During a recent craving for Turkey & Gravy Potato Balls at Porto’s Bakery in Glendale, we stumbled upon a beautiful store in nearby Atwater Village.
With an impressive 2,800 square feet of retail space, Stash Dash has an aesthetic that brings together the vibe of a vintage 1930s drugstore with a modern floor plan. Tall windows and clean, white subway tiles provide a backdrop for jars of colorful edible samples, and shoppers can taste many of these options before they buy (don’t worry, they’re nonmedicated). On the sales floor, wooden displays feature every product free from glass cases, allowing you to inspect the packages, and you can smell the flowers via clear boxes containing sample buds.
Owner Casey Dalton told California Leaf that she always wants the store to be a neighborhood spot like those old drugstores, the kind of place you can stop in to browse, ask budtenders a question or just say hello. It’s part of why shoppers can help themselves to the tray of warm chocolate chip cookies when they enter, as well as dog treats for furry friends big and small. “In fact,” Dalton revealed, “we have quite a few dogs that will drag their owners in just to say hi and grab their daily treat.”
In keeping with modern times, Stash Dash blends this approach with modern options for those seeking a self-guided experience. Each wooden product display features a digital information station, where customers can scan an item to learn more about its history and effects. Stash Dash compiles an independent database with product details from producers for every item on the floor. Using this system, customers can scan items for batch info, strain lineage and effects, and they can even add them to a virtual cart that can be updated from any station. The combination of old-school hospitality and modern convenience is something Dalton said the community has resonated with, calling it “rewarding and wild.”
Growing up, Dalton said she’s always had a strong connection to both Cannabis and Atwater Village. Her brother, Dan, used to get stoned in the apartments above where the store now sits, and her mother owned a business within walking distance. Despite growing up in a family that was very comfortable with Cannabis (she learned to roll the perfect joint at age 9), watching the store quickly become a normalized and respected part of the local retailer community is still a bit of a shock at times, Dalton told the Leaf.
In 2025, Stash Dash celebrated its second anniversary. In that time, Dalton said the store has participated in local events and school fundraisers, and it even runs a weekly booth at the local farmers market. She attributes much of these successful community engagement efforts to Max Herrera, the operations manager and purchaser. As well as community involvement, Herrera also prioritizes freshness, using the database to monitor shelf life and ensure there’s no old product. Herrera said he wants every item as fresh as the warm chocolate chip cookies they bake on-site. “I do all the buying for our shop myself,” he said. “I can guarantee everything is fresh.”
