March 22, 2024 / By mobanmarket
UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — It has been a wild ride for Angelo Kitkas, an electrician from Astoria who moved here from Greece when he was just 8 years old.
For nearly 30 years, he ran a top illegal weed delivery service.
“My cousin in Washington Heights had the best flower that everyone wanted in the city,” Kitkas told Patch. “We were the only ones who had purple haze.”
Now he’s set to open the Upper West Side’s first legal cannabis store called Flower Power, located at 22 West 66th St. between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, in early April.
At the new legal store, which Kitkas said was “always a dream” of his, he’ll not only sell the purple haze and sour diesel of his illicit days, but also over 250 other products for Upper West Siders who are interested in cannabis and its array of uses.
“We want to cater to the canna-sseurs and the canna-curious,” he said. “If you’re looking to manage pain or help sleeping, or to have fun, we’ll help you find what you need.”
Kitkas is one of the lucky handfuls of people who were able to obtain a cannabis license through the widely-derided New York State licensing rollout, a process that Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a “disaster” Monday, and ordered officials to fix the hobbled process.
Through the state’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary — or CAURD — program, Kitkas was able to obtain his license because of a prior arrest for cannabis.
But it wasn’t an arrest related his nearly three decades of selling top cannabis buds all over the city.
“We never got in trouble,” Kitkas said, “we were very successful. The following we had was incredible.”
His arrest came because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Namely, in the passenger seat of his friend’s car who decided he didn’t want to pull over on the Meadowbrook Highway one night in 2004 when a cop turned his light bar on.
Miles later — and with 24 cop cars behind him — Kitkas said his friend finally ended the chase.
“At the end of the day, I only got locked up for a gram,” he said. “That ended up being seven months.”
Kitkas is now one of the few people in the legal market who are coming directly from the illegal market — or legacy market, as the cannabis world calls it.
“The only reason we were still running it is because the demand was so incredible,” Kitkas said.
Now the demand that Kitkas has to deal with — before the store even opens its doors — is for jobs at his store.
He says for the 20 open positions at his shop, which will eventually employ 40 total, they’ve received over 1,000 applications.
“It’s incredible,” Kitkas said, “and they’re still coming in.”
One thing that Flower Power will bring to the Upper West Side, aside from legal cannabis, is something not seen at the handful of other legal weed shops in Manhattan: a concierge service.
The store is a funky space. A designer consignment shop until a few weeks ago, the space is filled with different levels and stairs and has a big skylight in the middle where, presently, a wall of fake yellow flowers dangles from.
“That’s not gonna stay,” Kitkas says as contractors, mostly his friends, chip away at the floors and walls.
To help manage the space, a desk right by the door will offer a prepaid pickup service, including bundles that offer a range cannabis items for people who might not know what product is right for them, Kitkas said.
Across from the desk is a blank wall that Kitkas said they hope to get art students to help design a mural, maybe through a competition, that will depict and honor the neighborhood — Lincoln Center, Central Park, and the fire station down the street where 11 firefighters who died on Sept. 11 were stationed.
Click Here: cheap INTERNATIONAL jersey
Down the first set of stairs will be the main showroom, where product is displayed and roving budtenders will help provide information about cannabis.
“Whether it’s for pain or whether it’s for somebody that wants to get a product that an upper or downer, they’ll be able to guide them and give them honest opinions and information that can help them choose what they need,” Kitkas said.
Past the check out register down the next set of stairs sits a large finished basement where staff can take breaks and is also where trainings will be held — a big focus of Flower Power’s strategy for success. Each budtender will have to go through a seven-day training focused on education and understanding the hundreds of different products, ranging from flower and gummies to drinks and cooking oils.
But there’s still lots of work to do to get Flower Power up and running. Kitkas and his team only got access to the space on March 1.
“We’re doing a 30-day no-days-off challenge,” Kitkas said, “aside from weekends.”
One thing that he doesn’t need to build out is his location — a short walk from Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.
Kitkas added, unsurprisingly, that Flower Power will also offer delivery.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
Categories: