At a glance
Curio Wellness is a family-owned cannabis company rooted in Maryland. The company develops and manufactures cannabis products and owns and operates the Far & Dotter dispensary business; Curio itself is a product brand, not the name of a dispensary. Its official site currently lists product availability through licensed retailers in Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey and New York. That combination of manufacturing, brand partnerships and retail makes Curio more vertically connected than a single-category flower or edible label.
Founding and the Bronfein family
Michael Bronfein and his daughter Wendy Bronfein co-founded Curio in 2014. Michael brought experience building health-care businesses, including the long-term-care pharmacy company NeighborCare. Wendy brought a background in television, media, brand strategy and public policy. Curio’s current leadership page identifies Wendy as co-founder and Chief Brand Officer and Brad Friedlander as Acting Chief Executive Officer; Michael is listed as co-founder rather than current CEO. The broader leadership team spans finance, strategy, legal, people, retail, operations, cultivation and technology.
What Curio makes
The current catalog stretches well beyond flower. Curio’s site organizes products across flower, pre-rolls, vape cartridges, chews, tablets, elixirs, topicals, tinctures and chocolates. The Best Self Collection groups products into named ranges such as Thrive, Chill, Good Night, Move, OH, GI and Exclusive premium flower. Those names are the company’s merchandising architecture, not guarantees about an individual consumer’s experience. Product formats, cannabinoid content and availability vary by state and licensed retailer.
Brand partnerships
Curio also manufactures or distributes licensed partner lines in its operating markets. Its current catalog names Dixie, Flower by Edie Parker, Happy Eddie, Kaviar, Ozone, Smokiez, Super Fog and Viola alongside the Curio house brand. This matters because shoppers may encounter Curio’s manufacturing work under a partner label rather than the Curio name. The company’s portfolio and licensing relationships can change by jurisdiction, so the live product locator is the best source for what is actually available nearby.
Facilities and production
Curio says it grows, refines and packages products in its own facilities. Its public materials describe buildings designed and constructed around FDA and current Good Manufacturing Practice guidelines, with carbon-dioxide extraction equipment, dedicated clean rooms and in-house analytical laboratories. That wording describes Curio’s stated facility design and process controls; it should not be confused with FDA approval of cannabis products. State-required testing and labeling remain the governing consumer safeguards in each regulated market.
Far & Dotter retail
Far & Dotter is Curio’s retail arm and was formerly branded Curio Dispensary. Its stores carry Curio products as well as other licensed cannabis brands. Curio has also used the Far & Dotter name for franchise expansion. The company’s news archive documents additional locations and market development, while its store and product locators provide the most current retail picture. This page does not treat every store announcement as a permanently operating location without a current locator confirmation.
Expansion and notable developments
Recent company announcements show a deliberate move beyond Maryland. Curio has publicized Missouri cultivation and manufacturing expansion, a proposed acquisition of Missouri dispensaries, a New York manufacturing and distribution partnership with Vireo Growth, and additional Far & Dotter retail development. In June 2025 the company introduced a refreshed “Made for Well Beings” identity. These are company-reported milestones; transaction announcements and operating launches are distinguished because an announced agreement is not automatically the same as a completed acquisition.
Recognition and public leadership
Wendy Bronfein’s official biography lists several leadership honors, including a 2024 Empowering Women Award, a 2023 Women to Watch recognition, a 2022 Cannabis Leadership Award, Baltimore Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 and Marijuana Venture’s 2017 Women to Watch. These are recognitions of a co-founder’s industry and civic leadership, not product-medal claims. Curio’s public-policy involvement includes Wendy’s service on Maryland’s Cannabis Advisory Panel and industry and nonprofit boards.
How to read this profile
Curio’s first-party pages are the primary sources for its leadership, catalog, facilities and footprint; an independent Daily Record profile supports the 2014 founding history. Company language about quality, wellness or product purpose is presented as positioning, not medical proof. No therapeutic result, potency outcome or consumption instruction is implied here. Cannabis products are restricted to adults 21 and older where legally permitted, and medical access rules differ by state.