"Minimalist oak tables and benches" and "jazz on the stereo" might be words one thinks of when they imagine the lobby of a swank boutique hotel or, say, a West Elm store. In The Moment's report today, though, they describe Sparc, AKA the San Francisco Patient and Resource Center, AKA a pot club. The facility opened two years ago at the helm of Erich Pearson, who wanted to "remove the stigma around cannabis and make people feel marijuana is normal." That means, of course, offering visitors a "spare, modern and well light" space with "vaguely bong-shaped lights made of borosilicate science glass drip," steel shelves holding you know what, and a sales counter made of local oak "with inset glass-topped drawers exhibiting buds, salves and edibles like snickerdoodle cookies and 'cosmic caramels.’" That's not all, though—the real piece de resistance here is "cascading grid of steel and glass patterned loosely on marijuana’s DNA and peppered with clear aquamarine panes" whose design was inspired by a gay bar in San Fran that was the first of its kind to have clear windows when it opened in the '70s. "It lets people know we’re not afraid of anything, that there’s no shame in it," Pearson says. OK, sure. What does it tell people, though, when their go-to weed distributor is prettier, more stylish and overall way more awesome than their actual home? Better plan on staying open 'round the clock.
· Splendor in the Grass [The Moment]
· San Francisco Patient and Resource Center [official site]
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