In the late 2010s, the City of West Hollywood positioned itself as California’s budding destination for cannabis consumption lounges. A cohort of fully licensed and legal restaurants, cafes, and consumption lounges cropped up, including the Original Cannabis Cafe and the Woods, and became in-demand destinations where patrons could smoke, vape, dab, drink, or eat edibles away from home.
Less than a decade later, another city 18 miles south of West Hollywood has embarked on a path that could knock West Hollywood from its position as the leader of Southern California’s cannabis lounge scene. In 2025, Hawthorne opened two cannabis lounges that have maintained their popularity into the new year. Meanwhile, West Hollywood, initially on track to open 16 cannabis lounges within its city limits, appears to have stalled.
In 2019, the Original Cannabis Cafe, formerly Lowell Cafe, burst onto the scene. It was the nation’s first legally permitted cannabis restaurant, with long lines snaking out of the venue and down La Brea Avenue; the debut garnered unprecedented national attention. In 2022, the Artist Tree opened a lounge above its dispensary, while actor Woody Harrelson and his partners opened a lush garden lounge, the Woods, less than a mile away. In 2023, PleasureMed became the most ambitious of the lot. Its second-story restaurant, Irie, offered two elegant dining rooms and seating areas where diners could smoke in between inventive courses designed by former Hatchet Hall chef Wes Whitsell. PleasureMed also opened a ground-floor cannabis dispensary; vivid animated projections flashed onto the building’s front facade. A steady buzz surrounding forthcoming cannabis lounges stoked excitement among Los Angeles’s cannabis community and tourists.
The Woods lounge. Wonho Frank Lee.
The City of West Hollywood had played an instrumental part in making this happen. When adult use of cannabis in California became legal in 2017, this historically queer-friendly city set long-term plans in motion to establish an “Emerald Village” and launched a process designed to introduce 10 dispensaries and 16 consumption lounges. Given West Hollywood’s long-term relationship with cannabis, the strategy felt right. Officials spent months screening 300 applicants for a coveted cannabis license at $9,880 a pop. The permits were snatched up and quickly approved: Cannabis consumption lounge teams shared designs with the public, and a blossoming new hospitality genre was born.
By early 2026, however, West Hollywood’s cannabis lounge culture had taken a turn. The Original Cannabis Cafe permanently closed. Co-owner Sean Black tells Eater his groundbreaking restaurant-cannabis lounge was doing well until the pandemic forced it, along with Los Angeles County bars, to close temporarily in 2020. After reopening in 2023, the building was severely vandalized in late 2024. “We were pretty close to reopening in June 2025. And then someone broke in and torched the whole place,” says Black. Eater reached out to the Los Angeles Fire Department to confirm the fire was set intentionally and investigated as arson, but has not heard back. The building was deemed uninhabitable.
Wonho Frank Lee
PleasureMed’s Irie no longer provides in-house dining and functions as a private events space. The health and wellness facility with a cannabis consumption area and cafe, Aeon Botanika, encountered delays and never opened. Fantom Flower, a lounge co-founded by actress Patricia Arquette, planned to open in 2022, but its status remains uncertain. In 2022, Antidote, a two-level space adjacent to the Troubadour with a restaurant and attached consumption lounge, was an exciting addition to the Emerald Village. The same historic building is currently the future site for the return of Trader Vic’s.
Artist Tree co-founder and chief compliance officer Lauren Fontein says that West Hollywood’s numerous restaurant closures, fewer tourists, lack of parking, California’s highest minimum wage, high rent, and general economic downturn have all impacted her business.
“We were trying to have the food service integrated with the West Hollywood Artist Tree experience,” says Fontein. “We tried partnering with restaurants, but both went out of business. We still offer cocktails, all of the products, and rentals. We also pared down the hours from seven days a week. It’s all driven by foot traffic.”
The Woods’ Devon Wheeler says the newness surrounding cannabis lounge businesses makes it challenging to anticipate standard growth and loss. His partners include Harrelson, HBO Real Time host Bill Maher, legendary interior designer Thomas Schoos, and Jay Handal. Handal and Wheeler co-founded the dispensary, Erba. The Woods has all the elements to attract customers looking to imbibe: a garden with private cabanas, plush sofas and chairs, tropical birds, koi ponds, a nonalcoholic beverage bar, and a lush garden with mature trees. “It’s not for the faint of heart to do these lounges,” says Wheeler. “Let’s do the math: We can’t monetize any sales past 10 p.m., and have staff, plus two security guards. You’d better be enjoying what you’re doing, because it can get expensive.”
