Destination Dispensary: Tour Serra’s Stunning New Los Angeles Store
By Katie Shapiro - Senior Contributor, Forbes
Apr 22, 2020
When Serra opened its doors in downtown Portland, Oregon in 2016, it was among the first companies in the country to reimagine the look and feel of modern-day marijuana, for both seasoned smokers and curious new consumers.
As a pioneer in the luxury space, Serra aimed to make shopping for cannabis as common and approachable as for a bottle of fine wine, but with an emphasis on how its customers want to feel. As its official slogan says, Serra encourages you to “feel all the feelings” through a custom-branded guide to its products and corresponding highs: happiness, relaxation, energy, creativity, focus and relief.
Feeling better is what originally led co-founder and creative director Cambria Benson-Noecker to cannabis in 2014. The Portland native had a surgery, resulting in chronic pain. Cannabis became a part of her daily personal life and, as a business development and marketing director for a tech manufacturing company, she started working with companies in the newly legal industry.
“I saw a considerable gap in cannabis brands that appealed to me as a consumer, something a bit more feminine, beautiful, and curated,” said Benson-Noecker. “I started dreaming up a brand that appealed to a female and a conscious consumer with a desire for quality, clarity of ingredients, education, and thoughtful retail experience. When I was first brainstorming, quite a few people laughed at the concept of Serra, saying the industry wasn’t ready for a brand like it.”
Determined to prove them wrong, she enlisted the help of an old friend, Karlee Eichenberger, who is now Serra’s COO. The duo partnered with cannabis investment firm Groundworks Industries (founded by Benson-Noecker’s husband Spencer Noecker) and together laid the groundwork for what is now the holding company for three Serra stores, nine Electric Lettuce locations and Prūf Cultivar, a state-of-the-art facility known for growing unique flower strains for its private label.
“I’ve always said with Serra, we wanted to ‘de-stigmatize through design’ by creating a showcase environment that highlights our products,” added Benson-Noecker. “My husband is from Los Angeles, so it was always our intention to be able to operate in the two cities that we are from and love.”
Groundworks Industries’ first venture outside of Oregon is a recently completed flagship in West Hollywood. With its grand opening on hold due to coronavirus stay-at-home orders and social distancing restrictions, the creative team behind it — including the renowned interiors firm Commune (whose clients range from Ace Hotels to Goop to LACMA) — gave me a first look inside its stunning new store for the debut Destination Dispensary.
Serra, 8151 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, shopserra.com
Note: Currently, Serra is offering online ordering (powered by Dutchie) and pick-up. When customers come to the store to pick-up their order, Serra is providing one-on-one service with a maximum of three customers in the store at a time while maintaining social distancing. Delivery is available in Portland and coming soon to Serra LA.
“There are many fantastic dispensaries in Los Angeles. Serra is uniquely different in that we are a showcase retail space with carefully curated product assortments while showcasing (and complementing) our own Serra product line. We needed to have an immersive, educational, hands-on learning with our products, while offering an edited selection of partner brand products, turning Serra into a trusted curator of quality drugs. We believe our retail environment in Los Angeles is truly the next level in cannabis design.” —Cambria Benson-Noecker, founder and director of brand partnerships, Serra
“We basically maintained the brand’s material palette of white oak, brass, Carrara marble and concrete, but really focused on detailing and injected a couple of things like a beautiful composite pin-up material that we flipped on its backside, which is lined with burlap and adds a layer of warmth and is also great for sound. We are excited about all the new fixtures we created for the store, they take inspiration from the ones in Portland but they go a step further in terms of design and finish. The space itself is also very exciting, it used to be a car garage and with its beautiful industrial structure, there were great bones already there.” —Roman Alonso, creative director, Commune
“Our products and spaces begin and end with the shared goal of deeply connecting to our guests, which is one of our core values. This is what led to the creation of our ‘Feelings’ approach and is still relevant in all of our product education today. 'Deeply connecting' means being respectful of everyone’s personal journey with cannabis and understanding how to guide them without stigma or judgment, which is why our team members are called docents (guides). Some of my favorite moments in our spaces are meeting our guests that come with three generations to explore legal cannabis while sharing stories, laughing, and learning more about this awesome plant. It’s what Cambria and I used to imagine back when all of this was just a dream.” —Karlee Eichenberger, COO, Serra
“I see a real focus on branding and design that I didn’t see before. Brands like Serra who are investing a great deal in design and entering a new world of luxury retail. Cannabis used to equal ‘hippy’ or ‘clinical’ — now it’s a totally different game, there’s great competition to become the Hermès or [Louis] Vuitton of Cannabis.” —Roman Alonso, creative director, Commune
“When building the brand, we always wanted Serra to live beyond our shelves, and into expertly crafted products, working alongside premier partners to source delicious ingredients. We had a list of the ‘best of brands’ that matched our product values. Woodblock Chocolate, Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Jacobsen Salt Co. were among the list. It’s been challenging to bring our product line to California, as we leverage new partnerships to bring the same (if not better) product integrity into a new market. Though, the Serra and Groundworks teams have done an excellent job pushing through obstacles. Look for some surprise local treats later this year.” —Cambria Benson-Noecker, founder and director of brand partnerships, Serra
“10 Corso Como in Milan is one of my favorite stores in the world, aesthetically speaking, and in terms of how the experience of that store is more of a lifestyle than a real retail experience. I always envisioned Serra to go beyond the brick and mortar world and translate into different products and markets. They did such a beautiful job doing that when they entered the Asian and US marketplace.” —Cambria Benson-Noecker, founder and director of brand partnerships, Serra
“We believe everything starts with flower. A complex aroma, glittering blooms, the excitement of discovery. It’s flower that shows the beauty of cannabis at its purest. Our experienced curators visit each farm we work with, reviewing growing conditions, cure processes and overall quality — pound by individual pound. We look beyond trichomes to mindful cultivation and sustainable practices only selecting flower that helps customers see the art in cannabis, too. Our first curated menu features several exclusive genetics we are thrilled to introduce along with trusted favorites. We look to create partnerships with brands on our shelves that offer something unique, so each and every product must meet our standards for quality and purity. Plus, we intentionally support women-owned and women-run businesses.” —Karlee Eichenberger, COO, Serra
“When we were building the Serra brand, we intentionally did not want any green, marijuana leaves or references to marijuana in the branding. We wanted our brand to be able to stand alone in any retail market. Serra means 'greenhouse' in Italian, and we love how there was still a tie to plants, without any literal application in our identity. For the blue, we wanted a bold and beautiful color, to help us stand out in a sea of green. The blue we chose was an ode to Yves Klein Blue [IKB].” —Cambria Benson-Noecker, founder and director of brand partnerships, Serra