LOGAN SQUARE — The city’s first Black-owned, family-run pot shop has opened in Logan Square.
Grasshopper Club debuted Tuesday in the old Logan Square Trust & Savings Bank building at 2551 N. Milwaukee Ave.
The weed dispensary sells edibles, smokeable flower, vape pens and other THC products. It is now open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m.- 7 p.m. Sundays.
Grasshopper Club is a family affair: Matthew Brewer, a commercial litigation attorney, oversees the business, while his brother, Chuck, runs the daily operations and their mother, Dianne, handles the accounting.
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The South Side family received a social equity license from the state to open the dispensary. The state program is meant to counteract discrimination in the multi-million-dollar pot industry, which has largely benefited white business owners and locked out people of color. It also attempts to address the harm the War on Drugs caused Black and Brown communities.
Matthew Brewer said the dispensary is the first minority-owned shop in Chicago that isn’t supported by marijuana investors or a multi-state operator. Grasshopper Club was funded almost entirely by the Brewer family, he said.
“There were a number of folks who approached us about partnering, but to me, it’s a lot less meaningful if we’re partnering in that way because … we lose control, then we’re working for them and executing their vision, rather than building our own,” Matthew Brewer said.
Matthew Brewer, 42, grew up in Grand Crossing and Hyde Park, graduated from Mount Carmel High School, then studied at Stanford University, Yale Law School and Harvard University.
He first got involved in the cannabis industry in 2014, when Illinois legalized medical marijuana, hoping to eventually secure a license to open a dispensary with his family, he said.
“It was this opportunity for wealth creation, generational for my mother and my brother,” he said. “This isn’t like banking or engineering where the experts have been doing it for decades and have all of this experience under their belt. This is an industry where people haven’t been doing it a lot longer than you have, so there’s a chance to get in early.”
Like many people of color looking to break into the majority-white industry, Matthew Brewer applied for a social equity license in 2019 after the state legalized recreational marijuana. But delays caused by the pandemic and lawsuits challenging the state’s licensing process held up his plans, he said.
“We were effectively waiting indefinitely for the licenses to be awarded, and then, on July 20, they fell from the sky, unexpected,” he said. “That started a mad dash to get plans together and lock up properties.”
After securing the coveted license, the Brewer family leased a space in the stately Logan Square building, which dates back to the early 1920s.
Originally built for the Logan Square Trust & Savings Bank, the building housed the Logan Square Medical Institute and pharmacy until 1970, then sat vacant for a number of years.
The Double Door almost moved into the old bank after the music venue was evicted from its longtime Wicker Park home, but those plans were nixed after complaints from neighbors.
Chicago-based PharmaCann, considered a major player in the marijuana industry, previously won zoning approval to open a dispensary in the building, but later abandoned its plans.
The Brewer family celebrated Grasshopper Club’s grand opening on Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
One of the shop’s first customers was Chuck Brewer, who was once arrested for possessing cannabis and is now part owner of the business, his brother said.
At the grand opening and in the months leading up to it, the business has received “phenomenal” support from neighbors and customers, Matthew Brewer said. About 1,000 people applied for just 30 jobs, he said.
Matthew Brewer attributes that early success to a strong business model built on authenticity.
The shop was artfully designed by Matthew Brewer’s longtime friend Jessica Lee, who helped build out more than 40 restaurants with the Michael Mina restaurant group. All of the shop’s employees have years of retail or hospitality experience, and some have worked in the cannabis industry, Matthew Brewer said.
“Grasshopper Club is intended to be a space where people can explore cannabis in a different way,” he said.
“At least today, many dispensaries are more transactional and buying product is more akin to cashing a check at a currency exchange, and that’s fine for some people but others might want to experience to be like ordering a drink at your favorite bar. That’s more of the experience we’ve created.”
The Logan Square dispensary is only the beginning for the Brewer family, as they hope to open two additional dispensaries in Chicago with state licenses they secured, Matthew Brewer said.
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