Tag Archives: pot

Uncle Ike’s E Olive Way — Capitol Hill’s fourth pot shop — is now open — UPDATE: Friday protest

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(Image: Uncle Ike’s)

You now have four legal cannabis shops to choose from on Capitol Hill.

The E Olive Way expansion of the Uncle Ike’s pot chain is open and celebrating its debut with $1 joints just weeks after the shop was targeted and damaged by protesters.

Ian Eisenberg opened the original Uncle Ike’s, the city’s second ever legal pot shop, at 23rd and Union in 2014, and added the first Capitol Hill Uncle Ike’s on 15th Ave E in late 2016. Ruckus beat everybody to the punch on the Hill when it debuted just off 15th Ave E as the neighborhood’s first ever legal cannabis shop in late 2015.

The new Uncle Ike’s will create a second Capitol Hill pot cluster after The Reef opened just up E Olive Way in the former Amante Pizza location in August 2018. The Reef’s new home made the old pizza shop nearly unrecognizable after a redesign of the interior by architects Olson Kundig. Its presence has since spread across the street where the pot shop has stepped up to sponsor a clean-up and upgrades to the Arcade Plaza pavement park. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Amid a jelly’s tentacles, The Reef’s colorful new mural

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(Image: CHS)

The Seattle and statewide marijuana retail and edible industries are pushing back on an out of the blue move by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board that could bring the end of candy-like pot edibles in the state in 2019 because, officials say, the colorful sweets are too appealing to children.

The Stranger reports that the Washington CannaBusiness Association, the Cannabis Alliance, and the Cannabis Organization of Retail Establishments have come out against the planned change in policy that would end the legal production of “hard candy (of any style, shape or size), tarts, fruit chews, colorful chocolates, jellies and any gummy type products.”

Hopefully ocean blues and jellyfish purples don’t appeal too much to children. Continue reading →

Perched on Capitol Hill’s western slope, The Reef brings pot to E Olive Way

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Bud, oils and pre-rolled joints were everywhere as The Reef, Capitol Hill’s newest cannabis retailer, opened the doors to its new location for a preview Thursday night.

With its first shop opened in Bremerton three years ago, The Reef’s new storefront takes full advantage of its perch on Capitol Hill at a busy intersection where its predecessor pizza joint and its notorious flashing sign served as a de facto western gate to the neighborhood. With generous amounts of light coming in through windows spanning the width of the storefront, the new location will give Capitol Hill residents a convenient option for their cannabis-related needs.

John Ueding, general manager of The Reef’s Capitol Hill location, explained that the company wants to invest in the community and explore options to work with and support local charity organizations.

“The owners are intent on giving back as much as we can,” Ueding said. “Being local Seattle guys, we really want to be involved in the community.” Continue reading →

Second pot shop approved by state for E Olive Way

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Plans for a new pot shop at 1411 E Olive Way

Its future competitor may have won the race but the in-the-works E Olive Way pot shop related to the Uncle Ike’s chain of stores is also in the game as the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board has approved its license for the winding Capitol Hill street.

The approved license for the venture means the project planned for the former law offices building at 1411 E Olive Way is cleared to join the under construction pot shop from The Reef being built out of the old Amante Pizza building. The Reef won the race in April to become the first retail pot shop licensed by the state for the E Olive Way expansion of available cannabis retail in Seattle. Continue reading →

In case it wasn’t clear (because it wasn’t), Uncle Ike’s is coming to Capitol Hill

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Thanks for the picture @uncle_vinny. You're our favorite uncle.

Thanks for the picture @uncle_vinny. You’re our favorite uncle.

That second pot shop approved by the state at one intersection on Capitol Hill at 15th and Republican? It will be an Uncle Ike’s.

The latest twist in the As the Weed Turns-level soap opera playing out around 15th Ave E pot is that building owner Ian Eisenberg is, indeed, a big part of the plan to open a new pot shop on the corner.

We asked Eisenberg — a CHS advertiser — after seeing a sign teasing the Uncle Ike’s brand show up outside the construction underway to transform the former veterinary clinic into a new Uncle Ike’s.

We already knew another pot shop was coming to the street. And we knew it would be in Eisenberg’s building. In February, CHS reported on the approval of an I-502 retailer license for an entity called Lion’s Heart owned by Daniela Bernhard, a veteran of Seattle’s medical pot dispensary scene. The location for the permit is across the street from Ruckus which opened in December as the first I-502 pot shop on Capitol Hill.

Now we know Eisenberg will be involved in more than just developing the property he acquired for $1.5 million in 2015 and collecting rent. Continue reading →

$1.7 million per month in Central District and Capitol Hill pot sales

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Screen Shot 2016-04-28 at 3.10.22 PMLast week as the state’s entrepreneurial ranks of I-502 retailers did their best to drum up even more business on 4/20, protesters again targeted 23rd and Union’s Uncle Ike’s to speak out against change in the neighborhood — and, for some, the inequitable way the legalized drug industry has played out. But just how big has the industry grown?

Across Capitol Hill and the Central District, there were more than $1.7 million in I-502 marijuana sales last month, according to state data organized by 502data.com. 84% of that was generated by Ike’s. The rest were generated by Uncle Ike’s closest competitor, Ponder, which opened in September just down the block on E Union, and 15th Ave E/Republican’s Ruckus, which opened as the first pot shop on Capitol Hill in December.

37% of those dollars went back to the state, remember. Since its birth in late September 2014, Uncle Ike’s has paid the state $6.9 million in excise tax. Don’t feel too sorry. Owner Ian Eisenberg got to put the remaining $12.3 million of it to work powering the business and doing whatever else he likes to do with his money. Uncle Ike’s is a CHS advertiser! In the meantime, Ike’s is now the second largest pot retail location in the state after Vancouver’s Main Street Marijuana.

How the sales trends will continue is anybody’s guess. The three active retailers in the area produced growth of 11% month over month coming into March. We’re going to assume 4/20 sales were good. And another boost is in the works as Capitol Hill’s second I-502 pot shop — and the second along 15th Ave E — is currently under construction.

Counting producers and processors as well as retailers, Washington pot is a $17 million per month industry. State sales totals from 502data.com

Counting producers and processors as well as retailers, Washington pot is a $17 million per month industry. State sales totals from 502data.com