Purple Plains Cannabis Dispensary Arrives in Pound Ridge

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. - At Purple Plains in Pound Ridge, two rows of shiny acrylic cannisters line up like soldiers waiting to tempt customers with their contents.

But instead of sipping, like oenophiles might have during the shop’s previous iteration as a wine shop, these cannaseurs are sniffing to assess each product’s flavor and aroma.

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The nose, as they say, is all important.

Not surprisingly, the terminology is very similar. Besides the obvious fruity notes, wines offer tastes of leather, oak, and even tobacco.

In the case of cannabis – which Purple Plains offers in many forms from smokable to edible to topical to drinkable – that could be musky earth, pine, garlic, citrus, apple fritters, birthday cake, and … diesel fuel.

Located in the charming hamlet of Scotts Corners, it’s the only state-licensed recreational use dispensary in northeastern Westchester.

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That puts it in a good position to draw clientele not only from the immediate area, but from nearby Connecticut as well, says young entrepreneur Sophia Mortell, who co-owns Purple Plains with her partner in life and in business, Mark Buzzetto.

The couple, who both grew up in the area, now live in Mount Kisco where Buzzetto currently runs a flower shop with his dad.
Buzzetto is a Fox Lane High School grad; Mortell went to Sacred Heart, a private girls school in Greenwich, Conn.

The name came from White Plains, where the couple had scouted for a place to put their shop.

Two years ago, when Mortell and Buzzetto were still “just thinking about things,” they learned that 32 Westchester Ave. was on the market.

While they loved the building, they still wanted to explore more urban venues based on the amount of foot traffic they draw.

Things in White Plains didn’t pan out due to two factors: either landlords didn’t want cannabis retailers or the spaces available were within 1,000 feet of another operation, which is against state regulations.

They had their eye on the perfect spot on Mamaroneck Avenue, but unfortunately it was 987 feet away from another dispensary, Mortell recalls.

(The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act also prohibits shops within 500 feet of a school or 200 feet of a house of worship.)

After snagging their state license the pair was delighted to find out that the Pound Ridge property was still available and took out a five-year lease.

“I felt it was meant to be,” said Mortell, who admits she’s not much of a “city girl” anyway.

(Her dad, Jack Mortell of Waccabuc, and she formed SMMB Inc. and registered the name Purple Plains in 2022. Mortell only other hands-on business experience was as a dog walker.)

What makes it especially nice is that Purple Plains has the building to itself. It’s within strolling distance of mom-and-pop shops, eateries, and a bakery. It has a backyard garden where staff can hang out.

The pretty, low-slung building is surrounded by flowers and a stone wall. A marijuana-leaf shaped Adirondack chair perches on its porch.

You wouldn’t know what it is but for the name Purple Plains painted on its purple, natch, mailbox.

First-time customers sometimes fly on by and have to backtrack.

That can be a problem, but one that will change once the store gets its official sign.

The interior was designed by Mortell, who had worked in the hospitality industry until she suffered from “serious burnout” due to the long hours and having to work nights, weekends, and holidays.

The walls are covered with repos of vintage “Reefer Madness” type movies -- a tongue-in-cheek nod to the days of anti-marijuana hysteria. The wallpaper accents are tropical and there are rugs slithering with rather benign-looking serpents. The atmosphere is professional and spa-like.

The products are safely displayed behind glass. Customers queue up at a bank of computers to place their orders then pick them up at the counter. They even get cute little purple bags to carry their stash. Everything is labeled as to “dose,” ingredients, and source so that buyers know exactly what they’re getting.

(Naturally the owners and staff, aka budtenders, feel obligated to personally test the products.)

“Mark would say ‘I don’t want anything in the store that one of my friends might get and be unhappy with’,” Mortell said. “So, everything we get is the highest quality we can find. You’re not going to get anything in this store that’s not.”

There are several hundred licensed growers in New York state, but Purple Plains only buys from three or five.

(State regulations forbid them from buying product in another state. But from what they’ve been told by Connecticut customers who hail from Stamford, Ridgefield, New Canaan, and other tony towns, the Connecticut growers aren’t up to snuff anyway. Lots of stems and seeds, not as much flower apparently)

“We’re very picky,” Mortell said, noting that besides in-store shopping, Purple Plains offers pickup and delivery.

“We really want to just redefine cannabis and eliminate the taboos about it because it’s, I mean, it’s a plant, it should be acceptable and it’s way better for you than alcohol,” she said.

