HONEYPOT STAFF USE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE TO END THE STIGMA OF MEDICAL CANNABIS
After seeing the role medical cannabis played in Mandy Tarala’s recovery from a serious skin condition, her family knew they wanted to help shed the stigma surrounding the medicine and highlight its benefits.
“It got to the point where I was headed down a very nasty path of surgeries that didn’t necessarily offer me much,” she explained. “So I got my medical licence and started ingesting cannabis oil and I healed my very severe skin condition that I was told nothing could heal.”
The hope was to create a store with a professional atmosphere where other medical cannabis patients would feel comfortable and confident rather than stigmatized.
Tarala now manages the highend head shop The Honeypot Glass Gallery — specializing in one-of-a-kind heady glass created by Canadian artists — that is owned by her brother Mitch.
Because the shop is not a dispensary, it’s staff don’t provide any health advice but with many staff members being medical cannabis patients themselves, they are happy to share their own experiences and help customers find the tools that best suit their medical needs.
“We don’t pry into people’s lives. We just go off the information they are willing to share. A lot of the time people aren’t 100 per cent sure what they need if they just recently got their prescription, so say they want to vape but aren’t sure how it all works. We are there to help guide them.”
Tarala says it’s critical that medical users don’t feel ashamed about treating their ailments with cannabis, because without those vocalized positive messages many will still consider it in a negative light.
“It’s not a bad drug, it’s not something to be ashamed of. If you need it medically don’t be scared to say it. I know if I would have kept quiet about my condition and how cannabis had helped me, I wouldn’t have been able to help some of the people I have just by being vocal about it.”
THE HONEYPOT GLASS GALLERY
Owner: Mitch Tarala
Address: 804 Central Avenue Hours: Open every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Phone: 306-651-1079
Website: www.honeypotglass.ca Check Facebook page and Instagram
When Louise Armstrong left her career at Canada Post and decided to turn her lifelong love of cooking into a business, she knew she wanted to focus on fresh home-cooked food with a relaxing, friendly atmosphere.
“It’s great to get that socialization and still be able to meet new people every day,” she said. “There is always someone new coming through the door.”
Louise’s Cafe and Catering — which is located on the basement level of the medical building on Wall Street — has been growing its customer base slowly since she opened just over a year ago. But she says in the early days many potential customers tended to overlook the café simply because they didn’t realize it was there.
Everything Armstrong serves is cooked in-house and served fresh each day. She offers fresh baking, soups, made-to-order sandwiches and wraps with a hot lunch option usually served on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The dishes for the hot lunch vary from week to week but Armstrong says she is always open to requests from customers for both daily sandwich options and the hot lunch.
“It’s not just what’s on the menu, so if I have the ingredients I’ll whip it up — nothing is carved in stone.”
But she says if you’re unsure what to order, the egg salad sandwiches are one of the most popular items on her menu.
“I go through tons of eggs in this building,” she says with a laugh. “Egg salad is something I’m always running out of and making fresh.”
Armstrong also offers flexible catering options — from luncheons to preparing homestyle meals for seniors who want to host a family gathering but are unable to cook or simply no longer have access to a kitchen.
Her next step is to expand the catering business, but while she works on that she is enjoying the flexibility of experimenting in the kitchen and creating homecooked options for the new people she meets every day.
LOUISE’S CAFE AND CATERING
Owner: Louise Armstrong Address: 140 Wall Street (Basement level)
Hours: Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Phone: 306-382-2262 Website: www.louisescafe.ca Check Facebook page Erin Petrow is a reporter at The StarPhoenix. If you have started, expanded or moved a small business in Saskatoon within the last few months, contact her at epetrow@ postmedia.com Home-based and temporary businesses, as well as those without physical locations, will not be considered for publication. Follow Erin on Twitter @ petr0w