New York's Top Burger of 2024! And Trippy Highballs!
Plus: A stunning $20 beef skewer at Heroes, more shellfish at Eel Bar, and a full review of Cann's highballs
Enjoy this essay on why Cann is a solid “party cannabis” — if used correctly. Scroll past the paywall for reviews of Eel Bar’s amazing burger and Heroes’s stellar chicken.
On Friday, I hit my reset button.
I watched some cool performance art. I drank some Madre mezcal. And I sipped a baggie laced with blood orange, cardamom, and cannabis. All the better for zoning in on the hypnotic contortions of Flexn dance. And feeling the sonic booms of live taiko drumming.
We’re all coping with a weird month in different ways. Attending Art Bath, an experimental salon that a few of my friends run, is one of those ways for me.
Doing a little THC is another.
Yes, I generally prefer cannabis at home, while watching the Knicks blow a late lead. Or I’ll take an edible before a fancy restaurant, to zero in on all the flavors.
But Cann, the brand I’ve been enjoying lately, is going for something different. It wants to get cannabis off the couch and into the parties. And one of my jobs as a critic is to meet restaurants and other businesses where they’re at. So I partied.
Tough job, I have!
Cann: One of the country’s best selling Cannabis drinks
Maybe you’re surprised I’m writing about Cann.
Whenever possible, I try to highlight smaller brands, like the Latin-leaning NY Finca, or the Brooklyn-based Flyers. But sometimes, it’s also nice to review what folks are using across the country. It’s nice to review Hollywood blockbusters like Cann.
The company, founded by two guys who used to work at Bain (not quite your hippie uncle who makes hash brownies) is raking in tens of millions of dollars in annual sales. The duo produce some of the country’s best-selling THC drinks. They’re fizzy and refreshing tonics that recall White Claws.
But unlike White Claw, Canns actually taste good.
Flavors include orange cardamom (a fancy Orangina), lemon lavender (a trippy San Pellegrino), grapefruit rosemary (more fruity than savory), and a pricier “reserve” flavor laced with fragrant yuzu and elderflower. They’re all quite wonderful and trippy. And expensive too, costing up to $10 apiece.
They come in big cans, small cans, lite-cans, and TSA-friendly weed pouches you can squirt into your economy class apple juice as your flight hits turbulence over the Rockies. Those low-dose “Roadie” pouches — each one contains just two milligrams of THC — are what I snuck into that Art Bath party. I drank two of them quickly, and within a half hour, the hemp-based weed was hitting me hard. By the time Shantel Martin started a live drawing, it was as if I was existing in a waking dream. Pretty groovy.
And then, I snapped out of it, which is good because I actually needed to talk to people!
The importance of vibes
Brands like to sell cannabis for all sorts of curiously specific moods. For morning energy. For arousal. For brainpower. For happiness. For recovery. For balance. For sleep. For deep sleep. Pretty advanced science, this marijuana business, lol. I’ve even seen ads that push cannabis as an antidote to the monotony of running, which totally makes sense….if you’re okay getting high while dodging automotive traffic.
The folks behind Cann don’t make specific healing promises. Rather, they go for something broader. They want you to enjoy these drinks socially.
Ads and social content show folks drinking these tonics at Montauk parties, Christmas parties, state fairs, and on rooftops. I watched people in bikinis drinking Hi Boys in Aspen hot tubs and on ski lifts with the safety bar still up (Johnny Knoxville would be proud). One Cann post suggests how you definitely shouldn’t sneak Roadie pouches into a festival (wink), while another shows people squirting THC into dirty martinis and margaritas.
Already a “little buzzed” like Timothée hanging out with Kylie? Have a Cann. In the mood for group activities? Play beer pong with Cann.
This is no small matter. Critics try hard to pin down the vibe of a restaurant; it can play as big of a role as the menu in reflecting what everyone at a venue experiences. Vibes are an alchemy that extend beyond simple equations of good design and delicious food. Vibes comprise the pulse of a clientele and the moment of time we live in. They also include ubiquitous social media stories and ads. Alas.