Teamwork

Working with a spouse or partner can be both rewarding and challenging. It helps if they don’t necessarily see each other much during the workday, which is the case for Mortell and Buzzetto, who both occupy their own special spheres.

Mortell handles the HR, branding, and social media end of the operation while Buzzetto, 32, is more of a front-end manager. He’s in charge of inventory and is also “very involved” with customers.

“Everyone who comes here now knows him. He’s just very personable,” his significant other says.

Bumps in the Road

The state Legislature and then Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved the legalization of recreational marijuana in New York in the spring of 2021 and gave local governments until Dec. 31 of that year to “opt out.”

(Medicinal marijuana has been legal in New York since 2016.)

If towns, villages, and cities didn’t actively opt out, they didn’t have to take further action and automatically had to permit cafes and dispensaries.

Somers, Yorktown, Mount Kisco, North Salem, and Lewisboro were among 22 municipalities that opted out. Pound Ridge did not.

In the summer 2023, it received its first set of applications. One came from Purple Plains and another from a woman who had her eye on 39 Westchester Ave. The latter later withdrew.

By that fall, word had gotten out and the reaction from certain sectors of the community was less than positive.

Scrambling to craft a set of zoning laws regulating dispensaries, the town in December enacted Local Law 4 setting a six-month moratorium on land use approvals in the business district. The intent was to protect the town’s “best interests” and included businesses “related to adult cannabis use.”

That ban was recently extended.

The February, Purple Plains sued Pound Ridge in Westchester Supreme Court asking that the moratorium be declared “null, void, and jurisdictionally invalid.”

The suit claims that the town did things such as requiring it to have a certificate of occupancy for retail use. Purple Plains contended that it already has a valid occupancy certificate from the location’s previous use as a retail wine and liquor store.

It also contended that zoning amendments have to be referred to the county Planning Department for review and comment.

According to the complaint, it wasn’t.

In February, the Town Board voted to ask Albany to re-instate the opt-out period.

First, it is a zoning amendment that had to be referred to the Westchester County Planning Department for review and comment. It was not submitted, according to the complaint, therefore it is defective.

Second, the state cannabis law does not allow municipalities to adopt local laws to ban cannabis sites after the Dec. 31, 2021 opt-out deadline, according to the complaint.

Other than to confirm that the suit is still active, Mortell declined to discuss the details.

(That doesn’t mean that towns can’t govern the time, place, and manner of cannabis operations.)

On Feb. 6, the Town Board adopted a resolution to ask the state Legislature to re-instate the opt-out period for nine months.

In May, state Sen. Shelley Mayer (D-37th District) introduced a bill that would exempt Pound Ridge “from the establishment of retail dispensary licenses and on-site consumption licenses for cannabis.”

When the Legislature ended its current session in June the bill was still stuck in the Senate’s Investigations and Government Operations Committee.

Town building inspector Jim Perry told The Mt. Kisco-Bedford Times recently that Purple Plains is not subject to the moratorium because it applied before it was imposed.

“We had no reason to delay them,” he said, explaining that the store didn’t represent a change of use because previously it had been a liquor story and “as far as the state’s concerned, cannabis is the same thing.”

Had it been a change of use, it would have had to seek site plan approval from the Planning Board.

Purple Plains wasn’t changing the building’s exterior or parking area and neither was it planning to allow on-site consumption, Perry noted.

“Their application ticked all the boxes,” he said, adding he’s not aware of any specific complaints about traffic or noise.

“Not a lot of people coming and going. Things are going OK so far,” Perry said.

Purple Plains has no plans, nor desire to, open a lounge where folks could partake on site.

“It would be too complicated; it’s just a different business,” Mortell said, adding that it legally could have a lounge. However, it not only would it be unlikely to be profitable, it would require them to seek the Office of Cannabis Management’s approve, create a new space, and buy expensive equipment such as smoke ventilators.

Having Their Back

Family and friends have been “super supportive,” Mortell said.

Her own grandmom uses their CBD balm to ease arthritis pain in her hands. (She doesn’t partake, her granddaughter hastens to add.)

Even those relatives who were a little leery at first have come around and now love to hang out at the store on the weekends.

The average age of their customers is 43, though Purple Plains has served a lot of Boomers and some folks as old as 90.

It’s their reactions when they walk into the shop for the first time that make Mortell the happiest.

“I’ve had a lot of people say: ‘I can’t believe I’m seeing this in my lifetime’,” she said.

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