Welcome to The Artist Tree cannabis lounge
… where cannabis meets creativity to celebrate community, culture, and craft.
Located near a prime intersection off Interstate 405 in Hawthorne, California, the most recent addition to The Artist Tree’s growing dispensary chain is a more demure cousin to the original location in West Hollywood. In Hawthorne, locals and tourists alike will find a dispensary-slash-lounge that seamlessly combines shopping, an art gallery, and a relaxing space for discreet public consumption.
Designed to blend with the local area’s eclectic vibe, The Artist Tree Hawthorne strikes a balance between the intimacy of a cozy restaurant and the sultry allure of nightlife. Whether visitors drop in for a quick purchase, enjoy carefully curated art, or soak up the lounge’s chill ambiance, the location is meant to be a gathering place—a bright spot for those looking to connect, unwind, and explore the intersection of culture, cannabis, and creativity.
The multipurpose concept
According to founder and Chief Compliance Officer Lauren Fontein, the lounge’s location came about thanks to a stroke of luck.
“We were really lucky with the property. We got the entire building, which we were able to subdivide into the retail and lounge space,” she said. “We’re on a great intersection, very visible to the public and right off the freeway. It’s also a newer building—high ceilings and modern bones—but it was completely empty and unfinished when we found it.”
The building was built but never occupied until The Artist Tree discovered the empty space, concrete floors and all. But much like the local artists the shop features in its informal gallery, The Artist Tree’s design team was able to start with a blank canvas, allowing them to do whatever they wanted with the aesthetic.
“Our whole mission is to combine art and cannabis and really highlight the connection between those two things by promoting local artists,” Fontein said. “That’s why our retail space is so open: It’s designed to encourage people to move throughout the space and explore freely. We have tons of art featured throughout the area, in both the retail and lounge spaces: freestanding displays, art on the walls, and our big cultivation glass cube, which is pretty unique.”
Similar to the West Hollywood location, where the glass cube concept proved its worth, Hawthorne’s retail area features a large grow space enclosed by glass walls.
“People can go in, shop, and view live clones,” Fontein said. “In general, our retail space has that modern but warm and inviting style we’ve been using for our dispensaries. But for the lounge, we wanted it to feel like a totally different space.”
That’s why the lounge is physically separated by doors in the back part of the building. Visitors must make their way through the retail shop to get to the entrance. Fontein and her team wanted customers to be transported into a more relaxing atmosphere, ultimately arriving in an enclosed space with darker, moodier colors and an elevated style.
“It’s not necessarily its own destination, although we do welcome people to treat it as such and get all their products at the lounge,” she said. “But it’s a place where people can spend some time together and hang out. We’ve been hosting a lot of events there, like football watch nights and painting classes. And during the daytime, people come in, hang out, maybe do some work on their laptops.”
Local art is the focal point
Much like The Artist Tree’s other locations, art is integral to Hawthorne’s identity, not just for decoration. Visitors are immersed in creative energy from the moment they step into the shop: in the hallway between the retail area and lounge, above the doorway leading to the lounge, and scattered along all the walls throughout.
“We are very design-focused, and our art displays are a huge component of that,” Fontein said. “We wanted it to be our focal point because it’s a way to enhance our spaces and make them feel more colorful, interesting, and exciting. The art also changes; we’re currently on our second exhibit at Hawthorne. This one is more neon lighting, different phrases—really a modern, street-art feel.”
All the works are for sale by the local artists who created them. Visitors find information and QR codes next to each piece, linking them to the artist’s website where they can complete a purchase.
More community, more nourishment
Most of Hawthorne’s consumers come from the neighborhood, but the location also welcomes a significant number of tourists looking for something to do on their way to and from nearby Los Angeles International Airport.
“People come in with their suitcases so they can light up a joint before their flight,” Fontein said. “Or maybe they just landed and they find somewhere to chill for a bit and stock up on the stuff they want for their weekend. We see a lot of that, which is interesting—different people wanting different experiences—but we do get a lot of regulars who live nearby.”
“It’s been great, because the Hawthorne community specifically has really been supporting us,” she continued. “There’s not a lot of other stores around, and ours is unique anyway. It’s a nice offering for people that they didn’t have before.”
Fontein and her team are exploring new ways to enhance the consumer experience. Future plans include more food options as the regulations governing consumption lounges evolve. She also wants to expand the events calendar to include unique experiences like brand-sponsored “hash flights” that would teach guests about the extraction process and more opportunities for artists to engage directly with visitors.
Photos courtesy of The Artist Tree Hawthorne
Photo gallery
