A Guide to Legal Weed in NYC

Best Overall

Housing Works Cannabis

750 Broadway

I believe it was Peter Parker’s late uncle who once said, “With great weed comes great responsibility.” And there is only one dispensary in the five boroughs with that sentiment driving the broader company mission. Housing Works, the 30-plus-years-strong non-profit investing the proceeds from a city-wide network of thrift shops into housing, healthcare, and job training programs for those living with HIV and AIDS, is now flipping loud packs alongside ornate armoires and secondhand clothing. The company puts their retail activism to work at a location just south of Union Square, where the lines move quick and the staff is ready to coach potency-hunters and novice smokers with equal care, guiding them through hundreds of items from a miles-deep menu featuring exclusives from LGBTQ and POC-owned companies. It's probably too early to call it but for your dollar, Housing Works might just be the city's most comprehensive and community-minded dispensary experience in the city. And the whole non-profit thing should lay any lingering ethical concerns to rest.

Staff Picks: Electraleaf’s “Slapz” and “Banana Acai Mints” 1/8th’s, and Lobo’s infused “Papa Smurf” pre-rolls.

Crowd Favorites: Electraleaf’s “Super Lemon Diesel” 1/8th’s and Zizzle’s “Sour Diesel” 1/8th’s.

Best Selection

Union Square Travel Agency

62 E 13th St.

Though the layout and general organization of this bustling 15x15 box with purple walls and blindingly white ceilings could induce a claustrophobic fit in the wrong state of mind (think: Apple Store with twice as many products and a fraction of the square footage), those seeking out the city’s longest menu need not look any further. Union Square Travel Agency has assembled a catalog of edibles, topicals, flowers, and pre-rolls so wildly wide you could buy a different item every day of a full calendar year and never cop the same thing twice. The vastness of their selection also has a solid upside — affordability. On top of the range, USTA offers some of the best price points you’ll find anywhere in the city, which almost offsets the only slightly contained chaos of actually visiting the store. (Highly recommend the “pick-up” option here.)

Staff Picks: Nanticoke’s “Lemon Grab” pre-rolls, Flower House’s “Blueberry Danish” 1/8th’s, and Florist Farms’ “Peach” gummies.

Crowd Favorites: Nanticoke’s “Mac Nilla” 1/8th’s, Hudson Cannabis’ “Dosidos” Oz’s, and Dank’s “Velvet Vampire” 1/8th’s.

Best Atmosphere

Gotham

3 E 3rd St.

Lapping the boroughs on this mission, I discovered most of the city’s dispensaries (even its very first) classify their opening as a “pop-up” phase on paper, a temporary schematic meant to last only as long as it takes to figure out the needs and styles of their clientele (which is fine for now). But in practice, this equates to a fairly stock store design — generic white walls, maybe a couch, and an Instagramable neon sign for flair) — entirely devoid of personality. But I’m not sure you could mistake the coziness of this posh Bowery brick-and-mortar for an incomplete concept. Instead of an empty pale cavern with repurposed department store displays, Gotham approaches cannabis retail as a lifestyle brand, filling the entrance of their storefront with towering plants and bookshelves brimming with clothing, housewares, and various accessories including Saipua soaps, a range of specialty magazines, and items from Seth Rogen’s Houseplant line. As for the main attraction, don’t expect to be inundated with options here (especially for flower). Gotham’s menu is indeed well-curated, but also far more slender than other dispensaries in the city, opting for carefully selected products from regional cultivars over the “everything we can get our hands on” approach. And, frankly, after enduring some unnervingly long diner menus at other dispensaries, being presented only a dozen or so solid strains to pair with the issue of Broccoli tucked under my arm was kind of a relief.

Staff Picks: Flower House’s “Lemon Cherry Gelato” 1/8th’s and “Jealousy Kush Mintz” pre-rolls, Ayrloom’s 2:1 “Blueberry Lavender” Pillow Talk gummies.

The Rest

Dazed Cannabis

33 Union Square West

I managed to slip into Dazed seemingly moments before the Union Square dispensary shut its doors for renovation. So, no words here are meant to describe what the owners intend to do with space or its stock, and only how they’d designed the opening layout, which was pretty much a verbatim lift of what I’d seen in most of the city’s shops. However, what it lacks in aesthetic attention is made up tenfold by a sizable selection of products from local heavy-hitters like MFNY, Zizzle, and Hudson Cannabis Co. There’s no clear specialty or focus outside of being impossibly well positioned directly across the street from the park. But if you need to grab a pack on your way out of the farmer’s market (where you may soon be able to shop directly from local cannabis growers) or looking for a quick fix on the run, Dazed is a perfectly adequate, no frills stop while bouncing around town.

Staff Picks: Flower House’s “Italian Ice” 1/8th’s, Hudson Cannabis Co.’s “Sour Glue” 1/8th’s, and Rize’s “Girl Scout Cookies” mini pre-rolls.

Good Grades

162-03 Jamaica Ave.

Of all the shops in the city still tinkering with their respective designs and layouts, Good Grades might have the most potential. Situated on a busy stretch of Jamaica Ave., the floorplan of Queens’ first retail cannabis entry dwarfs (by several orders of magnitude) any other in NYC. This nondescript and dressed-down recreational dispensary has a lot of room to fill in its warehouse-scaled facility. And it will surely take some time to properly stock those hallowed shelves and cases. Until then, the Good Grades menu, albeit cleverly tiered to reflect quality, is too limited and expensive to be a real contender for the crown in a city that will shortly ramp up the competition in neighboring boroughs. That said, management seems to have an ambitious scheme for building out the space with a broader range of products and a dedicated area for events that could very well turn the tide. So, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if we refer to these days as humble beginnings a year or so down the line.

Staff Picks: Zizzle’s “Silver Haze” 1/8th’s, Tarot Toke’s “Lilac Diesel” 1/8th’s, and Smokiez’s “Watermelon” gummies.

Crowd Favorites: Rolling Green’s “East Coast Sour Diesel” and “Strawberry Lemonade” 1/8th’s, and Zizzle’s “Purple Daddy” 1/8th’s.

Statis

817 E Tremont Ave.

Finally, the latest addition to NYC’s stable of legal weed shops is also the city’s first Latino and woman-owned outfit. Just a few weeks into their tenure, Statis Cannabis is already running as well-rounded of an operation as you’ll see in any of the boroughs. Glamorous it is not, but it’s also far from sterile. The standard of smoke is commendable and appropriately priced, and the menu is sizable but not overwhelming. Add an accessible staff that understands there are no dumb questions when it comes to finding the right mildly hallucinogenic substance, as well as a location that’s equidistant from two of the Bronx’s best public outdoor spaces (Crotona Park and the Bronx Zoo are a few block north and south from the shop), and you’ve got a damn-good plug for any level of connoisseur.

Staff Picks: Aeterna’s “Blueberry Muffin” 1/8th’s, Packwoods’ “Swagyu” 1/8th’s, and Florist Farms’ “Gush Mintz” .5g pre-rolls.