AYR Dispensary in Somerville MA

AYR, the shop below the square

Some of the best spots in Davis Square are the ones you have to know about. AYR Dispensary in Somerville MA is one of them. The dispensary sits on the lower level of 240 Elm Street, tucked below the grocery store, with an entrance next to a Dunkin’ and a flight of stairs leading down to the main door. Walk past it once and you might miss it. Walk in once and you will remember where it is.

If the name sounds new, the store is not. Longtime locals may know this address as Sira Naturals, and before that as Sage Naturals, the shop that opened in 2017 as Somerville’s first registered medical marijuana dispensary. Today the store carries the AYR name, it serves both medical patients and adult-use customers, and its listings call it AYR Cannabis Dispensary, Somerville. Here is the story behind the door on Elm Street, and how to plan a visit.

Open since 2022 for adult use

The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission lists 240 Elm Street as an active, licensed adult-use cannabis retailer, open since September 27, 2022.

Recreational shoppers got their first chance a couple of months later. AYR announced that adult-use sales began at its Somerville store on November 28, 2022, alongside the medical sales the store had offered for five years. Talking Joints Memo covered the launch as one of two new adult-use dispensaries opening in Boston and Somerville that week, and noted that the Elm Street shop was the company’s third recreational store in the area, after Back Bay and Watertown.

A week and a half earlier, Cambridge Day had reported that Somerville’s licensing officials had signed off on the store adding recreational sales, and a worker at the front desk said they would start “before Thanksgiving.” The official launch came the Monday after the holiday.

Somerville’s first medical dispensary

The story at this address goes back further than most dispensaries in the state. The store held its grand opening on the morning of Friday, October 27, 2017, as Sage Naturals, and Patch called it Somerville’s first registered medical marijuana dispensary. It was the company’s second shop in the area, after one on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge.

The first days went well. “The first week has been fantastic, we’ve been serving lots of patients from the local area,” the company’s chief executive at the time, Michael Dundas, told The Tufts Daily that November.

Local support helped get it there. Lance Davis, then the Ward 6 alderman, told The Tufts Daily that more than 80 percent of his ward had voted yes on medical marijuana, and that the company had presented a detailed security plan. “The data simply does not support any suggestion that crime in areas around medical dispensaries is a particular concern,” he said.

The road started a year before that. In December 2016, The Somerville Times reported that the company was exploring a leased space at 240 Elm Street, that the city had issued a letter of non-opposition for its application, and that the project would still need a special permit and a neighborhood meeting at Community Baptist Church on College Avenue.

When AYR added recreational sales in 2022, its founder, Jonathan Sandelman, made a point of thanking the neighbors who had been there from the start. “We are grateful to our neighbors in Somerville, who have been phenomenal partners,” he said, going back to the first day the store opened to serve medical patients in 2017.

Finding the door

This is the part first timers ask about, so here it is. Patch described the shop in 2017 as a 5,000-square-foot retail space below the grocery store at 240 Elm Street. Directions on the store’s Leafly listing spell out the way in:

The main way in. Use the door to the left of the Dunkin’, head down the stairs, and the main entrance is at the bottom.
Step-free access. A wheelchair-accessible elevator sits at the exit door on Chester Street, across from Redbones. Ride it down to the lower level and follow the arrows on the floor to the main entrance.

Once you know it, it is one of the easiest stops in the square. And you will have company on the block: Cambridge Day noted that the store sits right across Elm Street from The Goods, which made Davis Square home to two recreational shops within weeks of each other in late 2022.

Medical and adult use, under one roof

AYR Somerville serves two kinds of customers. Medical patients with a Massachusetts medical marijuana card have been coming here since 2017, and when adult-use sales began, Sandelman said the store would “continue to serve our loyal medical patients at this location.” Adults 21 and over with a valid government-issued ID can shop here too, no card needed.

Sandelman described the 2022 expansion as a way of “introducing our portfolio of high-quality branded products to more cannabis consumers.” In other words, much of what you will find on the shelves comes from AYR’s own family of brands, with the store’s Leafly listing also pointing to its own in-house edibles over the years.

What’s on the menu

Menus change, but the categories are steady. Over the years, the store’s listings and coverage have pointed to:

Flower and pre-rolls
Concentrates, including vape cartridges
Edibles
Oils and extracts

Patch also noted in 2017 that products come in air-tight, child-resistant packaging. Check the current menu on AYR’s website before you go, and ask a budtender if you are not sure where to start.

A neighbor that shows up

Community work has been part of this store’s story from day one. When it opened in 2017, the shop donated $1,500 each to the Somerville Homeless Coalition and the Community Action Agency of Somerville, according to Patch.

