smoke

Graduations, weddings, business meetings ... it's getting harder and harder to have a cigar at these types of events. We like to celebrate, but we can't do it the way we'd like, with a cigar in hand. The Mobile Cigar Lounge thus solves an interesting problem. You can smoke inside while still being outside your venue. The smoking experience can follow you, enhancing any event for lovers of the leaf.

The Mobile Cigar Lounge is enormous, large enough to accommodate substantial crowds. The lounge has been used for as few as four people and to augment events of more than 100,000. At any time, up to 20 guests can sit comfortably. And, yes, smoking is not only permitted but encouraged. Leather benches provide for comfort, and humidors line the walls. A flat-screen television provides entertainment. This self-powered, self-contained environment provides everything you need to make cigar-smoking part of your event.

For amateurs and seasoned veterans, the Mobile Cigar Lounge comes with a "cigarista" – think Starbucks barista with a bit more style, and cigars instead of coffee – to provide a bit of guidance to newbies and generally help the experience along.

The Mobile Cigar Lounge is the most interesting angle I've seen on the cigar business yet. It's the first luxury smoking environment that can follow you. If you're looking for a way to undermine your local smoking ban, this one's tough to beat.

Gallery: Mobile Cigar Lounge

You know the market's tough when cigar smokers talk about cutting back. The crisis is real when they actually do so. With the sale of boxes, humidors and high-end cigar accessories dropping (I have anecdotally) – not to mention a cigar tax increase that has moved quickly from specter to materialization – retailers are scrambling for ways to keep customers in their stores.

When I met with Don Pepin Garcia back in November to discuss his new release, My Father's Cigar, he mentioned the need to keep prices reasonable, citing long-term relationships with his customers as taking priority over short-term measures. But, it looks like this may not be enough – as evidenced by the "nub club."

Discount cigar retailer Famous Smoke Shop has put together a selection of six-cigar samplers, consisting of "nubs," and is pricing them favorably to keep cigar smokers engaged. This new program is intended to allow customers to try nubs without requiring them to shell out for full boxes. Each sampler has three pairs of cigars, each with different wrappers: Habano, Connecticut and Cameroon. Prices range from $27 to $34.50 per pack.

Promotions like this one drive home the fact that we're all in it together. The manufacturers and retailers don't want to see us curtail our smoking experiences or trade down to "lesser" cigars. They want us to smoke what we know we enjoy. At the same time, smokers realize that we have to do our part and continue to buy the sticks we like.

Cooperation is better than any bailout program.

[Photo by Steve Zak]

According to Gregory Mottola, of Cigar Aficionado, most of Chicago's cigar smoking takes place in local smoke shops. A smoking ban has whittled the field of options down, and there aren't any grandfathered establishments (as there, for example, in New York). Of course, lighting up on Michigan Avenue works for only part of the year, thanks to the city's brutal winters.

Mottola did find luck at Jack Schwartz Importer, a small shop on West Jackson Boulevard in the financial district. The store is small, but it does have a few chairs – for which there is considerable competition. Unfortunately, Jack Schwartz closes at 5 PM, leaving few options for an evening smoke.

When Mottola asks a store manager where people smoke after work, the reply was brutal and blunt: "They don't. This is pretty much it."

Iwan Ries, which also closes at 5 PM, has a 1,000 square-foot lounge on its second floor, with large windows that allow plenty of sunlight. Black leather chairs, televisions and wood floors adorn the lounge. Non-members have to pay a $10 fee (per day), and they, like members, are required to bring their own spirits. The store does not have lockers or personal humidors on site.

Shawn Carmody, of Phillipsburg, NJ, has made a habit of sending care packages to soldiers. Currently a police officer and owner of the Riverside Cigar Shoppe, he has been keeping New Jersey National Guard soldiers equipped with the accoutrements of tobacconic enjoyment. Thanks to Carmody, citizen-soldiers serving with C/102nd Cavalry have been receiving cigars, cutters and other related items from his store.

Carmody's friend, 1SG Tom Decker, is the top enlisted man in this unit (i.e. Charlie Company) and the benefactor's point of contact for the donations that ultimately wind up in the hands of many military personnel. This isn't Carmody's first care package ... that was a shipment of Tastykakes sent to Jimmy Polacari in Honduras in the late 1980s.

