Cirrus Social Club Could Bring Cannabis-Friendly Date Nights to Colfax

Denver could soon boast a unique nightlife option if Cirrus Social Club, a proposed marijuana-friendly lounge and hangout space, is approved by the city. Owner Arend Richard envisions Cirrus as a spot for date nights and intimate evenings, with a four-piece jazz band, Steinway & Sons player piano, booth seating and Volcano vaporizers for burning marijuana.

Richard and his partners have already been issued a marijuana hospitality permit by the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division. But they still need to surmount a long list of hurdles in order to get approval from the Denver Department of Excise & Licenses, in a city where pot hospitality has yet to get off the ground.

Cirrus has satisfied one of the biggest challenges, though: finding a space. They purchased a former tae kwon do studio at 3200 East Colfax Avenue that meets Denver's strict location requirements for pot-friendly businesses, according to Richard. If the city ultimately signs off, Cirrus Social Club will host music and entertainment at night and brunches and high tea sessions in the morning, all of which will be marijuana-friendly.

"We're going after a demographic of people who are not heavy cannabis consumers, but rather the out-and-about social person who's older than 27," Richard says. "If a date night for you is dinner and a movie, then it now becomes Cirrus and dinner. You come in, have a lovely sesh with us, and hear the jazz music in the background."

Cirrus isn't pursuing a license to sell marijuana, but adults would be able to enter the lounge for a fee, rent vaporizers and glassware, and consume their own marijuana products. Vaporizing, edibles consumption, electronic dabbing and smoking from glass would all be allowed, but torches and smoking with papers would be prohibited. Events with partnering cannabis brands and vendors would be part of Cirrus's calendar, as well.

The lounge will boast a Steinway & Sons player piano worth five figures, which can play live performances from Steinway music halls around the world.

"I believe that beautiful jazz music is the perfect backdrop to get high to," Richard proclaims. "The piano is a Steinway Model B Spirio R. It plays itself, and it is the world's premier player piano. If Alicia Keys is playing at the Steinway Hall, then that performance could be played on all of the Steinway Model Bs at the same time. The keys in Denver would be stroking from her actual piano in New York."

Richard envisions an upscale vibe for Cirrus, and says that $3 million has been spent on the building's renovation.

"I am the gayest cannabis person in the world," he adds."I know how to create beautiful interiors and beautiful vibes. This will be a first-of-its-kind space."
A Thornton native, Richard has been a cannabis social media content creator for a decade. He was known as the Gay Stoner on YouTube, gaining nearly 200,000 followers before the tech giant shut down his page in 2018. Richard then co-founded the Weed Tube, a video platform similar to YouTube for cannabis content. He also owns a separate cannabis tech business, and has hosted marijuana-friendly events in Denver in the past.

"Through teaching millions of people how to smoke weed and getting feedback from other people, I helped people learn about and experience cannabis. I heard everything everyone could ever say about what I was doing wrong and what I was doing right. I think I have dialed in how to safely consume cannabis," he says.

Opening a new business in an unproven industry comes with a different set of challenges, however. More than ten years after recreational marijuana was legalized in Colorado, permitted spaces allowing indoor marijuana consumption are hard to find in Denver.

Only one licensed marijuana lounge is currently operating in the city, and that establishment, the Coffee Joint, allows just electronic vaping indoors. The Patterson Inn was approved for indoor marijuana smoking last March, but the Capitol Hill hotel is still renovating an indoor parlor to meet city codes. Tetra Lounge, another marijuana-friendly space in Denver, was approved for local hospitality nearly a year ago, but still hasn't received its official permit. (According to Tetra's owner, building renovations and installing an approved HVAC system have held up the opening.) Colorado Cannabis Tours was recently approved for marijuana use at its headquarters in south Denver, but the building still needs to undergo renovation before opening.

Marijuana hospitality establishments in Colorado are banned from liquor sales and can only serve unpackaged food unless they receive a proper license to serve food. All of the challenges in revenue generation have pushed most entrepreneurs and business owners away from social pot consumption, but Richard is undeterred.

"I'm not looking at a restaurant and trying to convert it. I'm not looking at a bar and trying to convert it. I'm trying to build up a new experience from something that doesn't really exist, and from that the revenue opportunities can be abundant. I just don't think anyone else is doing it the way we're doing it," he says.

Richard and his group are still deciding how to work entry fees, and whether they want to create a membership model for guests. He doesn't have a timeline to share for the planned opening, but Cirrus's website currently reads "set to open summer 2023."

Cirrus has a public hearing scheduled with Excise & Licenses on Friday, February 10. After that, a city hearing officer will issue a recommendation for Cirrus's marijuana hospitality license application, with Excise & Licenses executive director Molly Duplechian making the final decision. Hearing officers usually issue their recommendations within thirty days, but decisions on marijuana licenses can take months, depending on the amount of public opposition.

Still, Richard is optimistic that not just the neighborhood, but all of Denver will one day welcome Cirrus Social Club.