The Dutchman’s Amsterdam

The Dutchman’s Amsterdam

In the heart of Dogpatch sits Dutchman’s Flat, an ode to Amsterdam coffee shops and a local favorite for great cannabis

BY G.G. BARRON

Located in the heart of its namesake neighborhood, Dutchman’s Flat (dutchmansflat.com) is a San Francisco cannabis dispensary that provides its community with high-quality, lab-tested cannabis products and a welcoming staff whose knowledge and passion can help any visitor find their ideal experience with cannabis.

Let’s start with the name, because could there be a better name for a cannabis dispensary? When Founder Robert Watson learned from a friend that “Dutchman’s Flat” was a lesser-known historical name for the San Francisco neighborhood of Dogpatch, where he intended to open his dispensary, he couldn’t believe it.

Amsterdam coffee shops had been a huge source of inspiration and education for him throughout his cannabis journey. This name was the perfect way to blend his Dutch influences with San Francisco.

He raced to check if the name was still available, only to find that another person had begun to register it without finishing the process. The two decided to meet to determine who would get the name—by flipping a coin for it. By sheer luck, Watson won, with tails, three times in a row. The rest is history. (The winning coin can still be found in the bathroom, tails-up in the center, surrounded by a floor tiled in pennies.)

Nowadays, if you visit, many of the design elements harken back to Watson’s Dutch inspirations. For example, the logo of Dutchman’s Flat is a boat. Orange, the color of the Dutch royal family, is incorporated on much of their packaging and throughout the dispensary’s decor. And the main door has three vertical crosses stacked on top of one another, which references the Coat of Arms of Amsterdam.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Watson’s interest in cannabis began long before winning that fateful coin toss and officially opening Dutchman’s Flat. One of the branches that led Watson to cannabis was his background in farming. Watson was raised in Modesto, a farming mecca located inland of San Francisco in the middle of California. Many of his family members, including his grandparents and a cousin, owned farms and much of his childhood was spent hands-deep in soil.

When Watson left Modesto to attend UC San Diego, he decided to study visual arts, which was a choice his parents questioned. As a child, Watson had helped his father with his contracting work and through that, he had sustained back injuries, which had begun to bother him during college.

These back injuries eventually led him to take full advantage of California Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Prop 215 allowed Californians with specific medical permits to grow their own marijuana for personal medical use and for the medical use of those in their collective. Between the inadequacy of multiple prescribed painkillers and Watson’s background in farming, one path forward seemed clear. And so, Watson built his first hydroponic cannabis garden.

Read more at https://issuu.com/rareluxuryliving/docs/troora_san_francisco_2021_pages/440

Today, Dutchman’s Flat is a local favorite. Whatever your cannabis needs or desires, Dutchman’s Flat can guide you in the right direction, and maybe the right direction for you will even lead to a strain that Watson himself created.