Bros. team partnered on the interior design, which will be “unique and plush, an area oasis with living walls and plenty of space,” according to Brady. The menu will be “high-quality, farm-to-table California cuisine, with ingredients to play off those intense flavors to make the experience even more fun,” he adds. “Healthy and approachable, but also fundamentally delicious.”
