Left to right: David Nicponski, his brother John Nicponski and his wife Pamela Nicponski celebrate the grand opening of their cannabis dispensary, Freshly Baked NYC, on Arthur Avenue in Little Italy on Saturday, May 11, 2024.
Photo Adeline Artistry
The Bronx’s sixth legal cannabis dispensary opened on the historic Arthur Avenue in Little Italy on Saturday after a soft opening earlier in the week.
Freshly Baked NYC, located at 2375 Arthur Ave. in Belmont, propped open its doors in the old Fabco Shoes on May 11 — a staple of the neighborhood for decades that has open space and floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing passersby to see everything inside. Now, that includes cannabis of all types from flower and edibles to cartridges and concentrates, as well as branded apparel.
Owner David Nicponski and his wife Pamela Nicponski founded Freshly Baked together in September 2022 — two months before the state issued its first dispensary permits — and were granted a Conditional Adult Use Recreational Dispensary (CAURD) license in April of 2023. CAURD licenses are part of the state’s restorative social justice initiative meant to prioritize people who have marijuana convictions in their family, or people who have convictions themselves.
Nicponski told the Bronx Times on opening day that while there has been some pushback against his business on Arthur Avenue — which could be attributed to the traditional Catholic roots of the neighborhood — there are many others who have embraced the new dispensary.
“There are still people who are stuck in the Nancy Reagan era of like, ‘Just say no, drugs are bad,’” he said. “But there are also many people who are open minded and also many people who are excited. We’ve seen them and we’re happy to work with them and we hope to be able to change the minds of the people whose minds can be changed.”
Nicponski has his own marijuana conviction from when he was a teenager growing up in upstate New York.
“In this town, there was nothing for the kids to do. So, we skateboarded and smoked pot,” he told the Bronx Times. “So I was one of those kids who skateboarded and smoked pot. And I have maybe six or seven possession tickets of varying forms that led to conviction.”
Other business owners in the area attended the grand opening on May 11 to welcome the new cannabis players to the neighborhood.
Paul Ramirez, owner of the Bronx Beer Hall inside the Arthur Avenue Retail Market and a Bronx Community Board 6 member, told the Bronx Times that the location couldn’t be better — not just along Arthur Avenue but also near Fordham University’s Bronx Rose Hill campus.
“Arthur Avenue is a major thoroughfare for shoppers and foodies alike with a close proximity to a university you know, weed culture evolves in New York City, it’s a premier destination for all things New York, right?” he said.
Nicponski’s business didn’t materialize overnight, though — rather it took about a year to come to fruition.
The Freshly Baked owner, along with other budding cannabis business owners, was stopped in his tracks last summer because of a legal battle against the state Office of Cannabis Management and the state Cannabis Control Board. The case’s plaintiffs, a group of service-disabled veterans, were arguing that the state’s licensing rollout violates the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA).
Nicponski had already opened a delivery location in Queens, but was looking for a physical storefront for about six months before applying to a location on White Plains Road in Pelham Parkway, for which Bronx Community Board 11 issued a no objection opinion in October 2023. Plans for that location later fell through with the landlord, he said.
“We had to keep looking and then the next spot that we found that we really liked was the Arthur application,” Nicponski said.
Since the first dispensary licenses were issued, the Bronx — a borough that has been disproportionately impacted by cannabis regulation — has lagged behind some other boroughs during the state’s rollout process. In addition, local Bronx community boards have issued dozens of opinions against proposed dispensary locations since the state opened up its non-conditional general application.
The Bronx’s first legal cannabis dispensary, Statis Cannabis Co., opened in Crotona in July 2023. Since then, five more have opened their doors: Hush in Allerton, Bronx Joint in Longwood, Two Buds in Wakefield, Summit Canna in Mott Haven, and now Freshly Baked NYC in Belmont with an awning displaying its phone number — 212-729-9333, or 212-SAY-WEED.
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