Best Budz Cannabis Co. is a small, family-owned adult-use dispensary at 146 Virginia Street in Buffalo's Allentown, the historic district wedged between downtown and the Elmwood Village. State records show its retail license (OCM-RETL-25-000290) was issued in February 2025 and the doors opened to the public on April 25, 2025. Its pitch, repeated across its website and tourism listings, is simple: good flower, patient education, and hours that run later than most of the neighborhood.
Late nights on Virginia Street
The most practical thing to know about Best Budz is the clock. According to its website, the shop is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and stays open until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with a shorter Sunday that ends at 6 p.m. (The state's license record lists an 11 a.m. weekday start and a noon Sunday open, so call ahead if you are planning an early or Sunday run.) The Buffalo Cannabis Network singles it out as one of the later-closing dispensaries in Western New York on weekends, which matters in a neighborhood known for bars, music venues and the late-night crowd along Allen Street.
Allentown closing times, side by side
Late hours are Best Budz's calling card, but it is not alone in Allentown. Using the hours each store has filed with the state (October 2026), here is how the neighborhood's licensed counters stack up on a Saturday night:
- The BonTemps Firm, at 232 Allen Street, files the latest schedule in the area: 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday through Sunday, and 4 to 11 p.m. on weeknights.
- Best Budz closes at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and is open earlier on weekdays than BonTemps.
- Green Tongue, the microbusiness at 69 Allen Street, runs 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and is closed Sundays.
- Mammoth Cannabis, at 212 Ohio Street, closes at 9 p.m. most days.
In practice, Best Budz is the stronger pick for a daytime or early-evening errand on a weekday, while a post-midnight run on a weekend points to BonTemps. Hours change, so confirm before you head out.
Filling the downtown gap
For two and a half years, the default licensed stop for downtown Buffalo was Dank on Main Street, the region's first CAURD store. When Dank closed in January 2026, the Theater District lost its walk-in option, and shops on the edge of downtown picked up more of that traffic. Best Budz is one of the licensed counters closest to the downtown core and the medical campus, which makes it a practical choice for people who live or work in the city center. The nearest Metro Rail stop for Allentown is the Allen/Medical Campus station on Main Street.
The license type is also worth knowing. Best Budz holds a standard adult-use retail license (the RETL prefix), not a conditional CAURD license, so it came through the state's general application round rather than the early justice-involved program that produced Dank. Both kinds of licenses carry the same testing, labeling and ID rules for shoppers.
What the menu covers
Best Budz describes its shelves as premium flower from New York cultivators, backed by pre-rolls, concentrates such as live resin and wax, vape cartridges and disposables, edibles and beverages, tinctures, topicals and CBD products. Its homepage has highlighted a California Honey live resin cartridge as a featured item. Weedmaps showed more than a thousand products listed at the time of writing (October 2026), including infused pre-rolls and wellness items, which is a deeper catalog than the shop's boutique size might suggest.
One small detail stands out in its reviews: the owner has pointed shoppers toward CBD products for pets, and a reviewer mentioned appreciating that option. If you are shopping flower here, our primer on why a higher THC percentage isn't always better and our guide to reading a New York dispensary label help you compare jars beyond the potency number.
Pet CBD and other wellness items are a niche that many adult-use counters skip entirely, so if that is on your list, call ahead to confirm what is in stock and ask staff to walk you through the label. Anything containing THC stays with adults 21 and over and should be stored well out of reach of children and animals.
Reading a flower jar like a regular
A shop that leads with flower rewards a little homework at the counter. New York labels list the cultivator and processor, total THC and CBD, and a packaging or test date, so you can compare two eighths on more than potency alone. Ask which jars arrived most recently, whether a strain is indoor or sun-grown, and what the dominant terpenes are; a knowledgeable budtender should be able to answer all three. During Allentown's busy weekends, including the Allentown Art Festival each June, it is worth ordering online for pickup so you are not waiting behind a line of browsers.
Family-owned, education-forward
The shop calls itself family-owned and community-focused, and its Visit Buffalo listing stresses an approach that works for first-time buyers as well as regulars. Shoppers can reserve products on the website and collect them at the counter. Best Budz does not advertise delivery, so plan on picking up in person; Weedmaps lists an on-site ATM and cashless payment as amenities.
Early reviews
Public review volume is still modest. Weedmaps showed a 4.6-star average from fewer than ten ratings in October 2026, with written comments centered on staff who are kind and knowledgeable and an owner who is welcoming to newcomers. There are not yet enough reviews to draw firm conclusions about pricing or consistency, so check the live menu before you commit to a bigger purchase.
Allentown neighbors and alternatives
Virginia Street runs through the residential side of Allentown, a few blocks from the Allen Street strip and within easy reach of downtown and Elmwood Avenue. Several licensed shops are close by, which makes comparison easy:
- Green Tongue, a state-licensed microbusiness storefront at 69 Allen Street, is a short walk away.
- Canterra, at 451 Elmwood Avenue, started as Western New York's first licensed delivery service and still delivers across Buffalo if you would rather not make the trip.
- The Joint, farther up Elmwood at 904, is a women-owned shop with curbside pickup.
Our citywide ranking, Best Dispensaries in Buffalo Right Now, puts Best Budz alongside the rest of Buffalo's licensed stores.
Who should shop here
Best Budz suits Allentown and downtown residents who want a nearby licensed option, flower shoppers who like to talk through what is in stock, and anyone who needs a store open after 9 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday. It is less suited to people who want delivery or a huge showroom. Weekly specials across Western New York are collected on High Today's deals page; Best Budz posts its own menu and hours on its official site.