By the time recreational sales arrived, the list had grown. AYR’s announcement described voluntary community partnerships with the Community Action Agency of Somerville and UFCW Local 1445, and said the store had worked through the Medical Marijuana Community Benefits Association on prevention, diversion and mental health programs for children and young adults. As a founding member of a Somerville equity group, it also focused on people most harmed by cannabis prohibition.

Sandelman put it plainly: “Community is the most important aspect of our business, as it defines who we are as a company.” He added that as adult-use customers arrived, “we look forward to creating even stronger ties to the local community.”

Check the menu before you go

AYR’s store page for Somerville is the best place to see what is on the shelves before you head to the square. A quick look at the menu saves time at the counter, and it gives you a chance to read up on anything new, so you arrive with a short list of questions for your budtender.

Plan your visit

Address. 240 Elm Street, Somerville, MA 02144, on the lower level below the grocery store in Davis Square.

Hours. The store’s Leafly listing shows 10am to 10pm every day. Hours can change, so check AYR’s store page or call before a late visit or a holiday.

Phone. (844) 420-1140.

Getting there. AYR describes the store as easily reached from the Davis stop on the MBTA Red Line, and as just minutes from Tufts and Harvard.

Paying. The store’s Leafly listing shows debit cards accepted, with an ATM.

Access. The Chester Street elevator gives step-free access to the lower level.

Discounts. The store’s Leafly listing notes a veteran discount. Ask at the counter for current offers.

Adults 21+. Bring a valid, government-issued photo ID showing you are 21 or older. Medical patients should bring their Massachusetts medical marijuana card as well.

Massachusetts cannabis basics

Here are the state rules from the Cannabis Control Commission:

Age. 21 or older, with a government-issued ID for every retail purchase.
Carrying. Up to two ounces in public.
At home. Up to 10 ounces, and anything over two ounces must be locked up.
Where to use it. Not in public places and not on federal land.
In the car. No open containers in the passenger area. Use a closed container in the trunk or a locked glove compartment, and never drive under the influence.
State lines. It is illegal to take cannabis out of Massachusetts, and it cannot be mailed. That goes for Tufts students heading home for break, too.

Your first visit, step by step

Check the menu online. See what is in stock before you go.
Take the Red Line. Get off at Davis and walk to Elm Street.
Find the door. Look to the left of the Dunkin’ and head downstairs, or use the Chester Street elevator.
Bring your ID. A valid, government-issued photo ID, plus your medical card if you have one.
Ask a budtender. Tell them what you are looking for and how new you are to cannabis.

Make a day of it in Somerville

Somerville packs a lot of history into a small map. The city sits on seven hills, Central, Clarendon, Cobble, Ploughed, Prospect, Spring and Winter, and its neighborhoods are named for squares like Union, Teele, Magoun, Ball, Gilman, Powder House and Wilson.

The Old Powder House is the one to see first, and it is a short walk from Davis Square in Nathan Tufts Park. It was built as a windmill in the early 1700s and sold to the colony as a gunpowder store in 1747. On September 1, 1774, about 260 British regulars marched out and removed the powder, setting off the Powder Alarm, an early step on the road to the Revolution.

Go back even further and you reach Ten Hills Farm, the 600 acres granted to John Winthrop in 1631. Winthrop launched the Blessing of the Bay there, a ship seen as a forerunner of the U.S. Navy, and the Ten Hills neighborhood still carries the name.

Somerville grew up on industry. Brickmaking boomed in the 1800s, then meatpacking took over, so much that the city earned the nickname “The Chicago of New England.” The Stop & Shop chain traces its roots to the Economy Grocery Store, which opened in Somerville in 1914. And the city’s pop culture credits include Bobby “Boris” Pickett, the Somerville native behind “Monster Mash.”

Today the city is known for its neighborhoods and its arts. Porchfest has filled front porches with music every May since 2011, with about 200 bands, and the open studios in Brickbottom have welcomed visitors every fall since 1987. The Somerville Museum at 1 Westwood Road keeps the local story, and the city counts 84 sites on the National Register of Historic Places. Somerville has earned the All-America City Award three times, in 1972, 2009 and 2015.

Why AYR Somerville is worth the stop

Somerville’s first medical dispensary, a home for both patients and adult-use shoppers, a team that has invested in its neighbors since day one and a spot right in Davis Square near the Red Line: AYR Somerville is a local favorite hiding in plain sight. Head to Elm Street, look for the door by the Dunkin’, and take the stairs down.

Cannabis is for adults 21 and over. Please consume responsibly.