C/102nd Cav is expected to come home to Hackettstown, NJ in June, but Decker couldn't wait that long to express his thanks. So, he sent Carmody an American flag that had flown over Camp Syverson, Iraq – a substantial gesture that has no direct translation in the civilian world.

If you're inspired by Carmody's act of generosity, you can take action. Check out Cigars for Soldiers, an organization that has already sent more than 7,000 to U.S. military personnel overseas. (Many thanks to Don Pepin Garcia for his recent donation of five boxes.)

Even with two hurricanes ripping through the region, western Cuba is expected to produce one of its tobacco best crops in quite a while. The plants are ready for harvest in the Vuuelta Abajo section of the island, and barns are starting to fill with those that have already been plucked. Apparently, this year's take is oily, which should do something to make this year's batch flavorful (I hope).

The 2008 storms caused $10 billion in damage to the island nation, stretching the effects of the ongoing financial crisis. Approximately 5,000 curing barns were damaged (or destroyed), and the repairs are still not complete. Despite the fact that most of the harvest had occurred before the hurricanes reached Cuba, the crop remained secure, as Cuban officials acted quickly to move the tobacco to safer storage facilities. But, up to 2 million pounds of tobacco were lost, according to Habanos S.A.

[Via Reuters, photo by Ron Melendi]

In Prince George's County, at least, cigars aren't as evil as they used to be. County council member Samuel H. Dean introduced a bill that would soften existing restrictions on cigar sales. The language currently in force is considered to be the strictest in the country.

If you find yourself short a cigar in Prince George's County right now, you wouldn't be able to buy one. You could buy an entire box, but not a single cigar. Dean's bill would change this ludicrous practice. Also included in the measure are clauses that define cigar products as controlled dangerous substances.

The current law took effect last November and was intended to keep kids from using "hollowed-out cigars to smoke marijuana." Because kids are smoking blunts, the rest of us can't buy an Ashton VSG (which you'd be crazy to split and refill).

While we'd all love to believe that the new bill is an effort to right a wrong, the reality is that litigation is behind the measure. Several cigar retailers, a wholesaler and an "enthusiast" have sued Prince George's county for $20 million in compensatory and punitive damages. They claim that the cigar ban is unconstitutional.

[Via The Washington Post, photo by Steve Zak]

Cigar Aficionado has long had a policy about news and retailers: it doesn't happen. Well, times are tough, and it looks like those walls are coming down. The magazine doesn't have much of a choice, particularly after word has spread of between 25 and 30 layoffs (heard it from two confidential sources). So, what happens next? The publication dives headfirst into editorial prostitution.

The newly opened Cigar Inn -- on Second Avenue between E 54th Street and E 55th Street -- features a Cigar Aficionado-sponsored smoking lounge, with leather chairs, a working fireplace and even a barber's chair (of little use ot me, thanks to mother nature. You can get your sartorial needs taken care of at the Brioni counter.

So, it's hardly surprising that this establishment is popping up regularly on the once sacrosanct pages of the cigar community's "bible." The good news, however, is that you'll be able to get a sense (however brief) of what your other options are in New York.

Smoke detectors are a necessary, but sometimes unsightly, part of the home. As a general rule, you only notice them if there is an emergency or if the battery needs to be replaced, but if there is a way to make them even less visible, why not take it? The Modern Smoke Detector was developed to sit flush with the wall or ceiling, attracting minimal notice and, even when you look at it, what it is is not immediately obvious. It has not yet been released, but each detector should be about $129.

[via ATNY]

With gray smoked glass on the top and clear glass at the base of the legs, the Smoke Table lives up to its name because it does appear to float in mid-air. It is a low coffee table, only 15.75-in. off the ground, but that doesn't take away from the dramatic effect that it has on a room. This piece would look best in a fairly modern room, perhaps one without too much extraneous furniture, to maximise its visual impact. Price: $1,794.

Jack Spade has come out with a lovely little accessory in the form of this leather matchbook cover. While it is does not have the flashiest design, nor the largest, the cover is made from hand-tanned leather and has the foil-stamped word "fire" on the front, as well as the designer's name on the back. It comes with a book of Japanese matches and makes a great alternative to a bulky lighter for those who like to keep fire at their fingertips. Price: $10.