Germantown makes room for new cannabis restaurant

By MARISSA SULEK

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — A new restaurant is coming to Germantown, and cannabis is on the menu.

Germantown is known for its restaurant scene, but there’s one restaurant no one has ever seen.

“This is cannabis-infused concept, a restaurant concept that we have,” President and CEO of Buds and Brews Michael Solomon explained.

“We’re going to have your chicken tenders, your chicken wings, your hamburgers, your French fries,” Solomon said.

He said the restaurant would serve food with a special sauce.

“We infuse all the condiments with hemp-derived THC,” Solomon added.

He said the sauces would come sealed in jars made by another facility. The restaurant is a first of its kind, but is it legal?

“The simple answer is hemp and CBD are legal products,” attorney Jim Todd pointed out.

Todd said hemp and marijuana come from the same plant. The difference is that hemp has a THC concentration of less than .3%, which is legal for Tennesseans. The question then becomes, how do you know if businesses comply?

“Obviously, the legalization of this product has caused all sorts of problems, especially with law enforcement,” Todd said.

The FDA has not approved CBD and hemp in food, but that hasn’t stopped companies from operating in what some attorneys call a “legal gray zone”.

Solomon said his staff would keep an eye on customers’ intake.

“Just like a bar downtown, there’s not a limit as to how many beers you can have,” he explained. “But if you start to get impaired, our servers will notice, and we’ll stop serving you.”

It’s a new idea – something Solomon says he thinks people will like.

“We had to pick a specific neighborhood,” he comments. “And we definitely think the Germantown, the people here, have the right perspective and are going to be accepting of this.”

Solomon said customers must be 21 and older to enter. They expect to open beginning of May with a soft opening toward the end of April.

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