Munkey Business | Cannabis Now

Within, I’d say, a few seconds of listening to Vladimir Bautista speak about his red-hot New York City-based dispensary and cannabis lifestyle brand, Happy Munkey, the unfamiliar feeling you’re definitely experiencing is unabashed inspiration. This Vlad dude is dope.

Bautista and longtime business partner and high school friend Ramon Reyes have transformed Happy Munkey into more than a storefront dispensary: It’s the pride of a culture, a neighborhood and a city. These guys even brought two Clio Awards to Dyckman Street in the Heights. Now that’s cool.

With a second location in the heart of downtown Brooklyn—a stone’s throw from the Barclay Center, home of the NBA’s Nets and NHL’s Islanders—Happy Munkey serves up quality flower, pre-rolls, edibles, tinctures, concentrates, vapes and more. But what a list of top-shelf products can’t convey is the level of swag (or is it rizz?) the entire Happy Munkey experience is. Its NYC authenticity comes at you from every square inch of the shop to every word from its proprietors. In 2024, Happy Munkey feels like New York because it is New York. In fact, the pride of Inwood’s owners and motto are one and the same: “We don’t do it for the clout, we do it for the culture.”

So, then, is Happy Munkey a global brand in its infancy? Is the Starbucks model the desired expansion plan for the cool brand? “Not really,” Bautista says. “Maybe it’s a bit more like, say, TAO nightclubs, where they only open a few clubs in very select locations with world-class results.”

A TAO-like cannabis HQ sounds pretty rad, right? How about a reality show based on Happy Munkey, then? Bautista smiles mischievously and reveals that they’ve been filming behind-the-scenes for about 18 months or so. “You never know,” he says.

Bautista says he and Reyes (and the entire Happy Munkey family) have a passion for the plant and its medicinal properties, and they are, in fact, advocates for cannabis legalization and education. Bautista tells me that Happy Munkey’s genesis comes from a desire to provide safe, legal cannabis to the community that’s given so much to them.

As a lifestyle brand, Happy Munkey is making moves well beyond their dispensaries—as great as those are—into podcasting (“The Happy Munkey Podcast”), merchandising, television (“Munkey TV”) and, for a while, even magazines (Munkey Biz).

Happy Munkey does so much more than see, hear or speak no evil. This elevated cannabis 360 experience brings joy, quality and success back to the very place they call home. That’s Nueva York, baby!