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.” 

If you’re on the go, you can take some product home with you as well. After all, Emerald City is also a dispensary. A knowledgeable staff is on hand to help customers place their orders and help them find the right product to fit their mood behind a large L-shaped bar, adorned with a custom mural and neon signs.  

Outside of the brightly lit lounge area, which is equipped with a stage and several booths and tables, is a 1,100-square-foot, open-air space designed with Texas patio culture in mind. This outdoor area boasts fresh air with comfortable seating and shade where patrons can order products tableside.  

 “I’m a Texas girl,” Stinnett says. “Patio living just makes sense.” 

If the lounge feels radical, it’s because of the context. Panther Island is still a construction zone, with its ambitious “Riverwalk-style” future yet to be realized. Across the street, the police station stands as a reminder of a time when even a trace of cannabis in an ashtray could get you hauled downtown. Stinnett embraces the irony.  

“We have lab results for every single product we sell,” she says. “Everything is federally and state legal and hemp-derived. So we welcome them in and as soon as they leave the station, they see the big sign out front. We just felt confident to be able to post up here because all of our products are high quality, non-synthetic, from certified sources.”  

That forward motion has taken her all the way to the statehouse, where she’s testified before committees and lobbied legislators with the Texas Hemp Coalition to prevent outright bans and instead push for regulation. “Probably one of the most stressful times of my life,” she admits, recalling the governor’s decision to veto a THC ban earlier this year.  

The diversity of her clientele is proof of concept. College students, city workers, C-suite executives, retirees — they all walk through Emerald City’s doors. Some come for relief from pain, others for a social alternative to alcohol. “Someone came in last week and said, ‘I thought it’d be a cold day in hell before I saw a public place where we could smoke indoors,’” Stinnett says, laughing. 

For her, the goal is bigger than one lounge. “If there’s a cannabis lounge on every street corner, we did it,” she says. “This is about moving the industry forward together.”