As legal cannabis shifts from counterculture to common culture, dispensaries are also evolving. They’ve typically operated like a pharmacy—you wait on line at a counter, ask a question or two, pick your products, then head out. And this system works for many. But as awareness grows about the multifaceted uses of the plant—whether for medicine, pleasure, or general wellness—there are communal bonds being built between consumers and dispensers not often seen with traditional pharmacies, with reasons to gather beyond the original purpose, like live music, discussion groups, or joint-rolling workshops.
Sweetgrass Botanicals in Lee, Massachusetts took the concept of a dispensary that doubles as a community center, and went running with it. “We bought a crazy, rambling 6,000-square-foot building overlooking a lake that serves as a dispensary, mercantile, lounge, and manufacturing location, with an in-house hash lab and commercial kitchen," explains owner Cassandra Purdy.
Open since early February, Sweetgrass set roots in what was formerly the Cork ’N Hearth, a landmark Berkshires restaurant run by a husband-wife team for 27 years, and a tavern or restaurant of some iteration since 1874.
“It was where everyone went for any occasion, with copper kettles on the wall and a baked potato at every meal; just that type of place people loved—we still have people stopping in to tell us they got engaged here,” Purdy says. “The setting is gorgeous, overlooking Laurel Lake, but I was even more interested in the space because I wanted to have a commercial kitchen, since I’m also a professional edibles chef.”
Sweetgrass doesn't currently offer its own housemade edibles, but will soon. As a natural foods chef, Purdy says her creations will be made without corn syrup, gelatin, colorings, and with other conscious ingredients.
In the smaller of two former dining rooms, you’ll find the mercantile, a retail shop with books, pipes, and glass crafted from artisans around the world, grinders, body care products, crystals, shamanic tools, and other connections to the wider cannabis culture.
The ample space also allowed Purdy to bring to life her idea for a lounge. “Consumption is not allowed on-site, but we encourage people to hang in our book nook, grab a seat with a cup of tea, review the dispensary menu, and just enjoy being,” she says.
The bud bar is in the next room, where customers can see and smell samples of cannabis through jars tethered to the wall. The room is set up like a tobacconist bar—intimate, darker, and with a large antique bar as the counter. There you’ll find products from eco-conscious growers like organic Tower 3, OMG (Original Massachusetts Growers) by Wellman Farms, and High Ledges, who uses no-till living soil methods.
In this Wonka factory for weed, there's also a state-of-the-art hashmaking lab, with demonstration windows looking in so that guests can watch the process. Here, they produce solventless hash, created without butanes, ethanol, and other solvents.
“We have an older crowd that requests the old-school hashish they knew from decades ago that resembles a brown Tootsie Roll and all but disappeared over the years. We create a version that’s cleaner, made only using water and ice; a completely natural process,” she explains. “When people learn that they can get the kind of hash they’d consume back in the day, they literally jump and clap. Even my 84 year-old mom says it’s like the stuff from Morocco she knew in the late ’60s.”
Transforming the building took an intense four years of challenges due to Covid, construction, and regulations. “It needed a huge renovation. Practically everything we touched crumbled. We did keep the original post and beam, antique wood features, and indoor garden that the restaurant had.”
When Sweetgrass was ready to roll, it was met with overwhelming enthusiasm. They just won the coveted title of best dispensary in Massachusetts at this year’s New England Cannabis Convention (NECANN) on March 24, just over a month after opening. “When people come into the main room, they often audibly gasp—they don’t expect to see this,” Purdy says. “We have a really active cannabis community here in the Berkshires; it’s been a bastion of intellectual counterculture since the ’60s. We’re welcoming and building that community and for me, that’s the most exciting part.”
