The Mint Cafe’s Marijuana-Infused Kitchen Is Doing Big BusinessPosted by MMP News AuthorOn March 15, 2021

Guadalupe, Arizona, isn’t generally thought of as a hub of innovation.

But in this tiny, often-forgotten Valley town — sandwiched between Phoenix and Tempe, below Baseline near Arizona Mills Mall — lies what’s believed to be the country’s first cannabis dispensary that also has a full-service kitchen: The Mint Cafe.

Walk in, and it’s like a normal dispensary, with all the usual cannabis products. But if you’re hungry, the budtender will point you toward the food counter. Not “food” like gummies — food as in real, hot, made-to-order food: 10-inch pizzas, chicken nuggets, and street tacos. These menu items are cooked with cannabis butter and oils and pack a THC punch of anywhere between 25 mg ($10) to a walloping 1,000 mg ($75).

Raul Molina, one of The Mint’s three owners, says the state was “taken aback that we were trying to do pizza and burgers” when they showed them their plans for the menu. 

In the end, The Mint Cafe still received the go-ahead, and it’s been open since 2018. But it’s over the last six weeks that things have really taken off. Recreational customers can now order those infused chicken nuggets (which, like everything else meat-sounding on the menu, are vegetarian and use a meat substitute).

“Now that rec is here, we have doubled the staff,” Molina says….

Guadalupe, Arizona, isn’t generally thought of as a hub of innovation.

But in this tiny, often-forgotten Valley town — sandwiched between Phoenix and Tempe, below Baseline near Arizona Mills Mall — lies what’s believed to be the country’s first cannabis dispensary that also has a full-service kitchen: The Mint Cafe.

Walk in, and it’s like a normal dispensary, with all the usual cannabis products. But if you’re hungry, the budtender will point you toward the food counter. Not “food” like gummies — food as in real, hot, made-to-order food: 10-inch pizzas, chicken nuggets, and street tacos. These menu items are cooked with cannabis butter and oils and pack a THC punch of anywhere between 25 mg ($10) to a walloping 1,000 mg ($75).

Raul Molina, one of The Mint’s three owners, says the state was “taken aback that we were trying to do pizza and burgers” when they showed them their plans for the menu. 

In the end, The Mint Cafe still received the go-ahead, and it’s been open since 2018. But it’s over the last six weeks that things have really taken off. Recreational customers can now order those infused chicken nuggets (which, like everything else meat-sounding on the menu, are vegetarian and use a meat substitute).

“Now that rec is here, we have doubled the staff,” Molina says….