Two new pot shops have won approval from the state to sell weed on Olive Way on the west end of Capitol Hill, doubling the number of pot shops on the hill and making buying cannabis in one of Seattle's busiest neighborhoods a whole lot more convenient.
One of the shops is co-owned by Ian Eisenberg, the owner of the Uncle Ike's chain of stores, the other is the second location of The Reef, a dispensary in Bremerton.
Eisenberg said he could be selling pot out of his new shop as early as the end of September.
"I assume that we will probably open in some form in two to four months, and then when we get our final building permits we'll close down again after that to do a more substantial remodel," Eisenberg said. "We’re going to do a lot of work to gut the building."
Eisenberg's new shop, which is inside a former legal office next door to The Crescent, is listed as Northwest Cannabis on its permit with the state's Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB). Eisenberg said "eventually" the new shop would be called Uncle Ike's. Signs were posted on the shop's front door Thursday saying the shop was open but a gate leading into business was locked.
The Reef's Olive Way location is just a block North from Eisenberg's new shop, in the former home of the Amante Italian restaurant. The Reef's owners did not return a request for comment but the shop has approval from the state to sell pot at that location, according to a spokesperson for the LCB.
I asked Eisenberg if he thought the two new stores might take some business away from his shops on 15th Avenue and his other store on 23rd Avenue in the Central District once people won't have to walk across the hill for pot.
"Yeah it probably will but that’s okay," Eisenberg said. "At times the other stores are so busy because they are only so big, so if we can spread it around wherever people are that just makes sense."
The two new shops on Olive will cut the distance between legal weed and Capitol Hill's Pike and Pine corridor in half. These new shops are only half a mile from the intersection of Broadway and Pike; the current commute from that intersection to Ruckus Recreational and Uncle Ike's on 15th is a full mile.
The two shops are occupying one of the few remaining stretches of real estate in this part of the city that are the required distance from things like parks and libraries, according to Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. CHS has the full story if you want to read more about the real estate war that played out while the pot entrepreneurs tried to establish themselves in this stretch of land. But you don't really care about that, you just want to be able to buy pot without having to walk across the entire hill.
Don't worry, things are about to get a lot more convenient for us stoners.
