Founded by Army veteran and Cooper Union-trained artist Erik Pye, Sunflower has evolved from a folding-table glass operation into a licensed New York dispensary—without abandoning the culture that started it all.

Long before licensed dispensaries began appearing across New York City, Erik Pye was already building his place in the culture—one handblown piece at a time.

The U.S. Army veteran and Cooper Union-trained artist started by selling glass from a six-by-three-foot folding table near West 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. From there, he took his work on the road, living out of a van and vending on the “Shakedown Street” lots surrounding Grateful Dead-related shows, jam-band concerts and festivals from Bonnaroo to Riot Fest.

In 2012, that itinerant operation put down roots in Brooklyn as Sunflower Glass Company. What began as a small Bushwick head shop eventually grew to four locations, becoming part of the borough’s independent glass and smoke-shop landscape.

Now, Sunflower has entered its next era.

Pye and his wife and business partner, Leilani Pye-Soto, have opened Sunflower Cannabis Dispensary, a licensed adult-use retailer at 377 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg. The shop opened in late April 2026 and will celebrate its official grand opening on Friday, October 9, at 6PM.

“I’ve been part of this culture for almost twenty years, taking this from a humble six-by-three-foot table on 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, to a cute little head shop in Bushwick, to a full-fledged legal dispensary in Williamsburg,” Pye said. “To now be a part of legalization in NYC and serving this same community means the world to me.”

Art Was Always the Foundation

Sunflower’s evolution may appear improbable, but reinvention has long been central to Pye’s story.

Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Pye experienced homelessness as a teenager and did not complete high school. Art, he has said, became a means of survival. After joining the Army and serving at Fort Drum in New York, he attended community college in Syracuse before setting his sights on Cooper Union.

Pye was rejected the first time he applied. Undeterred, he applied again, completing an intensive portfolio examination that earned him admission and a full scholarship.

At Cooper Union, Pye worked across photography, painting, video and installation. His graduation exhibition explored New York’s queer nightlife and drag culture through thousands of photographs, dozens of hours of footage and large-scale paintings. Rather than defining himself through any one medium, he approached art as an evolving practice capable of documenting communities and bringing people together.

That multidisciplinary instinct carried into Sunflower Glass Company. Glass was never treated as an anonymous accessory; it was an art form tied to its makers, its history and the communities that gathered around it.

The new dispensary retains that identity. A full wall of handblown glass anchors the space, connecting Sunflower’s past as a neighborhood head shop with its future as a licensed retailer. Alongside the glasswork and accessories, the store carries lab-tested products grown and produced in New York.

For legacy-adjacent businesses, entering New York’s regulated marketplace has rarely been a simple matter. Licensing, compliance and the cost of opening a legal dispensary have created substantial barriers—even for operators with years of experience and established community relationships.

Sunflower’s transition offers a view of legalization from the perspective of an independent Brooklyn business that existed long before the current system did.

The dispensary operates under New York State Office of Cannabis Management adult-use retail license OCM-RETL-25-000441. Pye runs the business alongside Pye-Soto, who serves as both his partner and the store’s manager.

“I’m excited to help steer the store and watch it blossom from one of Brooklyn’s longtime glass shops into a beautiful dispensary,” Pye-Soto said.

Her description captures what makes Sunflower’s opening significant. This is not an outside company arriving in Williamsburg to capitalize on a newly legal industry. It is an existing Brooklyn business adapting to legalization while trying to preserve the art, relationships and personality that sustained it for more than a decade.

In a marketplace increasingly shaped by polished branding and well-funded entrants, Sunflower’s history gives the store something that cannot be manufactured overnight: a direct connection to the people and subcultures that kept New York’s cannabis community alive before licenses were available.

Still Following Where the Art Leads

A 2005 profile of Pye, published shortly after his graduation from Cooper Union, described an artist committed to constant transformation. At the time, he said he wanted to keep changing, evolving and following wherever art took him.

That path has now led from art school and New York nightlife to folding tables, festival lots, a van, a neighborhood glass shop and, finally, a licensed dispensary in Williamsburg.

Yet Sunflower does not feel like a rejection of any of those earlier chapters. The store brings them together: Pye’s eye as an artist, his years as a traveling vendor, the community built through Sunflower Glass and the possibilities—and complications—of New York’s legal market.

On October 9, Sunflower will formally celebrate that journey with its Brooklyn community. For Pye and Pye-Soto, the grand opening marks more than the arrival of another dispensary. It is the latest reinvention of a business that has been growing alongside New York culture since 2012.

Sunflower has changed its form. Its roots remain intact.

Sunflower Cannabis Dispensary
377 Metropolitan Avenue
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Grand Opening: Friday, October 9, 2026 at 6PM
Regular Hours: 10AM–12AM daily