California maintains strict rules surrounding cannabis. It’s also challenging for lounges to get approval in certain cities: Palm Springs and Oakland have cannabis lounges, but the cannabis-friendly San Francisco does not. The laws surrounding cannabis constantly change. When the Original Cannabis Cafe first opened in 2019, it was forced to separate into two independent businesses: a restaurant and a cannabis retail establishment to accommodate the restriction of selling food or beverages on the premises. Assembly Bill 1775 remedied this in 2024 when California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law. Currently, dispensaries and cannabis lounges can prepare and sell nonpsychoactive food and nonalcoholic drinks, as well as host live music events and performances.
Only three years ago, West Hollywood’s anticipated slate of new cannabis lounges seemed on track to change the face of public cannabis consumption. But now, any dreams of meaningful cannabis lounge expansion in the Emerald Village have mostly evaporated.
Unless you happen to be in Hawthorne, California.
Nestled in the South Bay, Hawthorne is cradled by the 105 and 405 Freeways, home to aerospace company SpaceX, and a few miles south of SoFi Stadium. Los Angeles International Airport sits less than four miles west of its borders. It’s also where Fontein opened her fifth Artist Tree dispensary in 2024: The Hawthorne location also has a cannabis lounge.
Artist Tree Hawthorne. Artist Tree
Fontein says that both the local Hawthorne and West Hollywood governments have been cooperative toward cannabis businesses. “West Hollywood has always been a good city as far as being quick and supportive. Hawthorne is also easy to work with. We can make those kinds of direct comparisons. I don’t believe the difference [in growth] is because of the governments.” (Eater reached out to both city officials for both West Hollywood and Hawthorne, but did not hear back.)
In 2022, City of Hawthorne officials established a framework that would embrace cannabis businesses, deter illegal operations, and secure a new source of tax revenue. These businesses are part of a Downtown Civic Center revitalization effort, which supports Hawthorne’s vision for upgraded facilities and public spaces designed to attract private investment and mixed-use development. In short, Hawthorne has been positioning itself as a live, work, and play destination in the South Bay.
The strategy introduces new dispensaries and delivery services, along with cannabis lounges, reports the Daily Breeze. Along with Artist Tree, Hawthorne’s second cannabis lounge is Catalyst on Crenshaw Boulevard near Rosecrans Avenue, which allows consumption Thursdays through Sundays from 3 p.m. until closing.
The Artist Tree is on a busy corner of Inglewood Boulevard and the Imperial Highway — visitors can see the 105 and the 405 from the entrance. The ornate mural and business sign were designed to capture the eye and, at the very least, curiosity. The 1,500-square-foot lounge could easily be mistaken for a casual restaurant with plentiful artwork, deep blue painted walls, and matching velvet chairs where television screens might be tuned into a Dodger game, comedy night, or other sporting event. Budtenders can assist with selections, rent equipment like bongs, and will drop off nonalcoholic and THC-infused cocktails and a bag of Skittles to patrons on a silver tray. Hawthorne also provides something that West Hollywood lacks: a sizeable parking lot and two nearby stops on the Metro C Line.
According to the director of planning and community development, Gregg McClain, Hawthorne will ultimately open three total on-site cannabis lounges, reports the Los Angeles Times.
“It’s been somewhat of a surprise how well that location has done,” says Fontein. “It might be the layout or the steady travelers coming in or out of LAX. We have a huge parking lot, better rent, and we’re right off the freeways. Out of all of our stores, Hawthorne is our best performer.”
Artist Tree Hawthorne. Artist Tree
West Hollywood’s glamorous cannabis consumption lounge, PleasureMed, is owned by the same folks as neighborhood staple Pleasure Chest and sits directly across the parking lot of the longtime business. The two-story structure includes a cannabis-free restaurant called Hind and a smokeable eatery named Irie. The latter is placed above the retail dispensary where high-powered ventilation keeps the air smoke-free, which makes dining enjoyable whether or not one partakes. Former Hatchet Hall chef Wes Whitsell put together a fresh menu with mostly shareable plates that can be ordered at both restaurants. — Mona Holmes, reporter