So! You might not order the halal cart chicken at Tatiana at David Geffen Hall. But you will listen to hip hop and feel the communal energy of well-dressed strangers drinking haute nutcrackers under blue lights. This is dinner as a cool, clubby antidote to the pomp of Lincoln Center.
You might not be able to afford too many supplemental nigiri at Sushi Sho, but you will witness rich folks tacking on hundreds of dollars in excess toro charges. This is dinner as a private shopping experience for your local oligarchs.
And while you might not end up ordering the same strong Cann varieties that I love, you’ve almost certainly been bombarded with the company’s “Summer of Squirt” ads. You’ve seen influencers pre-gaming for fashion week with this stuff. You’ve seen the new ad showing a young dude mixing his Cann with Celsius, the energy drink behind the Jake Paul-Tyson fight.
Cann’s vibes recall a swank riff on a beer commercial, ads that focus more on lifestyle than flavor. Cann’s vision of cannabis is something that you casually enjoy with your tanned besties at Coachella, rather than something that gets you f&cked up while streaming “Rings of Power.” It’s a drink that doesn’t get you “that high,” per the advertising copy. It’s a no hangover drink that’s a prudent part of a longer night of boozing, rather than a replacement for boozing. It’s a drink that’s a chic answer to America’s favorite party drug that starts with the letter C.
Coors Light.
This is all to say: Cann very much wants to play a much, much bigger role in our life over the next decade.
What to know before using Cann at a party
So, is Cann really something I’d drink instead of a light beer at the ballgame? Is it something I’d take after a gin & tonic or two at happy hour?
Maybe, yes!
What’s great about these drinks is that most of them contain just 2 mg each of THC, quite a bit less than the edibles commonly sold out of dispensaries. And with a Cann, you have to finish the entire beverage to get a full dose! That might sound super obvious, so let me explain: With half a gummy, you’ll probably be getting an entire evening’s worth of cannabis in a few seconds. It’s all you need. But with Cann, you can have one eight-ounce serving, and then you can have another. And you’ll still probably be in good shape, even after a nice daiquiri. I appreciate that.
What I also appreciate is that Cann’s “hemp high” is lighter and more polite high than the richer, more layered rushes I get from marijuana-based edibles.
After taking those Roadie packets last Friday, I could feel the reverberations of a massive taiko drum massaging my inner intestines. Thoughts of deadlines disappeared; my mind was present for a once-in-a-lifetime performance. This wasn’t cannabis that dominated my evening; it hung around for an hour or two then faded into the background.
But let me pass along two quick things to keep in mind:
First: Cann Drinks are super crushable! There’s no alcohol or bitterness to keep you from guzzling the whole can in a few minutes on a warm night. Go slow if you’re new to this stuff.
Second: Cannabis isn’t alcohol! Cann likes to compare its chief product to a beer, and its Hi Boy to a martini. Not a bad point of reference! Thing is, THC has very different effects than alcohol. It’s a psychoactive chemical that can amp up your hunger levels, induce giggle fits, and make your limbs feel like they’re being weighed down by a gravity blanket. I find that Cann’s smart dosing generally keeps most of those effects within reasonable limits.
But some folks might find that any cannabis product makes them feel decidedly anti-social. And indeed, if you hook me up with a Hi Boy and a strong IPA, you’ll see me putting a serious dent in a pint of Haagen Dazs before zonking out to an episode of “Cross.” The gravitational pull of the couch is powerful!
Sometimes, the party vibes need to chill out.
For Subscribers: Reviews of Heroes, Eel Bar, and the Full Cann FAQ
Eel Bar: Why this might be the city’s top burger of 2024 ($28)
Heroes: Why you need to try the charcoal beef ($20) and big chicken ($65)
FAQ: Everything you need to know about Cann drinks