Funny Story About A Cigar Bar

Scratch that place off your list. We hold our pipe club meetings in a cigar bar and the people there could not be nicer or more supportive of our patronage. Sometimes its not easy being us.

It would have very hard for me to keep my mouth shut and my cool. As soon as they said no pipes, I'd left.

Let people be who they want to be. Then, find the people you want to hang out with.
I prefer to obvious knuckleheads, it saves me time.

Pure Michigan...

As a kid my family always used to vacation in the Traverse City/Leland area, and it's truly a beautiful place. Still, too bad some knuckle heads have to mess things up with their "expert" knowledge.

Sounds like a pretty unfriendly place. I would have left at "that cigar isnt expensive enough to smoke in here"

Sounds like that place has no chill. A park bench and your own company would be preferable, I'd think.

As a rule with some exceptions pipe smoke smells far more pleasant than cigar smoke.I don't understand why their license would stipulate cigars only.

Their website has rules for using the cigar bar. No smoking of anything not purchased from them is the main one.

The related tobacconist even sells pipes and tobacco.

I grew up there. After college, I moved back there for several years. I intend to retire there. I'll always love Traverse City.
That said, Nolan's has always sucked. The myopic owner is a moronic blowhard and the douchebags who worked there always looked down their noses at me if I bought anything except cigars, despite that my contribution to their revenue could have probably put one of their kids through college.
It doesn't surprise me to find this story. I'll never set foot in that sad excuse of a tobacco retailer again and I recommend any sane person of taste to avoid the place. (If there was an emoticon with a middle finger, here it would be.)
:evil:

I don't know. I can see having a rule that you have to buy what you smoke there. Especially if you are an unknown face.
I imagine regulars know this and it's ok with them.

Hi All,
I’m Andy. I manage Nolan’s, along with another fellow named Ben. Mike Nolan owns the place. I’d like to clear up a few things regarding our Michigan smoking ban, called the Dr. Ron Davis Smoke-Free Air Law of 2009.
There are two types of exemptions – one for Cigar Bars, and one for Tobacco Retail Shops. The latter allows cigarette, pipe and hookah smoking, and forbids the consumption of any food or beverage, including bottled water or coffee. The Cigar Bar exemption allows the sale of food and beverage while “premium” cigars are smoked. The definition of a “premium” cigar according to the State of Michigan is simply that it costs more than $1.
These exemptions happened for one reason – Mike Nolan assembled his retailer friends around the state, who all spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars lobbying in Lansing for an exemption that allowed them to continue to do business in the State of Michigan. No one has put more effort into your right to smoke in public than Mike Nolan.
The reason for no pipe smoking in cigar bars, and for defining premium cigars at a $1 price point, is beyond us. These decisions were made by legislators at the 11th hour, without input from our organization. If we had our way, you would be smoking a pipe in our cigar bar. Allowing pipe smoking in our bar could result in the loss of our liquor license, our smoking exemption, and even our sales tax license. 37 years of hard work would be down the drain.
On behalf of whichever customer called you a dumbass, I apologize. This is not the norm in our bar, and we try to maintain a respectful attitude among our customers when possible. Sometimes drunk people are assholes.
If anyone has further questions about this convoluted law, I’m happy to attempt to answer them.

Well, Didi, at least you know the clientele is top-notch!

Any place that goes through so much to keep the riff raff like us out... this is a place I would love to frequent

Wow, sounds like you guys have your challenges in dealing with Michigan's tobacco laws.

That said, Nolan's has always sucked. The myopic owner is a moronic blowhard and the douchebags who worked there always looked down their noses at me if I bought anything except cigars, despite that my contribution to their revenue could have probably put one of their kids through college

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Stop sugar-coating it Ophiuchus, and tell us how you really feel! :wink:

The definition of a “premium” cigar according to the State of Michigan is simply that it costs more than $1.

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Maybe your cigar was literally too cheap to smoke there?

The law in Michigan is clear, if you are licensed as a cigar bar pipe smoking is strictly prohibited. It sucks.
Doc

Stop sugar-coating it Ophiuchus, and tell us how you really feel!

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My own brand of blowhardedness duly noted. :wink:
Andy:
Your civilized, informative response to this thread is appreciated and welcome, deserving of more measured comment. The difficulties faced by your cigar bar and tobacco shop in the wake of the 2009 passing of the Michigan Smoke-Free Air Law is acknowledged, as I learned while researching the mechanics of this legislation when some friends and I were speculating on future business possibilities in my former (and future) home state. Though bad feelings remain from my past experiences from the tobacconist space of your operation (admittedly from many years ago), as a tobacco enthusiast of nearly four decades I wish you continued success in your business.
I also regret one of the words I used describing your boss. In retrospect, there is nothing “moronic” about Mike (I was not going to call him out by name in this rough-and-tumble public forum), and his efforts to combat the original intent of this legislation should be commended.
My earlier comments had more to do with the tobacco shop. I bought many, many cigars, more often than not by the fistful, sometimes the boxful, for many fishing trips to share with friends for years from Nolan’s back in the ‘90s. However, more frequently I stopped by the shop to buy Export “A”s and Natural American Spirits, when Nolan’s was the only place in town to get these, and despite my considerable cigar patronage, I was met with the hairy eyeballs, sighs, and unfriendly apathy of the two or three guys alternating behind the register; on one occasion Mike himself, in one of his irascible moments, complained to me for several minutes about how cigarettes didn’t support his business. No one there seemed to know much about pipe tobacco, and made it clear they cared less.
I wondered why Nolan’s didn’t just narrow their scope of business exclusively to cigars.
I endured this for six or seven years because I also liked my cigars. The “I’ve had it with them” moment came when one day I asked for a couple ounces of some bulk, and the kid behind the register (who was younger than me, mind you), without even getting off his butt, snarked, “Does your Mom know you smoke a pipe?” After an explosive rant (yes, I have my irascible moments, too), I stormed out and didn’t return.
Though I blame Nolan’s for my switching to Marlboros for a time until R.J. Reynolds put American Spirits into wider distribution**, I guess I should credit Nolan’s for my subsequent acquaintance to codger blends I could pick up by the tub at Meijer.
I allow that it’s possible that folks working in your business are better informed now, I hope that they're more empathetic with non-cigar customers than they have been in the past, and Nolan’s significance to the culture of downtown Traverse City can’t be denied. I hope my elaboration will explain the off-the-cuff hostility of my previous post and my reluctance to visit you again when I return to the north. Good luck to you folks, sir.
(** For anyone else who may have bothered reading this post, I haven’t bought factory made cigarettes since 2010.)