Venice at Work: The Green House Smoke Shop

When Venice residents built the redwood Craftsman home now known as the Green House more than 100 years ago they probably didn't imagine that it would become the kind of place to make Cheech and Chong proud.

California is famous, or infamous, for its legal sales of medical marijuana, but the Green House isn't a dispensary and shoppers won't find any actual cannabis for sale.

Instead, the shop carries anything — and everything — for customers who like to smoke pot or tobacco. Its smoking paraphernalia includes antique ashtrays, locally made, cigar-shaped ceramic bowls and high-quality lose tobacco alongside the same cigarette brands sold at 7-11.

When husband and wife owners Sandor Caplan and Bunny Lua leased the space more than 10 years ago, the landlord was skeptical about a smoke shop on Abbot Kinney. Nearby businesses and residents felt differently though, and the business sprang up almost overnight.

Even when medical marijuana was legalized  in 2003, fueling the dispensary craze, it didn't much affect the Green House.

"Smokers were smokers before they got their cards," Caplan said. "The uptick has more been the questions about it."

The shop's bottom line has taken some hits as the economy has soured. In addition, the federal tax on cigarettes went up 62 cents last year. "Not only were we hit with the recession, they raised the tobacco prices at the same time," Lua said.

In California, the price of a pack of cigarettes increased by almost 20 percent in 2009-10, according to the Board of Equalization. The average pack of smokes in California is now $5.06.

And more and more cities are cracking down on smoking. This month, a Santa Monica law went into effect banning smoking—even on private balconies and patios—in areas less than 25 feet from other residences in that city.

The Green House may sell tobacco products, but Lua and Caplan are conscientious about it, refusing to stock disposable lighters, for instance. They stopped carrying them after learning that the lighters contribute to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a cluster of floating debris in the ocean.

"The turtles and the birds were eating all that," Lua explained. "And a lot of it was disposable lighters."

Lua is an active part of the Abbot Kinney community. She spearheaded efforts to put in bike racks along the boulevard, and she campaigned for six years to get the city to install a light at a nearby crosswalk, Caplan said.

Back at the Green House, Caplan and Lua pride themselves on serving their customers' needs, such as a recent tourist from Vermont who walked purposefully into the store, asking for a particular type of bowl.

Satisfied with her purchase—a small, cigarette-shaped bowl and carrying case, she paused.

"They don't sell these in Vermont," she said. "And you can quote me on that."