USA TODAY International Edition
Restaurants adding CBD to their menus
The James New York NoMad hotel is offering new room service items designed not only to feed but to relax its guests.
The luxury hotel tapped famed cannabis chef Andrea Drummer to design a CBD-infused menu. CBD, or cannabidiol, is a chemical component of the cannabis plant, usually hemp. It is a non-psychoactive chemical compound, which means it won’t give you the same kind of high that THC-laced marijuana does.
CBD is increasingly popping up in oils, gums, bath scrubs, body lotions, lip balms, and more. Now, chefs across the country are using it in dishes for its potential health benefits, which some studies have shown could include treating pain, inflammation, anxiety, insomnia, and seizures.
“There’s a misconception about cannabis and CBD users,” says Drummer, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu who is based in California. “We’re understanding more of the health benefits of CBD.”
Recreational marijuana is now legal in nine states, while medical marijuana is legal in 30. Laws regarding CBD vary state by state, or in many cases, are quite unclear. Recreational marijuana is not legal in New York, but industrial hemp is, and the CBD market is taking off as a result. While marijuana is legal in California, the state this summer decided that the use of industrial hemp as a source of CBD in food should be prohibited for now.
In New York, The James’ room service menu has spicy meatballs with 15 mg of CBD, a butter lettuce salad with 20 mg, an olive tapenade with 16.6 mg, potato tots with 10 mg each, and an ice cream sundae with 20 mg. The hotel also offers a bottle of CBD Living Water.
The items don’t come cheap: They range from $14 for the ice cream sundae or olive tapenade duo to $32 for the spicy meatballs.
Other examples of restaurants and cafes that have added CBD to their menus:
❚ Monarch and the Milkweed, a restaurant in Burlington, Vermont, has a line of CBD-infused sweets on its menu. Items include “Little Chocolate Smoke Toke,” an Applewood spoked crunchy praline and cinnamon-filled dark chocolate truffle with 50 mg of CBD; the “Evergreen Buddy,” a pine needle fondantfilled dark chocolate truffle with 50 mg of CBD; and the “HazelBonBon,” a milk chocolate hazelnut praline bar wrapped in gold foil with 20 mg of CBD.
❚ Fuel, a health-food restaurant chain in Philadelphia, has introduced its “Dream” collection of CBD-infused smoothies. It comes in three flavors: the vegan Berry Dream and Green Dream as well as Orange Dream, which can be regular or vegan.
❚ Ankeny Tap and Table in Portland, Oregon, has the Two Flowers IPA. According to its website, it is “the first commercially produced Cannabidiol (CBD) Hemp infused beer in Oregon.” It has more than 5 mg of CBD per 16-oz pint.
❚ Blue Sparrow Coffee in Denver has a CBD Nitro Cold Brew on tap. A small costs $6 and a large is $7.50. Patrons can also buy bags of Strava CBD coffee that vary in potency.
Bubby’s, which has two locations in New York City, offers CBD-infused sweeteners for cocktails, coffee, tea, and lemonade. Owner Ron Silver has founded a line of CBD sweeteners and syrups called Azuca, which he hopes to market to other establishments.
“It’s here to stay and more and more benefits will be revealed,” Silver says. “It’s a good substitute for opioids and also a good substitute for alcohol.”
By CHLOE, a vegan national fastfood chain, has launched Feelz by CHLOE, a CBD-Infused product line featuring cakes, cupcakes, cookies, Rice Krispies treats, mini pies, popcorn, dog bones, and more.
Samantha Wasser, co-founder of by CHLOE, says the company first experimented with CBD in April with the Daily Hit CBD Brownie.
“We sold out in less than 30 minutes and after seeing the response from our customers, I knew we had to do something more meaningful,” she says.
The company has partnered with experts such as Nice Paper, a website devoted to cannabis research, to educate its staff and customers on the benefits of CBD. “CBD is growing in popularity and sparking a lot of conversation and interest,” she says.