Just across the street from a soon-to-be-shuttered Fort Worth police station, business owner Candice Stinnett is rewriting the formula for Fort Worth’s lounge scene.
Stinnett, the owner of Emerald Organics, has been a fixture in North Fort Worth’s hemp community since 2019, when she opened her first retail shop following the passage of the federal Farm Bill in 2018. Back then, the request she heard most often wasn’t just for hemp products — it was for connection. “Every four-twenty party, every anniversary, we’d get hundreds of people showing up,” she says. “What they wanted more than anything was a place to gather.”
That longing gave birth to Emerald City, a first-of-its-kind cannabis consumption lounge planted firmly at 937 Woodward St. After years of scouting spaces and studying California’s blueprint, Stinnett found her spot: a 2,000-square-foot former blues bar. She rebuilt it into what she calls “a place where people can come and enjoy the company of others while consuming products that are non-alcoholic.”
Inside, the atmosphere is more akin to a craft brewery than a typical head shop. Bright, comfortable seating replaces the dark corners of old-school smoke dens. The products — lab-tested, state-legal, and hemp-derived — range from smokables to fast-acting seltzers and infused beverages. “We chose those because people can feel the effects quickly, the way they would with alcohol,” Stinnett says. “You don’t have to wait an hour like with an edible.”…