In the midst of battles waged against dispensaries in the Greenpoint Savings Bank and the Busy Bee Food Exchange, a new licensed dispensary has officially opened on 572 Manhattan Avenue.
Green Apple‘s opening marks the neighborhood’s first legal (can’t stress that word enough!) dispensary. Previously, Greenpoint’s closest option was HiiNYC in Williamsburg.
The store is owned and operated by Greenpoint natives, one of whom we’re told used to own Mazur’s Meat Market.
“Our brand is built on the belief that the customer experience is the most important key. We feel this experience begins in store but continues outside the store once they leave and consume the product,” a Green Apple spokesperson told Greenpointers. “Therefore our goal is going to be to curate a menu that provides an experience for consumers of all levels.”
“Alongside curating a thoughtful menu, we hope to train our budtenders on the various intricacies across product categories so they can act like cannabis somaliers. This will allow our staff to educate consumers of all experience levels to identify the best products to create a personalized and enjoyable experience,” they continued.
Green Apple is the first, but it certainly won’t be the last, although it is not yet clear who the state will eventually approve. An online database from the state’s Office of Cannabis Management shows applicants at 1117 Manhattan Avenue, 922 Manhattan Avenue, and 200 Franklin Street. The applicant at 2 Jewel Street, known as Chrome Flwrs, still has a pending license.
And despite neighborhood pushback, plans to turn the historic bank into a weed dispensary are already well underway—the OCM approved Altitude NY’s license. The LLC’s owner, Michael Flynn, cuts a divisive figure in the weed world. The New York Times recently profiled Flynn’s efforts to open stores across the state, of which the Greenpoint location is just one of many.
Green Apple is open from Monday through Sunday, from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm.
“despite neighborhood pushback, plans to turn the historic bank into a weed dispensary are already well underway”. I think it’s important to highlight that there isn’t a historic bank at that location. There is a historic building that a bank used to operate out of, but that hasn’t been happening for some time, and at the moment this is a historic building that has a historic amount of trash around it. There also isn’t a “neighborhood” pushback; as always, there are a few people vocal people who are against any progress, but it’s hardly appropriate to suggest the neighborhood as a whole shares their regressive views.