With the opening of The Reef, Seaside now has three dispensaries—and three more are coming.

Stepping inside The Reef, a new pot dispensary that opened Nov. 28 at 1900 Fremont Blvd. in Seaside, it's hard to imagine that nine months ago it was The Shadow Box, a dive bar that occupied the space for more than five decades. 

Where there were once shadows, now there is light—The Reef owners Cary and Jana Stiebel have transformed the space and opened it up and let the light shine in.

And where there were once liquor bottles behind the bar, now there are shelves of bongs.

"It’s such a relief," co-owner Cary Stiebel says of finally getting the business open.

Stiebel says that he's probably eaten at the nearby Noodle Bar—just a few doors down—everyday for the last few months, and twice on some days. 

"It was a very, very tremendous amount of effort to make that building into something that is presentable for the city," he says, adding that he and his team often took "the higher path" when deciding on whether to make certain improvements to the property. 

The opening marks the third dispensary to set up shop in Seaside this year, after City Council, in December 2017, surprisingly voted to extend permits to six dispensary operations, when the city staff recommendation, and the previous meetings contemplated only three. (The other two are Higher Level of Care at 1440 Canyon Del Rey Blvd., and Sugar Leaf at 840 Broadway Ave., which both opened in June.)

That means there are still three in the works: Rare Earth, at 575 Broadway Ave., Plantacea, at 1717 Fremont Blvd., and Urbn Leaf at 680 Broadway Ave. 

Seaside Community Development Director Gloria Stearns says all three are in various stages of construction, and that it takes some work to retrofit some of Seaside's buildings to bring them up to current standards, like ADA. 

"It’s making Seaside better one step at a time," she says. 

Stearns is hopeful the others will open in the next few months.