Hi Flora!, a restaurant in the Wedge neighborhood, is closing on Dec. 5 after being cited for $9,500 in fines related to the State’s year-old cannabinoid sales statute in August. The owner of Hi Flora!, Heather Klein, announced on Nov. 16 that she was closing the restaurant.

The restaurant opened in April 2023 in the former Common Roots Cafe space, focusing on plant-based food and non-alcoholic drinks. Hi Flora! also offered hemp-derived THC tinctures that guests could add to their drinks and food. The restaurant was originally a partnership with Michelle Courtright of the former plant-based restaurant Fig + Farro but the partnership dissolved before Hi Flora! opened.

Where did the violations come from?

Hi Flora! was cited on Aug. 9 by the State’s Office of Cannabis Management for ten violations of Statute 151.72–the State’s statue on selling hemp-derived products–including offering products exceeding 5 mg of THC/serving and exceeding 50 mg THC/container, selling products without certified testing, and allowing on-site consumption without an on-sale alcohol license. State statute requires businesses to have an on-sale alcohol license to have on-site consumption of hemp-derived products, despite Hi Flora! not serving alcohol.

The State statute went into effect August 2023.

The restaurant was not cited for any smoking-related violations.

Hi Flora! had a publicized weekly “pizza and a blunt night.” and a video on the restaurant’s Instagram page highlighting that guests could “smoke” inside Hi Flora!, by drinking smoke from cocktail glasses.

“We infused drinks with smoke. That's not cannabis,” Heather Klein, owner of Hi Flora! Said in an interview with Southwest Voices. Hi Flora! has offered smoked cocktails with juniper and CBD in the past.

“We allow smoking on the patio. We always have,” Klein said. “We don't allow cigarette smoking, but we do allow cannabis smoking.”

It’s currently illegal to sell hemp-derived flower and vaping products but it’s legal to possess small amounts of marijuana and consume it in public.

“People can bring their own cannabis,” Klein said. “They can rent our bongs, and they can smoke on the patio.”

One of the violations, according to Klein, stemmed from unlabeled bulk products from Northern Diversified Solutions, a company that supplies hemp-derived products.

“It doesn't have a label on it, because it's not a for sale product. It's an ingredient,” Klein explained.

The Office of Cannabis Management’s report claims the restaurant “didn’t have any labels,” without citing specific products in the restaurant. The State office confiscated $800 worth of products, according to Klein, who was not present when the Office of Cannabis Management visited in August.

Klein said she was overwhelmed with the State’s THC regulations while running a brick and mortar restaurant, after fostering her pop-up venture Root to Rise Kitchen.

“My passion in life is plants,” Klein said in an interview with Southwest Voices. “I like to focus on what plants have to offer humans in their purest form before they're highly processed.”

Frustration with shifting regulations

Klein opened Hi Flora! with hemp-derived products before the Office of Cannabis Management was formed and said she would often hear different things from the City’s Health Department as her business progressed.

“We were going by what the Health Department told us what was okay,” Klein said. “And then we would hear something new, and then we would shift accordingly.”

Southwest Voices was unable to confirm Klein’s claims about the City’s Health Department.

Klein said she was also frustrated by having had to chain together temporary on-site liquor licenses when she learned a DUI charge from five years ago prevented her from qualifying for a permanent on-sale alcohol  license–something that wasn’t required when she opened her business in April 2023.

“I wasn't even aware that we needed a liquor license until almost a year after we opened,” Klein said.

Klein also claims she had an active application with the City for a temporary liquor license when the State cited her not having one.

Klein emailed the City’s Licenses and Consumer Services after the restaurant’s flurry of State citations, asking if the temporary on-site beer license she sent in on July 31 had been processed for Hi Flora!.

In emails supplied to Southwest Voices, a staff member with the City responded on Aug. 12, “I did not see this in my inbox, my apologies. I have sent it to your area inspector for review and regulation.”

According to a City spokesperson, Klein worked with a non-profit to acquire a temporary license on Aug. 22 and it expired on Sept. 21. The City did not directly respond to the delay in Klein’s temporary license submission on July 31 but the spokesperson said, “No other applications exist in the City’s system.”

Another shift in regulations that caught Klein off guard was the inability for guests to leave with unfinished products, specifically the tinctures that were sold as two servings or 10/mg per tincture. The State statute states customers cannot remove hemp-derived products from the premises after they are opened.

“Why would we be fined for that?” Klein said. “That way they get to dose themselves, be safe and get to control their dosing. Then they can close it and bring it home.”

The Office of Cannabis Management will now not license Hi Flora! for on-site consumption of cannabinoid products because of the recent violations.

“We have reminded businesses that in any situation that shows there was a violation, OCM is required to disqualify them from a cannabis license for five years,” Jim Walker, public information officer with the State’s Office of Cannabis Management said over email.

Violations at Hi Flora! from the State’s Office of Cannabis Management

On Aug. 9, Hi Flora! was cited by the Office of State Management for the following violations of Statute 151.72: 

151.72, subd. 3(f)(1): on-site consumption without an on-sale alcohol license;

151.72, subd. 5a(f) and 6(a)(6): offered for sale products exceeding 5 mg THC/serving

151.72, subd. 5a(f) and 6(a)(6): offered products exceeding 50 mg THC per container;

151.72, subd. 3(f)(2): served products outside their original packaging and did not display required information;

151.72, subd. 3(f)(5): permitted customers to remove products from the premises after they were opened;

151.72, subd. 4(a): sold products without certified testing;

151.72, subd. 5(a-c): sold products without necessary labeling requirements;

151.72, subd. 5(a)(4) and 5a(e)(2): sold products without the cannabinoid profile on the label;

151.72, subd. 5(d): label did not bear required disclaimer;

151.72, subd. 5a(d): sold products with multiple servings but did not have a device to indicate serving size such as a calibrated dropper.

The future of Hi Flora!

Hi Flora! currently serves THC-infused drinks to-go and continues to serve its full food and non-alcoholic drink menu through Dec. 5. Klein said her plans for both national and hyperlocal pop-ups in the near future.

Hi Flora! is open 5-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 5.