Long Island's legal cannabis market has a clear starting point, and it is a Route 110 storefront in East Farmingdale. Strain Stars opened at 1815 Broadhollow Road in July 2023 as Long Island's first legal recreational dispensary. The Long Island Press reported hundreds of people lining up in the heat for a grand opening with a DJ, food trucks and a ribbon cutting. Cannabis Science and Technology also covered the opening as the region's first. The store operates under CAURD license OCM-CAURD-23-000016, one of the earliest in the state.
Three years on, Strain Stars is no longer a single shop. It is a three-store operation with what local press called New York's largest recreational dispensary.
The Farmingdale original
The Farmingdale store sits on the Route 110 commercial corridor in East Farmingdale (Town of Babylon), north of Republic Airport. It is easy to reach from the Long Island Expressway, the Southern State and Route 109. Being first gave Strain Stars a long head start on name recognition across Nassau and western Suffolk.
The company describes itself as family-owned and minority-owned. State records list Yuvraj Singh as the Farmingdale license's primary contact, and North Forker identified Singh as CEO. By the time the Riverhead store opened, Riverhead Local reported, the company had sold more than $100 million in cannabis products since its Farmingdale debut.
The Riverhead megastore
The second location opened at 1871 Old Country Road (Route 58), at the corner of Kroemer Avenue in Riverhead. State records show it opened to the public on November 29, 2024, Black Friday, and a grand-opening celebration followed in early December. According to Riverhead Local and North Forker:
- The store spans 14,000 square feet, which outlets described as the largest recreational dispensary in New York State.
- It opened with roughly 1,200 distinct products, including flower, pre-rolls, edibles and beverages.
- The property had been vacant for almost 20 years before Strain Stars leased it.
- About 35 employees were hired, 28 of them Riverhead residents.
- It was the third licensed adult-use shop on the East End and the seventh on Long Island at the time.
The Riverhead store is licensed to Kaur Consulting LLC (OCM-RETL-24-000223). Riverhead Local quoted CFO Jasmin Kaur, a member of the founding family. For North Fork and Hamptons visitors, it is the most convenient stop before heading east on Route 58.
Crossing into Westchester
The third store is at 1200 Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains. State records show it opened at the end of October 2025 under a license held by RSSQ Holding LLC (OCM-RETL-24-000152). White Plains already had several licensed shops, including Leafology on Main Street, The Purple Owl on Mamaroneck Avenue, Cannabis Realm on Central Avenue and Star Life on Hall Avenue. Strain Stars has to compete there on selection and deals rather than first-mover status.
Selection, brands and loyalty
At the time of writing (October 2026), the Strain Stars website gives one shared schedule for all three stores: doors open at 9 a.m. six days a week and close at 9 p.m., with Sunday running 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Other details from the site:
- Categories: flower, pre-rolls, edibles, vapes, concentrates, topicals, tinctures and accessories
- Brands highlighted: Dank, Fernway, FIND, MFNY, Rythm, Select Briq and Stiiizy
- Fulfillment: pickup in one-hour windows, plus same-day Long Island delivery at no charge
- Loyalty: "Star Loyalty," a three-tier program the company says returns up to 5% cash back, with points and member promotions
Several of those brands are multistate names. Shoppers who want local farms may want to ask staff what's in stock from New York craft growers; our guide to New York-grown cannabis brands to know makes a good shopping list. A store this size also sells in every weight, so our explainer on grams, eighths, quarters and ounces is handy for bulk buyers.
Why being first mattered on Long Island
Strain Stars' head start was bigger than it sounds. When New York legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021, municipalities could opt out of hosting dispensaries, and much of Long Island did. That left a patchwork of towns where storefronts were allowed. East Farmingdale sits in the Town of Babylon, which permitted them. Riverhead's Town Board voted 3–2 against an opt-out law in 2021, which is why Route 58 could host a megastore. Riverhead Local noted that local sales tax revenue flows back to host communities, and North Forker reported that the Town of Babylon had collected $1.2 million in cannabis tax revenue as of August 2024.
For shoppers, those taxes show up at the register. Riverhead Local put the total at 13%: a 9% state excise tax plus 4% local. Strain Stars' menu prices are a starting point, not the final total.
How it compares with nearby Long Island shops
In Farmingdale, Strain Stars now has two licensed neighbors within a few minutes' drive. Happy Days on Route 109 opened at the end of 2023 and also offers free Long Island delivery. Planet Nugg, a Wellwood Avenue CAURD shop, followed in June 2024. In Riverhead, state data shows several more retail licenses issued for Old Country Road, Main Road and Ostrander Avenue addresses that were not yet operating in October 2026, so East End competition is likely to grow.
Strain Stars' advantage is scale: three stores, a statewide-record floor plan in Riverhead and one of the longest track records on the Island. If you prefer a smaller shop, its Farmingdale neighbors are worth comparing. We map the rest of the field in our roundup of Long Island's top dispensaries.
Which Strain Stars to choose
The three stores serve different shoppers. Farmingdale is the original and the most central for Nassau and western Suffolk; it's the easiest stop if you're on the Route 110 corridor or near Republic Airport. Riverhead is the destination store, built for browsing, and the logical stop for East End residents and anyone heading to the North Fork or the Hamptons. White Plains brings the brand to central Westchester, where it competes with a much denser cluster of licensed shops. All three share the same posted schedule, loyalty program and phone-ordering setup, so you can pick by geography.
Who it suits
- Deal hunters and frequent buyers who will use the cash-back loyalty tiers.
- Shoppers who want maximum choice in one trip, especially at Riverhead.
- Delivery customers anywhere on Long Island.
- East End visitors heading out on Route 58.
- Westchester shoppers who already use the loyalty program on Long Island and want the same points in White Plains.
Check current Long Island deals before a big order.