Nestled in the heart of the picturesque Berkshires, Sweetgrass Botanicals is a beacon of community-based connection rooted in holistic health care. The region, renowned for upscale living, celebrating the arts, and farm-to-table food, is the perfect backdrop for Sweetgrass’s unique blend of cannabis culture and plant-based wellness.
Sweetgrass’s story began with a beloved restaurant to which locals and tourists alike had flocked since 1874. The transformation from cherished eatery to award-winning dispensary is a tale of thoughtful renovation and respect for history, which co-founders and cousins Jason Song and Cassandra Purdy placed at the center of their interior-design plans.
“The interior design was partially dictated by our choice of building,” Purdy said. “We knew we didn’t want an Apple-Store-like, anonymous, boxy look. We wanted something that fit the town, and we were largely directed by the town to see what fit the criteria. They pointed us to this building, which was an iconic Berkshires restaurant—this beautiful, rambling lodge-tavern that has existed for more than a century.”
What started as a small icehouse expanded over the years, bringing the location to its most modern iteration: a woodsy, homey dispensary that invites people to come in and stay awhile.
“The building has this stunning, thirty-five-foot-long view of Laurel Lake, and a sort of patchwork of pieces that have coexisted for years,” Song said. “Creating a harmonious feel was a little challenging, but it was also very on-brand for the Berkshires—which is why we fell in love with the spot.”
The renovation team was careful to preserve many of the restaurant’s defining features, like the original beams, which were crafted by a local’s father years ago.
“We’ve had a few people from the community come in who grew up in the area and remember the history of the building,” Purdy said. “One older gentleman said the beams in one of the rooms had come from his father’s hay barn, and as a teen, he’d helped his father take the barn apart and create these beams. He was tearing up, telling me how nervous he was that I might have painted over them.
“Overall, people have been really grateful that we didn’t really mess with the space,” she continued. “Jason and I grew up in New England, and we’re very sensitive to that aesthetic of the patina of old regional buildings. We didn’t want to disturb that; we just wanted to dive right in and enhance it.”
Indeed, the renovation pays homage to the building’s past while introducing elements that reflect Sweetgrass’s vision. Integrating modern amenities with historical charm, the founders crafted a space that bridges the gap between old and new, celebrating the rich history of the area while embracing the future of retail.
The shop’s interior thoughtfully incorporates elements that reflect the Berkshires’ rustic, high-to-low charm. The main sales floor, which once served as the restaurant’s primary dining room, boasts the long glass wall with stunning lakeside views.
“There’s also an indoor garden in the giant mercantile room, which was another feature I absolutely fell in love with,” Purdy said. “It’s the feature people are most blown away by: this stunning rock garden with a skylight. That was a lot of fun to pull together, too—digging out dead soil, putting in compost, and creating a French drain with stone so the water runs out of the building and waters the plants outside.”
Said mercantile space, which extends into the sales floor, promotes a holistic, plant-based lifestyle that goes far beyond the typical dispensary inventory. The selection comprises a variety of non-cannabis products, from hemp-based kitchen accessories to wellness items like CBD products and medicinal mushrooms.
“We wanted to create a space that felt less like a typical dispensary and more like a lifestyle store,” Purdy said. “And then we created this screen from the hallway so you can sort of peek through to the THC sales floor in a tantalizing way. You don’t really know what to expect—and then you pop out into this enormous room with a gorgeous lake view.”
The team never gets tired of hearing the audible gasps, which often escape visitors’ mouths when they funnel into the mercantile space.
“I think that’s a real differentiator between us and other dispensaries in the area,” Purdy said. “Most of them don’t have a place for anyone to sit down. In fact, they discourage sitting. But at Sweetgrass, we have couches and stacks of books for people to take, sit down, and peruse. We don’t disturb them; we offer tea and lemonade, and we welcome people to sit and hang out by the fireplace.”
The THC sales floor itself is another nod to classic New England aesthetics. The room features a seventeen-foot-long antique wooden bar and speakeasy-inspired decor with dark wood paneling and woodlands-inspired wallpaper. The design aims to create a space that feels timeless, as if it had been there for decades.
“We didn’t want to make it look brand new and renovated,” Song said. “People come in and say, ‘Oh, how lucky for you to have found a place that already looked like this.’ But actually, we recreated a fantasy of what we would have loved to have found there.”
Sweetgrass Botanicals also serves as a hub for education and community. The dispensary offers a range of classes, from homegrow cultivation workshops to seminars about plant medicine and herbalism.
“We’ve had everything from mushroom festivals to hash-making classes,” Purdy said. “Our goal is to provide valuable learning experiences and create opportunities for people to connect over shared interests.”
Yet another standout feature at Sweetgrass is the in-house hash lab, which is visible to customers through demonstration windows. Such transparency is rare in the region and adds an interactive element to the customer experience.
“We have live demos where people are able to come and sit on stools and watch the process—sort of like they’re at a brewery or a cheese factory,” Purdy said. “I think this is part of why older customers feel particularly drawn to the place. It’s homey and slower-paced. People can come in, have a lemonade, sit down, and chat with the budtenders. I think that level of attention and care has really resonated with older people in the area.”
The store’s commitment to its locale is further reflected in its partnerships and events.
“Our classes are open to the public and super-affordable,” Purdy said. “We’re also planning to focus more of them on women hash makers and women in the general space, since we’re so few and far between.
“Beyond that, we’re looking to amp up our community events,” she continued. “There’s a restaurant nearby called the Dream Away Lodge where we want to do infused dinners, and we’ll be hosting future events when our specialized hash products drop.”
As Sweetgrass Botanicals approaches its six-month anniversary, the team is focused on expanding the dispensary’s interactive offerings.
“We want to do a few classes where you can leave with something,” Purdy said. “For example, we’ll pull out some medicinal plants, and people will be able to leave with a mason jar of herbal tea they created. You’ll have some snacks, meet some people, and learn something new. It’s going to be a lot of fun, especially going into the winter months, when there’s less and less to do.”
Just seven weeks after opening, Sweetgrass beat 400 other dispensaries to capture the NECANN Cup’s “Massachusetts Best Dispensary 2024” award.
“We didn’t think we had a shot to win, so that was an incredible surprise,” Song said. “It was a four-year process to open this store, so that up-front success was incredibly validating. It was more than just an industry thing; [the award represented] the community voting for us and backing us. We’re excited to see how much we can grow from here.”
