Cannabis shop strives for connection and community in Englishtown

ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – There’s a new recreational cannabis dispensary in Englishtown.

Bud It Up, founded by Chante Stewart-Wallace and Joao (John) Soares, is hosting its grand opening this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 34 Main St. in Englishtown, on the second floor of the building.

The opening is the culmination of a long planning and approval process.

“My business partner John and I actually worked together,” Stewart-Wallace said in an interview with Patch. “He was my boss at a previous company and we heard that licenses had recently been issued by the Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) and ended up forming the partnership to see if we could try to get a license.”

CRC licenses allow medical and recreational cannabis businesses to operate in New Jersey. According to officials, every cannabis business needs a license, which must be valid and in good standing, to conduct commercial cannabis activities.

“We had initially tried to get a cultivation license (the license for a person or business to grow cannabis), but as we continued our research, we realized that starting up would be a big undertaking,” Stewart-Wallace said. “So we pivoted and eventually went into retail.”

When it came to finding a location for Bud It Up, Stewart-Wallace said it felt almost “predestined” that Englishtown would be the home of her business.

“John has lived in Englishtown for a long time, raised his family there and built a lot of relationships,” Stewart-Wallace said. “It almost felt like it was predestined, like everything just fell into place. A lot of the hurdles that other people might have had in locating a location just became a path for us because of John’s relationships with his neighbors and his community in Englishtown.”

Community is a big part of Bud It Up’s vision.

While Bud It Up is a cannabis store, it’s also a place where Stewart-Wallace and Soares want to make people feel connected.

Stewart-Wallace said the space at Bud It Up, a women-owned and co-ed pharmacy, was designed to reflect her heritage, Soares’ Portuguese heritage and the heritage of Englishtown residents.

“We tried to put Englishtown at the forefront and that everything we created in this space would incorporate the wider environment,” Stewart-Wallace said.

“We plan to have community events, educational courses on specific topics, consumption, book clubs and things like that,” she said. “Just ways to incorporate cannabis or just general knowledge about cannabis into courses and enrichment.”

Beyond Stewart-Wallace and Soares’ current plans for Bud It Up, the two have a vision for larger developments in the future.

Stewart-Wallace said the dispensary is currently working on a lounge/consumption area that will be connected to Bud It Up and the cultivation and production operations.

On Saturday, Stewart-Wallace and Soares will host the grand opening of the pharmacy. Axe throwing, food trucks and a DJ are just some of the highlights that visitors can look forward to, according to Stewart-Wallace.

“It (Bud It Up) is our baby,” Stewart-Wallace said. “I feel like because we’re a smaller operation, we’ve had to do a lot of things ourselves. It was literally just John and I who put this together – we put our hearts and souls into it.”

“We’re small,” Stewart-Wallace continued, “and we’re just trying to become something big.”

To learn more about Bud It Up, you can visit their website.