Medical marijuana dispensary review: Frosted Leaf on Federal

It's not so much that I don't know who owns what in the dispensary world. It's that I try my hardest not to pay attention to it when selecting a dispensary. So it came as a surprise even to me that I was in for a re-review this week when I took a seat at Frosted Leaf and noticed the Alpine Herbal Wellness matches in a bowl on a coffee table.

Frosted Leaf

445 Federal Blvd.
Denver, CO 80204
303-355-4372 (HERB)
www.frostedleaf.com

Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Raw marijuana price range: $30 to $35 per eighth, for non-members; $25 to $30/eigh for members. Ounces capped at $170.
Other types of medicine: Edibles, BHO, tincture drops
Handicap-accessible? Yes.

I was still sitting half-confused when -- as if on a timer -- the receptionist welcomed me to the "new" Alpine Herbal Wellness, in what was formerly Serenity Moon's alternate location...now (obviously) re-dubbed Frosted Leaf.

Confused? It took me a minute to figure out, too, and I lived it, man. See, Alpine Herbal Wellness and Serenity Moon were the same shop, but with different names. Both outfits were shut down for being too close to schools -- Alpine for its proximity to Bromwell Elementary School in Cherry Creek and Serenity Moon because it fell within 1,000 feet of DU. At some point, Serenity Moon took over this location on Federal, but I never saw that. I just passed by the Frosted Leaf sign a few times and figured I would try out a new show. Suddenly, like an errant seed in a bowl, an unintentional re-review of not one, but two dispensaries had crept into my week.

And like the odd combination described above implies, Frosted Leaf is basically a combination of the two shops I visited last year -- just in a different shape. My butt was sitting on the same leather couches, now in the middle of the wide-open dispensary instead of in the narrow waiting room they were in before. Which brings up a major improvement: Making the entire space handicap-accessible. At its Cherry Creek location, Alpine Herbal Wellness was in a unique but not-so-wheelchair-friendly multi-level spot. Now it's no sweat for two-wheeled patients to roll to and through the front door and right up to the bud bar.

Grandaddy Purps from Frosted Leaf.

Which, incidentally, is the exact same bud bar that was at Alpine Herbal Wellness, minus the old-timey brass cashier-window overhangs. The results look a lot better in their new location than in the cramped upstairs of the tri-level. Whereas Alpine was somewhat fancified and formal to match the tony Cherry Creek surroundings, Frosted Leaf is much more laid-back. My budtenders were two younger women, both friendly and chatty, like people who work around cannabis all day should be.

The stools in front are the same low-back, Sharper Image-style ones from Serentity Moon. Opposite the bud bar on the other side of the shop are office spaces for management. Across from the entrance and receptionist desk is where the shop keeps the edibles -- although, as usual, I didn't do much browsing for food.

After my visit to Alpine Herbal Wellness last June, the owners told us they were working to streamline and improve their grow outfit as well as dropping their (at the time) ridiculously high prices for mediocre marijuana. Judging by my recent trip to their latest venture, it seems they've only accomplished about half of that goal, unfortunately.

The plus side is that eighths of top-shelf buds are capped at $30 for members and $35 for non-members, with a decent selection of mid-shelf buds for about $5 less per pricing tier. Even better, top-shelf ounces sell for $160 for members and $165 for non-members. But the downside is that the bud I saw was about what you would expect for the rock-bottom pricing.

Page down for the rest of the review and photos.