SF’s Biggest Pot Lounge Opens for Smoking, Vaping, and Edible Snacking

At Moe Greens, a sprawling new lounge at 1276 Market Street, customers will find dark, forest green booths fit for a steakhouse, Jonathan Adler sputnik light fixtures worthy of a high-end bar, and service intended to rival any restaurant in town. But this new destination serves another clientele — recreational cannabis users — and it’s the largest and most prominent to do so in San Francisco.

That also makes it one of the most prominent in the country. Moe Greens is one of about 10 legal consumption lounges (for vaping, smoking, and dabbing marijuana) in San Francisco (there’s also one in Oakland). While that’s a modest number compared to the city’s population of bars, it’s high enough to earn San Francisco comparisons to Amsterdam when stacked against Denver, Oregon, and Washington, other legal marijuana states where on-premises consumption lounges are highly rare.

Open since last week in a former dollar store between 8th and 9th Streets, Moe Greens has been in the works since 2015. It was originally proposed as a medical dispensary before the legalization of recreational, or “adult use,” marijuana in California.

“Opening a cannabis dispensary during the transition from medical to adult use was interesting,” says owner Nate Haas, previously a manager of Barbary Coast, another swanky cannabis consumption lounge in San Francisco. “It was a moving target of regulation.”

Moe Greens/Nick Wadler Photography

Moe Greens occupies 4,200 square feet in total, with a lounge that comprises 1,500 square feet. Customers enter the dispensary, consult with a “budtender,” and head home with their goods — pre-rolled joints, traditional “flowers,” vaporizers and cartridges, and edible pot products. Or they can stick around and consume them at Moe Greens in three consumption areas.

“The playground” is the largest space, dedicated to vaping. “Sit solo or mingle with the crowd,” the team invites patrons. Next is the smaller “high roller” room with five booths for traditionalists to roll up their pot and smoke it (yes, indoor marijuana smoking is currently allowed, and ventilation is turned on). Last, there’s “the vault,” an enclosed dab lounge where concentrated cannabis extracts are consumed.

Moe Greens/Nick Wadler Photography

While customers over 21 can can sip cannabis infused beverages like California Dreamin’, a tangerine flavored sparkling beverage with 10 mg of THC ($8), or munch on edibles like sparkling pear Prosecco-flavored cannabis gummies from Kiva ($23), there’s otherwise no food — and no alcohol — sold at Moe Greens. Outside food and beverage is allowed — preferably just a snack or sandwich, not a stack of pizzas. No outside alcoholic beverages are permitted.

That said, Haas doesn’t picture Moe’s as a one-stop shop: It’s part of a broader downtown destination he hopes to help foster in the Civic Center area.

“Moe’s is perfectly positioned to serve the local businesses in the area, as well as anyone attending events at the nearby music, art and entertainment venue,” says Haas. “It’s the perfect pregame spot.”

That is, if you can still move from your booth after a long session in the lounge.

Moe Greens/Nick Wadler Photography