Just joined the NYPC and attended the monthly meeting this past Tuesday night. A dinner at Florio's, a truly old-school Italian restaurant in Little Italy, was a welcome break from my usual fare of bachelor food and take-out; I did stuff myself a bit overfull on the lasagna though. Our reserved table was in the back of the restaurant, which wasn't at all crowded--not unusual for a frigid winter Tuesday. After the dinner we retired, through the speakeasy-style "secret entrance", to the upstairs smoking lounge to continue the conversation and light our pipes. And what pipes there were--Radicis, Dunhills, GBDs, Charatans, and many others I'd not yet had the chance to see and handle in person. Being a novice, all the members were very happy to show off their wares and expound on all things pipe and tobacco related; it was an education in itself to simply absorb all the wealth of information these guys had. The lounge itself was exactly what one would conjure up in the imagination--overstuffed leather furnishings, display cases full of knives and military models, every wall pastiched with NYPD, NYFD, Marines and other assorted memorabilia, a couple of well-staffed bookshelves, HD flatscreen TVs--in other words, the works. And though it was most decidedly a "man cave", there were a few ladies there as well, and one heck of a waitress. The other lounge members there, mainly enjoying their cigars, didn't seem to mind the nutters taking over the far corner and the fanatical gleams in our eyes as we paid homage to the briar. I even received my official NYPC decoder pin! Then samples were made of the prospective NYPC blends; 4 are in the works, and the blending and packaging will be handled by C&D. I partook of the VaPerO, not being much of a Latakia smoker, and found it to be pleasant and with a substantial dose of vitamin N. I had just received an order from CupOJoes, so was luckily able to toss in a tobacco to share that many of the members had not tried yet, some of the GL Pease Jack Knife Plug. The general consensus was that it was good but needed some alone time in the cellar; I found it to be on the heartiest end of my personal spectrum but quite complex in flavor and worth the commitment. I did not eat any, though it was a tempting brownie-cake of weed. The talk turned to old movies and television shows, Katy Perry's estimable...talents, and the sad state of affairs with NY tobacco legislation and the upcoming International Pipe Smoking Day, where members have been invited to light up at De La Concha here in the City. Bloomberg's appearance on the news drew appropriate expletives. More than a few laughs were had, glasses were raised, and a heady cloud of the most pungent melange hung about us the entire evening. It was good company well-met, and I'm looking forward to next month's grouping.
