XENA sits on Bergen Avenue in McGinley Square on Jersey City’s West Side. Founder Haytham Elgawly ran a smoke shop called The Clearport out of the same storefront for six years before pivoting to legal cannabis, briefly branded the dispensary Medusa, and finally rebuilt as XENA after a three-year buildout that included winning a lawsuit brought by nearby Saint Peter’s University.
The Cannabis Regulatory Commission approved XENA’s consumption lounge on June 18, 2026, making it Jersey City’s first legal cannabis lounge. The space itself is intentionally theatrical: the dispensary is Greek-themed with a bud bar and terpenes guide upstairs, and a light-up staircase leads down to a basement lounge sized for about 50 guests, wired with a $250,000 ventilation system to handle smoke, and set with banquet-style seating built for tableside cannabis and apparatus service.
New Jersey rules keep food off the menu, but XENA lets guests order in from nearby restaurants and consume any cannabis product purchased same-day upstairs. Programming includes Happy Hour, brand showcases, and event nights; sessions may be capped at 60–90 minutes when the lounge is busy.