Picture this: I love food. I love cigars. I love gin. You know what I don’t like? Exercise. Of any kind. However, I have friends that are more active in that way than I am and I acquiesced to their request to go hiking while on vacation in Arizona. The location we hiked (I attempted…
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A great cigar stop on your way into or out of Des Moines proper! Fight any hesitation and chat with the regulars – they are an amazing group of individuals and quite frankly many of the people who introduced me to cigars many moons ago. While these aficionados are close in friendship with one another,…
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Hidden away in a corner of the Galleria West Shopping Center in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, sits Prime Cigar Company. It is owned by the one and only Johnny Piette of Isabela Cigars. Prime Cigar Company has been in business for over 14 years, but there are changes coming. Johnny told me that…
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I have said before that the Midwest seems to be largely overlooked by the cigar industry. There are a few exceptions, like Up Down Cigar in Chicago or Safari Cigars in Omaha, NE. There are a few in St. Louis that seems to get some love, too. But by-in-large, most cigar shops throughout the Midwest…
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One of the great things about driving to the PCA Trade Show, was being able to stop at cigar lounges throughout my trip. When I got to Albuquerque, New Mexico, I wasn’t sure what I would find. Honestly, Albuquerque isn’t known for its cigar culture…but maybe it should be? Monte’s has been in Albuquerque since…
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Located in a neighborhood center in the DC Ranch area of North Scottsdale, Arizona, sits Cedar Room Fine Cigars & Lounge. Cedar Room is one of the nicest cigar lounges that I have visited. This should come as no surprise and Andy Sweis and his brother, owners of Cedar Room, watched their father own and…
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If you have even a passing familiarity with online cigar spaces, you’ve probably heard of r/cigars: the cigar-centric subreddit of the “front page of the internet.” It was there, early in my cigar journey, that I was introduced to Fox Cigars. There were so many posts by reddit users that featured purchases from Fox Cigars,…
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While in Las Vegas for the PCA 2021 Trade Show, I decided that I wanted to visit a cigar lounge before the show started. I arrived a day early and decided to see what Vegas had to offer. Instead of hitting up the usual suspects on the Vegas Strip, I decided to drive a few…
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Situated in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City stands Jeanie’s Smoke Shop. First owned by a non-smoking, God fearing, Mormon woman named Jeanie, this cigar shop has weathered the last 73yrs remarkably well. Of course, the shop has seen a lot of changes in that time. Not the least of which (excluding the current…
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Back in May, myself and a friend of the show (Randy Carmichael) took a trip to Charlotte, North Carolina to attend the inaugural Queen City Cigar Fest. Randy was told by Master Blender Nick Syris of LH Cigars, that we should check out a newer cigar lounge named The Vintage while we were in Charlotte. …
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