The Arizona-based restaurant chain Cheba Hut says it's bringing its marijuana-themed sandwiches -- including the Skunk, the Dank, and the Chronic -- to the Northeast, the Phoenix Business Journal reports.
Cheba Hut, whose name is derived from "cheeba," a slang term for weed, has been talking with a developer about expanding to New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont, the Journal reported Tuesday.
Company COO Matt Trethewey told The Huffington Post that talks were "progressing at a fairly good clip," adding that New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh would be among the cities where Cheba Hut will likely set up shop.
"We're focusing on college areas," Trethewey said over the phone Wednesday. "That's where the brand is the best fit."
Being near a lot of colleges is central to the weed-themed restaurant's ethos. Cheba Hut's founder, Scott Jennings, was a delivery driver at Arizona State University in the 1990s when he noticed that most of his late-night customers seemed to be "inhaling."
Jennings, who's now the company's CEO, "put two and two together" and decided to open a sub shop that delivered quality food to the campus, according to Cheba Hut's website.
As part of its appeal, the restaurant has tailored its menu to appeal to stoners. Cheba Hut's "toasted" subs come in three sizes: Nugs (4"), Pinners (8") and Blunts (12"), and the heroes are named after different kinds of high-grade marijuana, such as Silver Haze, Kush, and White Widow. (As a joke, the menu lists "Shwag" as "out of stock.")
Perhaps unfortunately for some, the restaurant's sandwiches don't actually contain any cannabis.
Since the opening of his first store in Tempe, Ariz., in 1998, Jennings' business has grown from more than just a pipe-dream. Cheba Hut now sells its "toasted" subs from fifteen locations in seven states, according to its website.
On top of that, last year Cheba Hut made about $10 million in sales, according to The Boston Herald. And from 2009 to 2010, the franchise's overall revenue leapt by nearly 30 percent , according to food-industry magazine QSR.
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