THE NEW HIGH SOCIETY: NEW JERSEY
At private dinner parties along the Jersey Shore, chefs are turning cannabis into a fine-dining experience one infused dish at a time.
Strangers and friends gathered around the dimly lit dining room, trading names, blowing smoke, and speculating on the highs to come. They entered this Jersey Shore rancher as local artisans, alternative healers, and retired couples — and left bonded over a new kind of fine dining emerging from New Jersey’s underground.
The soft hum of conversation quieted as gourmet fish croquettes arrived, one of five courses. Guests dipped the crispy fried dough into a garlic-shallot sauce and spicy mayo, savoring the rush of succulent fish and herbs — and then, almost imperceptibly, another flavor began to bloom. Cannabis.
“It’s a journey that you go on,” said dinner guest Lesley Benanti. “She brings together so many different types of cooking and fuses it with a medicinal way of using THC. You don’t need high THC either — that isn’t the goal. Sometimes it’s simply just allowing you to take a deep breath and enjoy the moment.”
In the kitchen moments earlier, chef Louisa Rodriguez-Diaz, swaying to low-key reggae, drizzled cannabis-infused garlic and shallot emulsion over the croquettes, every drop glistening as it hit the plate and fused with sriracha mayo. If it isn’t cannabis tincture atop her dishes, weed is melted into the butter or oils cooking them.
Chef Louisa Rodriguez-Diaz cooks dinner for the guests at her weed-infused dinner party hosted through her business Karmalife Holistic Wellness at her home in Brick Township, N.J., on Oct. 11.
A new kind of high society
Weed dinner parties are an evolution of adult socializing — no longer confined to college dorms or private clubs. Relaxed settings, curated menus, and responsibly dosed marijuana are now the hallmark of New Jersey’s aboveboard cannabis culture.
People in the region have long been infusing weed into meals or sharing joints over dinner. What’s different now is the openness. Entrepreneurs are hosting cannabis-infused events across the state, allowing adults to “get high,” explore wellness, and connect with other “cannasseurs” without fear or stigma.
At Rodriguez-Diaz’s Durga’s Om Cooking in Brick Township, about 20 minutes from Point Pleasant Beach, she and Bush are refining what New Jersey’s weed dinners can become. Rodriguez-Diaz crafts the flavors and the high; Bush curates the vibe — a vital role when guests may soon feel a bit “out of body.”
“It’s a true sacred medicine, and I love to present it in the way it deserves,” she said.
While the night’s theme, “Terps and Tapas,” promised small gourmet plates and even nicer weed, the dinners aren’t designed for people to get obliterated. Rodriguez-Diaz caters to both seasoned consumers and newcomers. Her courses typically contain anywhere from 5 milligrams to 10 milligrams of THC, but can go higher, which is the standard adult dosage found in weed edibles at dispensaries.
“With cannabis, you kind of lose the sense of wanting to be in control, you want to relax,” Rodriguez-Diaz said. “And sometimes someone has to be the mom and say, ‘You know, if you haven’t smoked cannabis since you were 18, and you’re coming to a cannabis dinner, maybe today’s not the day you decide to smoke and eat cannabis?"
Still in the weeds of the law
Despite legalization, cannabis-infused dinners like Rodriguez-Diaz’s still operate in a gray zone. New Jersey’s 2021 law allows adults 21 and older to possess and consume marijuana, but commercial food service with cannabis remains unregulated — restaurants can’t legally sell infused dishes or serve weed on premises without a specific endorsement.
Because of that, most chefs host private, invite-only gatherings where guests pay for the experience rather than the cannabis itself, or bring their own. State officials have said social-consumption rules are coming, but years after legalization, the industry is still waiting for clear guidance
