History

Power to the People...Menna's Joint!

In 1969, two old hippies (not ancient mind you but old by hippie standards) set out on a quest to be part of the history that is Woodstock. Sure, they were ancient then, but no less taken by the "summer of love" and all it held in that upstate New York farmer's field. Perhaps they learned a little more of what it held than they could have imagined, never realizing how those few days of music would change the course of their lives forever.

Enter Menna, a.k.a. "DUB MON" (see "Legend of Menna"), and the start of a friendship that could only have sprouted amid all that love and an overwhelming need to satisfy a munchie-driven generation. Life was not all fun and grooves for our two old hippies. Menna's heavy-handed wisdom pressed hard upon our two wayfarers until the pair could do nothing but spend the rest of their lies building Menna's Joints.

Years later, pulling from their vast knowledge of gastric satisfaction and realizing that the sweet days of Woodstock were far behind them, the codgers figured the next best thing to hungry rockers would be hungry college students! That's when they hatched a plan to bring Menna's Joints to the world of academia and, perhaps, even enjoy some intellectually stimulating conversation with a college coed or two along the way.

Their first homage to the great Menna opened in 2003 on the outskirts of the Michigan State University campus, on Hagadorn Road. It was a modest 1,400 square-foot space set in a strip mall near the westerly dorms. The ol' timers' instincts proved to be right-on as college students, like the hippies at Woodstock, endlessly streamed in to fill their empty bellies with the savory flavors of the "DUB."

A mere two years later, with the ever increasing popularity of the "DUB", the pair opened a second location on Albert Avenue in Downtown East Lansing, where Michigan State University students spend their evenings expanding their minds in ways they just can't do amid the sterile cinderblock walls of classrooms. Yes, our old hippies knew that after a long day of study and an even longer night of spirits, students would seek comfort food. At $6 a DUB, they found Obscenely Delicious and Wildly Addictive fare at a price coeds could afford. More than twice the size of the first store, the Albert Avenue store has since become the Menna's Joint flagship.

Something as delicious and affordable as the "DUB" would not, of course, go unnoticed by college students throughout Michigan. Before long, students across the state were taking to the streets and shouting from the rooftops, "DUB MON, DUB MON!"

Heeding the call, and a bit teary-eyed at the memories evoked from those same words years ago, the old hippies knew what they had to do. In 2006, they brought Menna's Joint to the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and then to Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant.

Still, the pair could not forget the other rockers who inspired them and put them on the road to success. They knew that those guys were now the politicians and world leaders of today who perhaps still claim to have smoked a joint but never inhaled. With that in mind, they opened a Menna's Joint "Elite" in downtown Lansing, only a Frisbee throw from the Capital Dome, complete with a groovy waterfall and two fireplaces. Through the place caters to their older brethren, the doors are always open to anyone, including the students at nearby Cooley Law School and Lansing Community College. That's because they knew that love is what started it all and drove them to bring the DUB Power to the People! Today Michigan. Tomorrow the world! Get Addicted!