The Brewers founded the Grasshopper Club, Chicago’s first independent, Black-owned cannabis dispensary. The dispensary was founded by two brothers, Matthew and Chuck Brewer, and their mother, Dianne Brewer, with its flagship location in Logan Square.
Since opening its first location in February, the cannabis brand has taken the white-dominated sector by storm. Nonetheless, Matthew stated that the family’s path to acquire a household brand in the industry has been difficult, according to Blockclubchicago.
The cannabis company has now launched a second site further south, at 58 E Roosevelt Road. The next facility, like the first, will hire workers with sufficient cannabis industry experience. According to Chuck, the new site allows their company to create jobs and provide economic help to people who are unable to work in the cannabis industry owing to structural limitations.
“This is a spot where, six months ago, some of these managers came in as entry-level bud tenders, so six months later to get a significant boost in salary and change your life is a pretty decent,” Chuck told Blockclubchicago.
The family did not have an easy time opening a new site.They had to overcome significant challenges before launching the new location. People’s concerns about traffic and safety issues were one of the key challenges. This culminated in a meeting at which people asked officials to prohibit the cannabis shop from opening in the South Loop.
Mathew, on the other hand, was able to persuade those who were opposed to the dispensary’s opening. According to Mathew, some residents also apologized to the family for their earlier opposition. Some were also there at the second location’s opening.
“We’ve been in business now [in Logan Square] for six months, so we have a sense of what works and what doesn’t,” Matthew said. “We’ve engaged with numerous organizations, buildings, and officials to get through this process, and then we put together a dream team of staff who are from the community, who are experts at service, experts at the plant.”
He continued “I think it’s going to be really special for the neighborhood. There aren’t many neighborhoods left in the city that don’t have a dispensary. South Loop is such a remarkable neighborhood, and the fact that we can be the first in that neighborhood, I think it’s going to be game changing.”
The new location, according to Blockclubchicago, was a restaurant that the family purchased and repurposed. The family invested $650,000 in the new project, which took 18 months to complete.