Long Island dispensary to celebrate 4/20 as ‘Happiest Day Ever’ 

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While florists thrive on special occasions like Valentines Day and Mother’s Day, another plant-based business is going all-in for a popular unofficial holiday this Saturday. 

Happy Days Dispensary in Farmingdale, Long Island’s largest adult-use cannabis store, is planning plenty of celebratory events for 4/20, including a unique collaboration with a local brewer. 

After opening a little over four months ago, Happy Days has enjoyed much success. So far, the 5,300-square-foot dispensary at 105 Route 109 has averaged weekly sales of $420,000 (no joke), according to its owners. Offering more than 1,000 products ranging from a wide variety of flower, pre-rolls, vapes, edibles, tinctures, tablets, beverages and more, Happy Days serves thousands of customers each week, with more than 1,000 coming through its doors on Fridays and Saturdays. 

Happy Days is owned by three partners: Paul Lepore, a former nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industry veteran, and two restaurateurs, Jay Grossman, who owns Refuge in Melville and K Pacho in New Hyde Park, and Keith Hart, owner of Barrique Kitchen & Wine Bar and Argyle Grill & Tavern in Babylon. Hart also owns The Hart Agency, a marketing firm specializing in the liquor industry. 

While Grossman and Hart provide expertise on hospitality and marketing, Lepore focuses on the more scientific and biological aspects of cannabis consumption. The owners say one of the most important services they provide is dispelling cannabis stereotypes and educating first-time and newer customers on the different forms of the plant and how cannabinoids may metabolize in different people. 

Happy Days, which carries some products grown here on Long Island, also favors promoting other local businesses, which is apparent by the dispensary’s 4/20 events and collaborations. 

“As born-and-raised Long Islanders, we always look to evolve and support other businesses within our community,” Lepore told LIBN. 

Towards that effort, Sand City Brewing Company, with locations in Northport and Lindenhurst, will be launching its new Happy Days IPA on 4/20, a terpene-influenced beer that Sand City owners Kevin Sihler and Bill Kiernan are introducing to pay homage to the Farmingdale dispensary and Long Island’s budding cannabis industry. 

“Happy Days IPA is a collaboration fashioned by curiosity in parallel worlds. It’s a modern IPA brewed with Motueka and Mosaic hops, and Sour Diesel terpenes, which is a classic New York strain,” Sihler said. “You’ll find notes of pineapple, candied orange and resin in this beer.” 

Grossman, who has featured Sand City beers in his restaurants, said the owners of the dispensary and the brewery are both passionate about their businesses. Though Happy Days won’t be selling the new IPA because it can’t legally sell alcohol, the IPA will be available wherever Sand City beers are sold. 

“They’re great guys to work with,” he said. “They pride themselves in the products they produce.” 

In addition to the Sand City collab, Happy Days marketing director Shelby Poole has planned the “Happiest Day Ever,” a series of free 4/20 events at the dispensary, beginning with a pizza and karaoke party on the eve of the “holiday” on Friday, April 19. On 4/20 morning, Happy Days will host a “wake-and-bake” event, a collaboration with the Long Island owners of Duck Donuts that features free coffee and donuts from 10 a.m. to noon. 

From noon to 3 p.m., Happy Days will provide music and grilled cheese sandwiches and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., free mocktails will be offered as part of a collaboration with Long Island-based The Cocktail Cart and sponsored by ayrloom, a cannabis cultivator and manufacturer. At 4:20 p.m., Happy Days will host its first annual White Castle slider-eating contest. Throughout the day, the dispensary will have raffles, prizes and special product offerings. 

As part of its continuing support for Long Island Cares, the owners of Happy Days continue to urge customers to bring non-perishable food items to drop in the donation bin in the dispensary lobby. 

Lepore said the 4/20 events help represent the dispensary’s focus on its three pillars: community, education and destigmatization.  

“As we seek to destigmatize cannabis, we know it’s imperative to both work closely within the community through partnerships like Sand City, and to provide cannabis education to our fellow Long Islanders in order to welcome the ‘cannacurious’ to Happy Days,” he said.