San Francisco may be soon be home to its first cannabis cafe, among the first in the state after the passage of Prop. 64.
The new owners of the city’s Cafe Flore, which has stood for nearly a half-century in the Castro district, told the Bay Area Reporter that “cannabis is definitely part of (their) long term vision” for the space.
Terrence Alan, the chairman of the city’s Cannabis State Legalization Task Force, and Aaron Silverman, president and CEO of Canna Group, a cannabis business consulting firm, took over the business just after the first of the year.
The cannabis task force was charged in part with figuring out how the city would move forward with marijuana legalization if the state’s voters approved Prop. 64. One of its recommendations, according to the Reporter, was that city investigate new types of licenses for “the diverse businesses within the adult use cannabis industry such as baking or cooking licenses, consumption lounges.”
Alan, told The Reporter that he and Silverman “wanted to get into the customer service and food service side of the tourist economy so we can explore what socialization and food look like in the next 10 years.”
It would probably take several years for cannabis service to clear regulatory hurdles and appear on the cafe’s menu, he added; even then, with the strict anti-smoking laws in California, it would probably be in the form of food and drink. The cafe might even develop a line of infused products like salad dressings, he added.
“The Castro is the neighborhood where medical marijuana got started in this city,” Alan said, noting that the iconic gay neighborhood hosted the city’s first dispensaries under Proposition 215.
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