RISE Mundelein was Green Thumb Industries’ first medical dispensary in Illinois, opened in 2015. Adult-use sales were added in 2020, and on April 20, 2022 GTI opened RISE Lounge & Smokeasy next to the retail floor — Illinois’ first cannabis consumption lounge and, at the time, the only one east of the Mississippi. Eighteen local businesses had written the village board opposing the license; the board approved it anyway.
The room is designed by Chicago interior designer Sasha Adler — jungle-green, moody, decidedly restaurant-not-headshop. Service is tableside: a lounge budtender walks first-timers through the state’s per-session rules, offers a library of pipes and vaporizers to try before you buy, and starts the required 30-minute cool-down before drivers leave. The regular program is bar-adjacent — bingo nights, painting classes, standup comedy, live music — and every September the venue hosts Miracle in Mundelein, one of the first legal consumption music festivals in the country.
The location matters. Mundelein sits about 35 miles north of downtown Chicago and 23 miles from the Wisconsin border, and Metra’s North Central Service runs directly to it — so the ridership is genuinely Chicagoland even though Chicago itself hasn’t approved on-site consumption. Reservations aren’t required for a walk-in lounge visit but are encouraged for events; drop-ins fill the tables around bingo nights.