For centuries, the bar has been one of the great public spaces. It’s where people go to get out of the house, meet their neighbors, have a meal, find some company, get the local gossip, or just be among people. Each town has one, or maybe a dozen, where the same community keeps returning to interact with the world.
I worked at a place one summer where all the men got their paychecks on Friday and headed off to the local pub. Factory workers clocked out and headed straight there to unwind with friends. Deals got made, friendships got forged, and plenty of life happened over a beer, a scotch, and a martini. But let’s be honest about what everyone was doing there. They were drinking.
Alcohol takes the edge off. It loosens tongues, making conversation easier. For some, it goes much further. Every bar has had its sots in the corner, completely out of their heads. Because alcohol, for all its charm, is a terrible, terrible drug. And yet we love it even though we know how evil it is for our bodies. If you have ever seen someone who has died of cirrhosis, you know. Or a kid who has drunk so much that their eyes roll back in their head and have to be rushed to the hospital to have their stomach pumped. Alcohol is everywhere. Walk into a bar or a restaurant, sit down, and what’s the very first question? “Can I get you something to drink?” Not “What would you like to eat?” The drink comes first. Always.
Today we are at the beginning of the cannabis revolution. Nobody knows how cannabis will be integrated into everything ten years from now, particularly in society, and we can’t forget the medical research, which is the most important. Cannabis is legal; it’s regulated; it’s sold in stores staffed by knowledgeable people, although it is not federally legal, which is mind-boggling. Yet in NY State, we still can’t open consumption lounges. So where does the cannabis community go for their local bar?
Think about what a bar actually sells. Sure, there’s alcohol. But there are also french fries, burgers, and, depending on the place, some excellent food. The idea that the bar was about community could be a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. Did the men need a place to drink by themselves, be bad, and make deals, or did they want community? It is a bit of both. To me, it is all about community. The drink is the excuse; the people are the point.
Gotham is a community business. Our cannaseurs know the people who walk through our doors. They know their names, what they like, what’s going on in their lives, their dog’s name, and perhaps where they are traveling to and from. It reminds me of walking a dog in Manhattan. You pass the same people day after day, and the dogs mingle and play, and a conversation starts, and it might continue for a few months, or never happen again. You may never learn their names, but you know about their lives: who just had a baby, who’s training for a marathon, whose mother has been sick. My sister calls this the third tier of your life, and I love that. It’s not family, it’s not friends, it’s not work, it’s that essential in-between layer of connection. Everyone needs it. That’s exactly why bars matter. So why not for cannabis?
The cannabis community is full of wonderful people. Many of them don’t drink, or would simply rather consume something else. Why shouldn’t they have a place to gather with friends and consume, the same way drinkers have for hundreds of years? We held an event for the entire Gotham team the other night, and honestly, that’s all we did: we consumed together and had some delicious food. And it was fantastic. People talked, laughed, connected. Nobody was slumped in a corner. It was everything a good local spot should be.
Guarantee that when NYS finally allows a consumption lounge, there will be no food-related restrictions. I am sure the alcohol industry is not happy about the possibility of a consumption lounge, but eventually you will be able to go anywhere and do both, although it might take ten years. It will just take time because government leaders don’t want to make changes without lobbyists and unions, and I am praying AI will change all that through more community engagement. I am quite positive we will be stuck with another senseless rule and another frustration in an industry that already has plenty.
We’ve accepted for centuries that a community space can be built around a substance far more harmful than cannabis. It’s time to give our community the same courtesy. Open the lounges. Let us have our local spots.
