A Cincinnati chef is cooking up something you will not find on a typical dinner menu: short rib, lasagna and even ice cream laced with THC. Chad Esmeier is behind Electric Lettuce, a pop-up dinner series that fuses fine dining with cannabis, and its next event lands on Sept. 29 at a location still being kept under wraps.
Electric Lettuce is described as a pop-up dinner series combining cooking and cannabis, according to CityBeat. The Cincinnati publication reports the upcoming dinner will feature THC-infused dishes including short rib and lasagna, though the venue itself has not been disclosed. Because the meal is structured as a private dinner that includes cannabis as a gift, Esmeier is not technically selling weed to his guests, per the outlet's reporting.
What's Actually on the Table
The menu CityBeat previewed reads like a tasting menu with a twist. Guests can expect rye focaccia finished with THC-infused malted butter, lasagna built around locally foraged sorrel and prickly lettuce, and a course featuring pecorino pepato paired with cannabis pollen. Dessert brings tonka bean ice cream alongside banana cake, date syrup and spicebush, all according to the same CityBeat report.
Drinks get the same treatment as the food. The dinner will include a beverage made with locally sourced pawpaws, and spirit-free pairings for each course are being created by Kelsey St. Clair, the outlet notes. For diners who want the experience without the high, the report states that guests can choose to eat all dishes cannabis-free, and can also select how much THC they consume simply by choosing their ticket type.
The Chemistry Behind the Menu
Esmeier's cannabis technique goes beyond just sprinkling flower into a dish. He plans to use Rick Simpson oil, described in the CityBeat piece as a highly concentrated form of cannabis, in several dishes at the upcoming dinner — a method he has used before, having incorporated the oil into butter at a prior Electric Lettuce event. He also works cannabis-derived terpenes into sauces and aiolis, which the report describes as non-psychoactive and highly concentrated, meaning they can add cannabis flavor and aroma without the intoxicating effect.
The approach reflects a broader instinct Esmeier has described in his own words. He has said he has always loved cooking with weed and researches cannabis extensively, according to CityBeat's reporting, and he hopes guests walk away with a greater appreciation for edible cannabis. As he put it, cannabis edibles do not have to be brownies or gummies — a line that gets at the entire premise of Electric Lettuce.
From Bartending to Pasta to Pop-Ups
Esmeier's path to this point runs through several corners of Cincinnati's food and drink scene. He worked as a bartender at Sundry & Vice and Comfort Station, and previously helmed Juniper's gin bar in Covington, per the CityBeat report. He has also worked at Young Buck Deli and developed culinary pop-ups including Dunch Provisions, building a resume that spans both the bar and the kitchen.
These days he operates The Baker's Table pasta program and cooks every Monday at Juniper's, drawing on pasta-making skills he learned from his grandmother, the outlet reports. Esmeier has said the kitchen world became a better creative outlet for him than bartending, a shift that helps explain why a cocktail-industry veteran is now the one plating THC-infused lasagna.
A Bigger Bet on Cannabis Cuisine
Esmeier is hoping Electric Lettuce becomes more than a one-off; he wants the dinners to inspire other weed dinners and pop-ups around the city, according to CityBeat, which also describes Cincinnati as having an active pop-up scene already primed for that kind of experimentation. Cannabis-forward dining is not new nationally — in Los Angeles, comparable events have ranged widely in price and format, according to The Independent. That report noted host Aaron Ziegler's six-course cannabis-infused dinners with wine pairings start at $130 per person, while Andrea Drummer's tray-passing events of weed-infused finger food start at $50 a head, and Chris Sayegh's private-villa cannabis menus in Malibu start at $500 per person.
Exactly what an Electric Lettuce ticket will cost, how many seats are available, or where in Cincinnati the Sept. 29 dinner will actually take place remains unclear — CityBeat's reporting confirms only that the location is undisclosed. An unrelated Eventbrite listing shows a separate cannabis-industry gathering, MedicateOH's Gardening Industry Night, also scheduled for Sept. 29 in Cincinnati, though nothing in the available reporting ties that event to Esmeier's dinner. For now, anyone hoping to snag a seat at Electric Lettuce will have to watch for word on where — and how — to get in.
