Where To Smoke: USA

|Smokin' U-S-AAAAA

LA Finest Dispensary, Art Gallery, and Restaurant

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Los Angeles has a reputation worldwide for its food, its nightlife, its art, and its energy; it’s more than understandable why local businesses would want to emulate that energy. One such business, a multi-level experience on Northwest Expressway called LA Finest, is doing exactly that. By combining multiple vibrant and beautiful experiences of the creative arts, the owners have created a virtual paradise for cannabis patients to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and slow their roll.

As explained on their website, LA Finest is “proud to offer the first cannabis dispensary and art gallery experience in Oklahoma City,” and they do exactly that from the moment you walk in the door or onto the patio. The inside of the attached dispensary, as well as the lounge, are well-decorated with various paintings and artwork in various styles: everything from portraits of hip-hop icon Nipsey Hussle, to outdoor murals featuring Marilyn Monroe and Jimi Hendrix, adorn the walls. You truly feel like you’re in a unique outdoor/indoor art gallery setting; the art is a vibrant part of the setting and not just decoration.

It’s a post-retrograde kind of Thursday night when I decide to stop by for a visit (that energy was dicey there for a while, wasn’t it?), a crisp Autumn evening with a cloudless sky, and a full moon. I visit immediately after work and meet up with my friend Christa, just a couple of hours before they close for the evening at midnight.

There’s a decent amount of people there for a Thursday evening, but it’s not crowded by any means. The most attractive seating area—the private cabanas with their own fire-pits and privacy curtains— is wide open, with only a few other booths taken. I take a seat and wait for my friend to arrive, taking dabs of my current favorite live hash rosin and a recent pickup: Gary Payton by Cicada Labs, grown by Snaxland (I was lucky enough to snag one from their drop that sold out at Tegridy and The Dab ‘N’ Go within a matter of hours).

Once she arrives, we spark up some flowers she has packed into a King Palm, and I spark up a joint of Jealousy, a terpy heavy-hitter from those geniuses at Phresh Harvest.

Music is always an integral part of the experience, and LA Finest had an excellent playlist of some of the bestproduced modern hip-hop from recent years.

When you’re sitting around a fire pit, in a private cabana, puffing on a giant blunt and laughing with your friends, songs by Russ or Young Thug just seem to hit that much harder. Between the music, the refined and eye-catching decor, the vibrant art, and the lip-smacking food on offer, you really do feel like you’ve been transported to a patio hangout in Los Angeles.

It’s a comforting feeling to see all of these great smoking lounges popping up in Oklahoma City; it seems that finally, local folks have figured out that we want public places to smoke our cannabis with our friends. LA Finest is an excellent new addition to the lineup and one I highly recommend.

The Summit Lounge

Worcester, Massachusetts

Founded in 2017, The Summit Lounge is a member’s only cannabis lounge which bills itself as “a welcoming space for members of all walks of life to come socialize around common interests and passions”.

And from what I can find, not only are they the best cannabis lounge on the East Coast, they might be the only one (Absolutely shocking, considering Massachusetts and New York have legalized it. What gives, guys?). Located about an hour west of Boston in Worcester (pronounced “Wooster” for you Okies and Californians), and billed as “the Amsterdam Experience,” the lounge comes complete with an on-site gourmet cafe serving coffee, tea, and “Summit Shakes.”

The Fall shake menu looks nothing short of stellar, with features such as the “Pumpkin Pie’d” (vanilla ice cream blended with pumpkin, topped with a cream-cheese frosting rim and just about every pumpkin-spice confection available from Twinkies to Twix), or the “Peanut Butter Breath” (Chocolate ice cream blended with peanut butter, topped with a peanut butter rim and just about anything Reese’s-related that’s ever existed).

The indoor décor is modern and fun, yet still comfy and almost kitschy in a way, but far from being ugly or tacky.

Repurposed antique glassware bongs that are available for use seem to be a perfect encapsulation of the vibe of the club and its decorations: something stylish, but in a very much functional and fun way.

Exclusivity is an important part of the membership at The Summit Lounge; there’s an intensive application process that involves signing off on all of the club’s terms and conditions, and a one-on-one interview with a staff member.

It’s for this reason that, despite being very curious as to what exactly goes on at the club’s “Dildos and Donuts” event (just one of many different and wild events they have for members, from what I can tell), there’s no way to find out without being a member of the club.

Perhaps one day I can travel in person and apply for membership, if only just for the chance to try one of their incredible milkshakes. A man can dream!

Moe Greens

San Francisco, California

In San Francisco, Moe Green’s Dispensary and Delivery has a high reputation for powerful buds in cool and stylish digs.

Their cannabis lounge, simply called “Moe’s Greens,” is a perfect embodiment of that classic, cool, simultaneously modern and retro style that could only be found in an urban center like San Francisco. And if you’re looking for what could be the most uniquely-decorated space to smoke cannabis on the Western seaboard, you might just find it here.

The lounge is divided into three separate spaces: a larger lounge area where only vaping, edibles, and other non-smoking activities are allowed, a small smoking lounge with booths and tables, and a dab lounge full of bangers and heady glass.

The decor is wild: huge, kitschy golden chandeliers, green upholstery that evokes limes or avocados with its color, and the front desk look almost more like a swanky hotel than a cannabis lounge. Cannabis is recreationally legal in California, so Moe Greens Lounge is open to all. Sounds like yet another fantastic reason to visit San Francisco if you ask me.