MENDOCINO CO., 10/22/24 – What if you could enjoy a scrumptious steak, a breathtaking view of Anderson Valley, all while enjoying a locally sourced, pre-roll for dessert? If you’ve ever dreamed of this combination, you’ve got yourself the ideal cannabis experience that the team behind the Madrones hotel and restaurant has been working on for years.
Due to a new bill Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law last month, the owners of the Madrones may be able to make this dream a reality.
Located in Philo, the Madrones is a Mediterranean-inspired compound on 19 acres that includes a cannabis dispensary, an open-air consumption lounge, a boutique hotel, a restaurant and wine tasting rooms. Now, with the signing into law of AB 1775, the owners of the Madrones hope to combine its dispensary operations with the restaurant’s cuisine.
The Madrones, a Mediterranean ispired compound in the southern most part of the Emerald Triangle in Philo, Calif., on June 24, 2020. The Madrones features a cannabis farm, dispensary, restaurant and wine tasting. (Nikolas Zvolensky/The Madrones via Bay City News)
The Madrones business model began when Jim Roberts and his partner Brian Adkinson decided to take a unique approach to their cannabis business. Roberts is a second-generation cannabis cultivator and attributes a great deal of his industry knowledge to his mother, who started the family’s cannabis farm 20 years ago in a sun-drenched corner of Anderson Valley. Roberts opened the hotel and restaurant 12 years ago, while the dispensary, named the Bohemian Chemist, opened in early 2020.
“It all began when Jim’s 90-year-old mother Rosemary was ready to stop working in her cannabis garden, but wanted the garden itself to endure,” reads the Bohemian Chemist’s website.
The model they followed to remain legal under previous state policy is to have customers pay for their products under two separate tabs. One tab is for the cannabis dispensary wares, which are sold in one section of the property, while the other is for food and drinks at the restaurant. Until recent legislation passed, customers were not allowed to bring cannabis products into the dining area or food into the dispensary area.
But under AB 1775, Roberts can make their business model more seamless for customers. AB 1775 will allow licensed cannabis retailers to sell non-cannabis food and non-alcoholic drinks to customers inside their shops. Customers will be able to smoke a joint or enjoy an edible in the same section they eat their meals. This bill could help Mendocino County’s cannabis retailers by allowing them to morph their storefronts into Amsterdam-style “cannabis cafes.”
“It breaks down another one of those barriers,” Roberts said. “Bills like this will help create a model that’s more traditional.”
The Madrones business is prepared for this model because it already has a consumption area that would be perfect for a “cannabis restaurant.”
“Since cannabis and alcohol can’t be served in one area, we could just serve food in our lounge that’s licensed for cannabis,” Roberts explained. “We are fortunate that we have all the components already.”
Local and state politicians have emphasized that cannabis cafes could reinvigorate the marijuana industry throughout California.
State Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) introduced a version of AB 1775 last year, but it was vetoed by Newsom for not including sufficient workplace protections. Haney revised the bill and reintroduced it to the legislature at the beginning of this year.
“While consuming cannabis onsite is technically legal in California, selling non-cannabis-infused products is not,” Haney said in a statement earlier this year. “AB 1775 legalizes cannabis cafes by allowing the sale of non-cannabis food and soft drink, allowing small cannabis retailers to diversify their business and move away from the limiting dispensary model.”
In a statement, Newsom applauded Haney’s perseverance in authoring a bill that supports cannabis businesses and ensures workplace protections.
“I commend the author for incorporating additional safeguards, such as expressly protecting employees’ discretion to wear a mask for respiration, paid for at the expense of the employer,” Newsom said. The bill also requires employers to give workers guidance on the risks of secondhand cannabis smoke.
However, the process of applying for a cannabis cafe-type license could be riddled with an obstacle course of red tape, whether the applying business is operating in incorporated or unincorporated areas.
According to AB 1775, the law is subject to interpretation and procedures decided by local jurisdictions. It could be sometime before cities like Fort Bragg, Willits, Point Arena and Ukiah begin the process of evaluating the new law and its future, if any, in their jurisdictions.
According to Jesse Davis, chief planning manager for the City of Ukiah, cannabis businesses in unincorporated areas of Mendocino County are allowed to have a consumption lounge, like the Madrones currently has, if the businesses already have a cannabis retail license. For other cannabis retailers in incorporated cities, such as dispensaries in Ukiah, applying for a consumption lounge is a more arduous process. This could in turn lead to more difficulties for Ukiah retailers that want to create a cannabis cafe or restaurant.
Currently in Ukiah, cannabis retailers can offer onsite consumption by modifying their business permits for “discretionary use” or applying for an entirely new permit if it’s a new business.
