This budding dispensary in Pelham Bay is expanding delivery access across the Bronx and southern Westchester County. Don’t miss out.
In April, House of Hibernica became the ninth Bronx dispensary to open its doors. In just six months, Hibernica has become a neighborhood favorite. In September, the store expanded access to legal cannabis across the entire Bronx.
Hibernica’s community events cater to the local neighborhood’s tastes, including watch parties to celebrate local sports teams like the Knicks and Yankees. This summer, Hibernica offered a free car wash with every purchase of matter. cannabis products of over $50 on Saturdays.
This summer, droves of new customers discovered the Hibernica after unlicensed shops nearby were shut down. With Halloween around the corner, and the Yankees and Mets surging, House of Hibernica is inviting all Bronx-bud lovers to place their first order.
Staying close to the plant
House of Hibernica Inventory manager Chris Ortiz told the Bronx Times, “It feels like a dream job. My wife asks me how was work and I say work was great. I love my job. You have become part of the community. You’re no longer their dealer. You’re a business man.”
Hibernica’s General Manager Bojan Trpcevski told Leafly, “The first time I used cannabis was in my early 20s. At that time, it was a bad thing where I was from in Macedonia. Over there, you still have to look over your shoulder when you light a joint. It used to be that you would go to jail for a joint.” In 2016, Macedonia legalized medical marijuana. By then, Trpcevski was working in the hospitality industry in New York.
Hibernica (delivery via website)
3220 Westchester Ave, Bronx, NY — recreational
“When COVID happened, everything with the restaurants stopped.” he told Leafly. “So we had an idea to get involved in the cannabis industry. We knew the basics, but I wanted to see the whole thing. So I went to Humboldt County in California and got familiar with the whole process. From the seed, the whole plant, to how it’s grown. Then the restaurants reopened after COVID and we continued doing that. When we heard it was going to be legalized, the opportunity came up to get into that business.”
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When Trpcevski’s dad got cancer, he urged his father to try the plant. Trpcevski said, “While my father was going through the therapy, I was trying to explain to him that cannabis would help him out with pain.” To Trpcevski’s suprise, his dad said: “‘No, that’s drugs. I don’t want that.’But then a friend of his, who’s a doctor said the cannabis oil might be helpful. So he comes to me one day and says, ‘How can I get this?'”
Trpcevski is visibly frustrated, but relieved by the outcome. “I was telling you this for a year,” he told his dad. “The older generation, it’s more work for them to understand that cannabis can be helpful for them. Now, every night my dad takes a little cannabis oil. He tells me, ‘I sleep like a baby. This is amazing!'”
Another Hibernica employee added to the stories of family healing: “The Calm vape from Ayrloom brought so much comfort and calm to the whole family, not just my parent who was going through cancer.”
Trpcevski said he also saw his restaurant patrons advocating for the plant. “When I was working at the bar, I had a customer who was using indica all the time for a serious illness,” he told Leafly. “He was telling me that it’s really helpful for him. So once people get more knowledgeable about the product, it’s easier for them to accept and try cannabis.”
The long road to opening
Like most New York dispensaries, House of Hibernica went through a rollercoaster of emotions before being cleared to open this spring. “It was a whole year from when we applied for the license to opening,” said Trpcevski. “We had to have a store so we could apply. Then the injunction happened in 2022. So we were paying rent for a year.”
Trpcevski said his team “had no idea it would be this difficult. We thought it would be similar to the restaurant business, because we opened a few before. We thought it would be similar. I didn’t expect that we were going to wait so long, and every small thing is going to stop the whole process.”
In addition to the delays, some neighbors were unwelcoming at first. “A lot of people over here were hesitant to come in. They thought it was another illegal smoke shop. We spent a lot of time telling people this is a legal dispensary. Even when we presented our plan to the community board before we opened. A lot of people said, ‘Oh no, another one.’ So we got yelled at and booed by the community board. But we tried to explain that it’s not what they think.”
Trpcevski is proud to say: “I speak to people from that meeting now, and they say, ‘Now we know what you’re talking about. This is great.’ And we have people from this community working here–80% of my staff are from the Bronx. We even will have a neighborhood band that comes and plays music.”
The challenges of running a New York dispensary
For all the triumphs of finally opening, there are still challenges. Like customers who aren’t used to shopping legal.
Trpcevski said many new customers are “used to buying 8ths for $20 on the street, or from illegal smoke shops. Everyday, we try to explain to people that this is not the same product. It goes through a laboratory, every single item has all these certificates. And we have to pay taxes on top of that. So that’s why the product is a higher price.” With the flood of new business this summer, the Hibernica team was sometimes spending 10 to 15 minutes educating new customers.
There are more challenges to the early days of running a dispensary. Hibernica’s team said “some medical patients don’t want to shop here because we don’t require medical licenses, so they’re confused. They think we’re not legit.”
“When we publicized our grand opening online, the only platforms we could use were cannabis marketplaces like Leafly, since we were not on Google. From day one, we were all blown away by the reception of the community. All of the neighbors were coming in like, ‘We’ve been waiting for you guys!’”
Allie Carney, House of Hibernica
