By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—Pine Grove Organics cannabis dispensary came to Brandon in 2022, in the early days of legalized cannabis retail in Vermont. The dispensary’s proprietors—Ben Hsiung, Nate Reitman, and Greg Yelnosky—had grown up together in rural Pennsylvania and jumped at the chance to do for marijuana what craft breweries like Foley Brothers and Red Clover had done for beer: show consumers that there was a world of nuance in a product that had not generally been known for it. And so the childhood friends bought a house on Route 7, just north of Brandon village, and began teaching their customers the wonders of weed.
Three years later, the trio is moving their operations right into the heart of downtown Brandon. They hope the new space will be fully operational by the first week of April.
They’re taking over the space that had been Li’s Chinese Restaurant, which the Li family closed last year. The Lis sold the building to an out-of-state investor who quickly put the entire two-story structure on the rental market.
“As soon as the sign changed from ‘for sale’ to ‘for rent,’ we moved on it,” said Hsiung with his partners in their freshly painted new showroom. Pine Grove began negotiations last August and signed the lease in October. They’ve been prepping for the move ever since, continuing to serve customers on Route 7 while outfitting the new space for the very specific security and storage needs of cannabis retail.
“We’ve been north of town for years,” said Reitman. “We’d been looking for a new home downtown. There aren’t a lot of commercial buildings that are also affordable.”
The guys had come to feel hobbled by the constraints of their Route 7 house. They needed more space for their retail and for the other cannabis services they have planned.
“Vermont is one of the few states that allow vertical integration of cannabis cultivation and retail,” added Hsiung. According to the trio, they’ve secured a license to cultivate their own plants, giving them more control over the quality of what they offer. They have a local farm where they’ll grow their own strains, which will then be processed and sold in their downtown facility.
In addition to “flower,” which is the buds of the female cannabis plant that are traditionally smoked, Pine Grove plans to produce and sell a range of products derived from its own cultivars. The downtown space was ideal in this regard: as a former restaurant, the building already had a commercial kitchen. Most of the fixtures have been removed, but the space could easily be converted back into a functioning kitchen where edibles and tinctures could be produced.
And Pine Grove prides itself on providing education in addition to quality product. In a local cannabis market that has seen a recent proliferation of competitors, they believe their scientific knowledge of their product and ability to teach their customers set them apart.
“We’re education-focused retail,” said Yelnosky. “We provide a more pointed, curated retail experience. We don’t just ‘sell weed.’ We educate our customers. People who have been buying from us since we opened now come in asking the right questions. They want new and exciting things. We’ve instilled curiosity.”
The guys can talk in depth about all the strains they offer, allowing them to suggest products for specific purposes. Whether you’re looking to relax, boost your energy, or relieve pain, they’ll steer you to the strain they think will best suit your needs.
They’ve eschewed labels like “indica” and “sativa,” which were once shorthand for “relaxing” vs. “energizing” strains. Today, they find the terms simplistic and outdated. Instead, they teach their customers about the interactions of cannabinoids, THC, and terpenes in each strain so the experience can be tailored as specifically as possible.
“Our customers have become more knowledgeable since we arrived in Brandon,” said Yelnosky.
And though homegrown cannabis is also legal in Vermont, the Pine Grove guys liken their operation to a pizza restaurant.
“You can make your own pizza at home,” explained Hsiung. “But we’re willing to bet our ‘pizza’ tastes better.”
And beginning this summer, Pine Grove will be able to offer “medical use endorsement” strains under new state laws that allow retail dispensaries to sell medical-strength strains to those with valid medical-use cards. Pine Grove already offers discounts to medical-use customers and will continue to do so under the new program, they said.
“We’ve built up a lot of trust in the community over the last few years,” said Reitman.
Nodding in agreement, Hsiung said “We feel like we’ve become Brandon’s ‘hometown dispensary.’”
