The former Berner’s on Haight dispensary was Haight Street’s first legal dispensary, changed its name to Blaze on Haight, and then went out of business. Now it’s open again under the brand Eaze, who themselves declared bankruptcy earlier this year.
The legal cannabis industry has been packed with big-money flame-outs over the nearly eight years since recreational weed sales were legalized, but few of them rival the riches-to-rags story of the delivery service Eaze. The once high-flying “Uber of Pot” had scored $255 million in venture capital funding from people like Snoop Dogg, and a staggering $700 million valuation in the summer of 2021. But they burned through that stash quick, announcing they would shut down last year, and filing for bankruptcy in March 2025.
The company did find a buyer though, and the Eaze delivery service still exists. Now they’re apparently turning over a new leaf as they emerge from bankruptcy, as the Chronicle reports that Eaze has opened a brick-and-mortar dispensary at 1685 Haight Street (near Cole Street).
That address might ring a bell for stoners. It was once the Berner’s on Haight dispensary, which was Haight Street’s first legal dispensary when it opened in 2019. But it was not allowed to use Berner’s trademark name “Cookies,” because as the director of the SF Office of Cannabis Control told me at the time, “I’m not interested in naming [cannabis] businesses after things that appeal to young people.” (Local cannabis laws forbid marketing to children.)
Despite the prime location, the dispensary would have other issues. In March 2024, Berner and the Cookies brand cut ties with the store, which was not owned by Berner, over some then-unknown legal or business dispute. Those reasons became clearer in July of this year, when the trade publication Marijuana Business Daily reported that a judge had ruled that Berner owed the store $8.4 million in some sort of licensing dispute.
But at the bottom of that Marijuana Business Daily report was the news that Eaze CEO Cory Azzalino had been added to the shop’s ownership license. Azzalino told Marijuana Business Daily that “We are just managing the location, not taking over ownership.”
Our review of California Department of Cannabis Control records shows that the shop is still owned by an entity called Cole Ashbury Group, the same parent company that had owned the previous Berner’s on Haight and Blaze on Haight dispensaries.
So it’s probably good news for the neighborhood that there is an operating dispensary again, and not a vacant store front at 1685 Haight Street. As for Cookies, they still have an apparel shop in a separate storefront two blocks down the street on Haight, as Berner’s apparel and cannabis businesses operate as unrelated entities.
Image courtesy Eaze
