Bud and Rita’s, the second cannabis dispensary to open in Niles, is set to open in mid-June, according to an executive partner.
Pending its final inspection from the state, Tim O’Hern, COO of Nature’s Grace and Wellness, the dispensary’s management services partner, said Bud and Rita’s is scheduled to open the week of June 10. A grand opening with onsite vendors and food trucks is also scheduled for late June, he said.
“Bud and Rita are actually my grandparents,” O’Hern told Pioneer Press. He said the dispensary would have the look and motif of a ’50s diner and is set to reflect the family-owned company’s backstory. The O’Hern family founded Nature’s Grace and Wellness in 2014 and cultivates and manufactures cannabis from its own farm. The company also opened a Bud and Rita’s location in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood in April.
O’Hern said the dispensary, located at 5960 W. Touhy Ave, is located in the building that used to house the Italian restaurant Graziano’s Brick Oven Pizza, a “long-standing staple of the Niles community” that was open for 30 years. He said he worked closely with the restaurant owners when they made the decision to close.
In January, a competing dispensary, Green Rose, opened its doors at 4656 W. Touhy in Lincolnwood, nearly a mile and a half east of Bud and Rita’s. When asked if he was concerned about competition, O’Hern said that Bud and Rita’s is in a very dense region, with multiple traffic patterns.
“There’s a lot of traffic and commerce happening on the Touhy Avenue corridor there in Niles. It seemed like a very good opportunity to service the community.”
Bud and Rita’s also has over 40 parking spots, according to O’Hern.
O’Hern said the company did not have any firm expectations on sales for the year, in part because the legalized sale of recreational cannabis is still so new to Illinois.
According to the Niles municipal code, the village receives a 3% tax from all cannabis sales. According to budget documents, the village received $36,000 in cannabis taxes for the 2023 fiscal year and $37,000 for the 2024 fiscal year, when only one dispensary operated in Niles.
In April, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration signaled that it was considering rescheduling cannabis from a Schedule I drug, the same category as ecstacy and heroin, to a Schedule III drug, defined as drugs with “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence,” the same category as some anabolic steroids and testosterone.
“As cannabis continues to be normalized, nationally and throughout the state of Illinois, we expect cannabis to be around for a really long time,” O’Hern said. “Consumer adoption, we think, will continue to grow as we proceed.”
Once the dispensary is fully staffed, O’Hern expects it to have between 25 and 30 employees. It will be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
