Neku Cannabis opens Stoney Creek location within Attic Pizza building
- Robert Cekan
- 02 Feb 2021
Neku Cannabis, one of Hamilton’s truly local dispensary brands, has expanded to a second location in Stoney Creek.
Their Hess Village location has already received praise for their thoughtful conversion of the former Che Burrito & Lounge to a cannabis retailer that exudes the sort of good vibes the space gave off when it was a nightclub.
A similar approach has been taken at Neku’s Stoney Creek location at the Attic Pizza, except they aren’t replacing Attic Pizza, but instead have converted the dining room into the dispensary and pivoted the long-standing pizzeria to take-out only.
“This space is much different, visually, than our location on Hess Street,” says owner Ned Kuruc. “We’ve owned Attic Pizza since 2003 and have converted it into two units; what was the dining room is now Neku Cannabis. Much like the downtown location, we didn’t change much. If you’ve walked in before and remember the restaurant, we’ve kept the oak walls and we repurposed the bar and made it our countertop; essentially we’ve kept the spirit of the Attic dining room alive.”
Reasons for keeping the Attic Pizza dining room intact is two-fold: it keeps the carbon footprint down and it has the regal, mature feel that already fits the Stoney Creek community.
“Attic from here on out will just be a take-out and delivery spot. You’re allowed to walk up to the small take-out area and pick up your order but yes we are 100% still serving pizza,” says Kuruc.
Restaurants have been among the hardest hit sectors when it came to COVID-19 lockdown measures and moving to a take-out only system has been a widespread adoption in order to keep afloat. The puzzle every restaurateur has is what to do with all of the dining room space they cannot use, but are still paying for.
“There’s nobody in today’s climate that can keep a restaurant open,” explains Kuruc. You either spend a ton of money that you’re not making back or you have to pivot; and that’s what we did. A lot of people are not fortunate enough to pivot the way we have. We were able to still keep the take-out side and keep the pizza going but also add Neku Cannabis to make use of our dining room.”
One of the new additions to the dining room is a mural that plays on Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, dubbed the “Stona Lisa”. It was designed by Scott McDonald who’s a respected figure in Hamilton’s art community (known for spearheading Concrete Canvas and his involvement with The Local Skateshop and building skateparks in Cuba). McDonald currently acts as general manager of Neku’s Hess Village location.
Regarding the offering at Neku, the owner describes the menu as ‘well-rounded’.
“We designed it with something in mind for everybody,” says Kuruc. “If you want your high-end products, we have them. If you’re looking for value, we have a lot of value. It’s a good combination that’s actually been very well-received. That wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t have involvement with people from the legacy market.”
While tensions were originally running high in Stoney Creek when Neku Cannabis first announced their plans to spin off Attic Pizza’s dining room into a dispensary, since launching earlier this month, residents have been able to see that day-to-day operations are actually nothing to be concerned about.
“As much as this city wants to see progress, we equally don’t want to lose any history. And I’m that guy right in the middle; I love history but I love the future,” says Kuruc.
“We don’t want to wipe stuff out — being able to walk into an existing business that people know and adapt it to sell cannabis seems very Hamilton of us. As we’re moving forward as a city, fast and rapidly, you don’t want to remove the staple restaurants. Keeping the spirit of these places alive is what the brand is all about.”
Find the new location at 89 King St E, Stoney Creek or online at nekucannabis.com
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