Interviewing the Torches team was like talking to one person while chatting with four.
First came José, license holder and big-picture hustler from Jamaica, Queens. Then, Jonathan Santana, a former financial advisor who walked away from banking to bet on weed. Pedro Antonio pops in, the Colombian “spice” of the crew, half-strategist, half-hype man. Finally, there’s William Evans, the “honorary Dominican” and in-house buyer, juggling the call while checking on his sick daughter.
They start the conversation the way a lot of good weed stories begin in New York: in two languages, with jokes and a little bit of biography.
“We’re all Dominican,” Jonathan says.
“And I’m Colombian,” Pedro adds. “Got a little Colombian spice.”
Pedro explains how he was born in the U.S., sent back to Colombia as a kid, came back to New York at four, speaking only Spanish, then got swallowed whole by hip hop and the city.
“My mom says I told her I’d never speak English,” he laughs. “Then New York happened. I learned English, loved hip hop, and never turned back.”
When I tell them the true language is the one you use to curse, everybody cracks up. It’s a throwaway line, but it fits. Torches, which is in Manhattan, is bilingual, bicultural, and very much New York: immigrant roots, street logic, and a really elegant address. A social equity dispensary built by these amazing people.
Torches lives inside the former Nat Sherman Townhouse on 42nd Street, one of the most legendary cigar spaces in the city. And this month, it will become a flagship pickup location for the High Times Cannabis Cup Judges Kits.
If you’ve ever dreamed of what it would look like when legacy New York cannabis finally took over the old money cigar …
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Author: Rolando García / High Times
