ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Finger Lakes Cannabis Company is the first legal recreational retail location in Ontario County.

The company opened as a gift shop and CBD brick and mortar in 2022 but were recently allowed to take advantage of the Cannabis Growers Showcase which allowed them to open as a temporary dispensary.

“A lot of people are familiar, a lot of lawsuits have held up that process so the card license are not being processed right now,” said Mark Byassee, co-founder of the Finger Lakes Cannabis Company. “We do have our provisional license, which means that if the injunction is lifted in New York State then the OCM can start working again and they can come out and inspect our premises here and then get our license.”

The business also has a gift shop filled with jewelry, candles, clothes, and other accessories. In addition, they work with 14 growers and four processors — companies that manufacture products for vaping, edibles, and concentrates. The exciting part for them, is that they’ve worked with these in the past when they were in the hemp business before legalization when they started dabbling in CBD. All of them, local to the Finger Lakes Region.

“So that we can give back to the community,” said Tim Hay, co-founder of Finger Lakes Cannabis Company. “We’re taking things out of it and we want things to go back into it.”

Byassee added that the company would like to be an extension of the Finger Lakes wine and beer region. Mainly, Byassee and Hay are ready to get things going.

“We have our provisional license and we have our location and as you can see we’re ready to go here,” said Byassee. “We’re feeling somewhat confident that, either through the CAURD license or the general license, we should be good probably sometime next year.”

The company also hosts events like Cannaflow yoga every other Friday for those who want to check them out. They’re is open from Tuesday to Sunday and are located at 5 Railroad Drive in Victor.