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Los Angeles has no shortage of dispensaries. Every neighborhood has one—or three—and most promise the same mix of premium flower, polished interiors and loyalty points. The Chronic, in El Sereno, has managed to stand apart by leaning on something that can’t be manufactured: history.
For decades, “The Chronic” has meant high-grade California weed. The name was embedded in 1990s hip-hop and LA street life long before the plant was legal. When founder Orlando Padilla opened his ivy-covered flagship a little more than two years ago, he built the concept around that legacy. “The mission was clear: build something for the people, by the people,” he says. “Cannabis and culture have always been intertwined—we just brought that truth into the modern space.”
The shop sits quietly on Alhambra Avenue, its black-and-gold signage a deliberate nod to LA’s streetwear and hip-hop lineage. The design is minimal but intentional: Greenery softens the dark facade; inside, warm light and gold accents give the space an easy confidence. It’s top-tier without being uptight. Customers come from the surrounding neighborhood and across the city, drawn by word of mouth and the store’s mix of accessibility and polish.
Padilla insists that the culture comes first. “We didn’t just build a dispensary,” he says. “We built something that represents cannabis culture.” His team is mostly local, and that sense of community, he says, shapes both the atmosphere and the service. “We treat customers like family because that’s how we want to be treated—we’re from the neighborhoods we serve.”
The Chronic’s ambitions reach beyond retail. Padilla is developing Chronic Genetics, an in-house line of proprietary strains, alongside a forthcoming branded collection of flower, vapes and edibles. A streetwear label, coded into the store’s black-and-gold aesthetic, is in the works. Padilla says the company plans to host cultural events and collaborations with local artists and creative types. “The Chronic has always stood for high-quality cannabis and the culture surrounding it,” he says. “We’re just showing what that legacy looks like in today’s legal world,” he adds of his lifestyle empire ambitions.
That legacy is complicated in a market as competitive as Los Angeles. The city’s cannabis retail landscape is saturated, and even well-known shops struggle to maintain relevance as regulations, taxes and new brands flood the space. Padilla says The Chronic’s advantage is authenticity—its roots in a community that understands cannabis as more than a product.
“Professional doesn’t have to mean corporate,” he says. “You can set a high standard and still keep it real.”
The Chronic has rapidly built a loyal following and a recognizable aesthetic without losing its neighborhood feel. It hasn’t reinvented SoCal cannabis so much as reminded people what it’s supposed to feel like: personal and grounded in culture. In a city that often treats cannabis as fashion, The Chronic’s success suggests that the old rules—connection, respect and good weed—still might work.
This story was originally published in issue 52 of the print edition of Cannabis Now.
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