There’s no cap on dispensaries allowed in the city, but specific guidelines must be met for an onsite consumption permit. The Planning Services Division reviews applications on a case-by-case basis. A cannabis retailer’s proximity to other businesses plays a key role in obtaining a discretionary use permit. For example, onsite consumption is usually permitted for dispensaries located on the outskirts of Ukiah, but not in the downtown area.
“We are looking at these sites on an individual basis,” Davis said. “A dispensary [and consumption lounge] in downtown Ukiah might not be the most appropriate. We evaluate it on a case-by-case basis.”
Davis said that creating a successful cannabis consumption lounge depends on having the right location and the right business model.
“Being in the right location helps with smoke trespassing and parking,” he said. “Location is paramount. After that is having the right mindset and organizational standards with the local and state process.”
It is unclear when the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors will discuss the details of the recently signed legislation. However, 2nd District Supervisor Maureen Mulheren, whose district includes Ukiah, hasn’t seen any opposition to AB 1175.
A cannabis plant catches the sun at Sugar Hill Farm in Philo, Calif. on Oct. 8, 2023. (Nikolas Zvolensky/The Madrones via Bay City News)
“The board has been supportive in trying to help the cannabis industry getting into the state regulated market. I have been approached by businesses that are interested in these kinds of opportunities,” Mulheren stated. “I don’t have any indication that there would be opposition, but it’s not something that we have had a conversation about.”
Ted Williams, 5th District Supervisor who represents the Anderson Valley region, said that although he supports AB 1775, he doesn’t believe it will revive local businesses.
“I think it’s a good idea, but I don’t think it’s going to save the economy,” Williams said. He added that obtaining a cannabis retail license can be a difficult process. “Getting a cannabis license is like getting a gas station in your backyard. It’s onerous.”
Supervisor John Haschak, who represents the 3rd District, which has the preponderance of cannabis growers in the county, said he believes the new law will support cannabis businesses in a time of economic decline.
“AB 1775 will streamline the legal regulated cannabis market, which is critical to the success of the supply chain,” Haschak said.
Haschak said that creating more opportunities for cannabis shops will allow those businesses to resemble the wine tasting venues that Northern California is so famous for.
“Allowing expanded food and drink opportunities for dispensaries and treating them like wine-tasting rooms and breweries in Mendocino County is long overdue,” he added.
Copies of the “High Times: Let’s Get Baked” cookbook and a bottle and cans of Artet, a non-alcoholic cannabis beverage, on display at a 4/20 event at Mendocino Grove in Mendocino, Calif. on April 20, 2024. (Sarah Stierch via Bay City News)
The new bill also allows retailers to hold events like concerts or other live performances where customers consume marijuana. (Think of a jazz club adjacent to a dispensary.) Retailers will not be allowed to sell tobacco or alcohol, and the cannabis consumption area must be out of sight from the public. Consumption areas can only be accessed by those who are 21 and over.
Michelle Chandler, the general manager of Local Roots Dispensary in Ukiah, said that AB 1775 could bring more tourists to Mendocino County and create business opportunities. She also said that the bill could boost Mendocino County’s local economy as well as put the area on the map as a must-visit cannabis destination.
“Tourists get excited to know that they are in the Emerald Triangle, and they are buying Emerald Triangle weed. It’s something to draw outside dollars from tourists who are excited to experience Mendocino County,” she said. She added that she would like to see dispensaries also sell locally grown food, so the cannabis and meals are both sourced from Mendocino County. “You can really put this place on the map with something like that.”
Critics of AB 1775 include the American Cancer Society, which said the legislation undermines the state’s smoke-free restaurants law and will roll back decades of protections of everyone’s right to breathe smoke-free air.
“Secondhand marijuana smoke has many of the same carcinogens and toxic chemicals as secondhand tobacco smoke and has higher levels of fine particulate matter,” the society said in a press release. “We will continue to work to maintain smoke-free environments and urge local jurisdictions to resist efforts that would undermine our history of smoke-free restaurants and roll back critical public health protections.” The American Lung Association and American Heart Association issued similar statements.
Although AB 1775 was signed into law, Newsom vetoed AB 1111, which would have allowed cannabis farmers to obtain a license to sell their cannabis products directly to customers at venues such as farmers markets or pop-up events.
For the Madrones hotel and restaurant, Roberts believes the new bill will help simplify his business model, and he wants to see other cannabis retailers expand their shops to include events, food and drinks.
“This bill will make it a lot more streamlined and less complicated. It gives us the opportunity to change things,” Roberts said. “We are lucky and already set up to make this possible, but I think it will help so many and open a new era of normalization.”
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