Nat Sherman – An Icon in Luxury Tobacco for 80 Years
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Kevin Godbee - Dec 5, 2009
- 3 min read
Nat Sherman is one of the most well-known luxury tobacconists in the world. They have had a retail store and smoking lounge in New York City for 80 years now.
They are famous for their own brands of all-natural cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco. As soon as you walk through the front door you will see nearly 100 pipes displayed, as well as over 15 exclusive pipe tobacco blends.
Here is an account of our visit to the store, including a video interview with Michael Holba, Retail Sales Manager.
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The store includes a richly appointed smoking lounge (The Johnson Club Room – membership required) with large screen TV, today’s newspapers and several magazines.
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The store is heavily-populated with extremely knowledgeable staff with every employee being an expert in all of the myriad tobacco products.
As a matter of fact, while visiting the store in November 2009, when I took out one of my pipes to smoke, Margery Dine, the Director of Retail Operations immediately said; “That’s a Nording Hunting Pipe”, and she was correct. It is more impressive when you realize that they do not stock this line, and that she is a young woman with this knowledge.
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I felt comfortable and at home right away. Michael Holba, the Retail Sales Manager, offered to let me sample the Tabac Sherman # 536 – Empire English blend. This English blend has a great smooth flavor. There is nothing added to it to create the mildly sweet and spicy flavor. It somewhat reminds me of Maltese Falcon, but a little lighter, kind of like “Maltese Falcon Lite” if there were such a thing. I acquired a 2 oz. bag and recommend you do the same. It was so good, I smoked it all weekend, and I am smoking it as I write this.
You can order it here. Tabac Sherman # 536 – Empire English
You can smoke throughout the entire store. There is an excellent air-purification system. Several of us were smoking and you would have barely noticed it had you walked in from outside.
While at the store, I also had the pleasure to meet Michele Sherman, the granddaughter of the late Nat Sherman, and daughter of President & CEO Joel Sherman. (See our interview with Joel Sherman here.) Not only is she pleasant, charming and attractive, but she smokes cigars and knows about tobacco having grown up in the business. Now that’s my kind of woman!
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Michele popped in for a surprise visit and had nothing to worry about. The store was buzzing with lots of customers all being attentively catered to. The Shermans appear to run a tight ship, and have a well-managed and trained staff. I met 6 different store employees during my 2-hour stay and they were all the epitome of professionalism and warm friendliness.
Michele’s brothers Larry and Bill are also involved in the business.
While many of our freedoms are sadly being stripped away, you can find solace in the fact that you can walk into Nat Sherman’s on 42nd Street and experience the same welcoming attention, gracefulness and knowledge of fine tobaccos that a customer in the 1930’s experienced.
You do not have to be an expert, experienced smoker either. The staff is extremely friendly and they love to take all the time needed to guide someone new into the splendid relaxing world of luxury tobacco. While you’re there, take time to relax and enjoy smoking in comfort just like thousands of patrons have for decades.
Note: If you’re a customer that hasn’t been there in a while, keep in mind that they have moved (in November 2007) around the corner onto 42nd St, just South of 5th Avenue (between 5th and Madison) at 12 East 42nd Street.
Nat Sherman has an interesting outgoing message when you dial their phone number. Press the AUDIO button below to hear it.
Link
Nat Sherman, Inc.
12 East 42nd Street at Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Ph: (800) 692-4427
Nat Sherman’s Listing in the Pipe Store Locator
NatSherman.com Website
Read Our Interview with Joel Sherman Here
See the Nat Sherman Photo Gallery with 80 Photos
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Written by Kevin Godbee
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A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. 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With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
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Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Simply outstanding video! A nice glimpse into a legendary tobacconist. A stop I hope to make if I ever make it out to NY. Keep the videos coming.
Great article and video!
I am insanely jealous that I wasn’t able to make it up there with you!
Keven,
Great video! I have been away on a mission for the past month and out of contact. It was a welcome event to see this new post when I got through all of my e-mails. I will be back in my shop getting ready for the holidays and hopefully picking up my pipe cabinet project and 3rd blog post on the building of a personal pipe cabinet. While I was away I purchase a new and additional wood lathe by “Laguna”. I will in the future be turning some custom tobacco containers from some of the worlds most beautiful woods. More on that later in my blog.
Tom Soles
Re: “Great article and video! I am insanely jealous that I wasn’t able to make it up there with you!”
Thanks Bob. There was two hours of shooting video and stills in the store, plus 8 hours of editing, but we really had a blast in NYC. And you aren’t the only one that is jealous they didn’t get to go. I caught shit from Laura for a week because she couldn’t go.
Thanks Tom! Glad you are back. I was wondering about you. Did you get approval for your hiatus?
Just kidding 😉
Welcome home. I am looking forward to your next installment. Do you have a video camera? Maybe we need to send Bob on an all expense paid trip to your house with his video camera?
All I can say is WOW! This video interview was outstanding. Thank you! It would be a crime to let NY tobacco laws bring a demise to such an established icon of New York. Don’t let it happen. Does it really take a population and culture of NY City to sustain a tobacconist establishment? At the same time tobacco is being outlawed the same people are pushing the marijuana agenda.
Thanks for letting me rant on. Keep up the exceptional work and again THANK YOU!
Thanks Wayne! It makes all worth the while to produce the video when it is so appreciated like this. Mike Holba did a great job too. We pretty much just popped in on him, clip on a mic and started shooting. He is a natural at it.
In the interview with Joel Sherman we talked more about the “Nazi-isms” of Michael Bloomberg and his anti agenda. It’s linked up above the map and here too:
https://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-manufacturer-retailer-spotlight/an-interview-with-joel-sherman-of-nat-sherman/
Thanks for providing us with a glimpse of an historic tobacconist that preserves the style, elegance and sophistication that was once a part of the culture.
Kevin, that’s a well done and interesting video. If only there were more Nat Sherman establishments around the country! Even though neither you nor Mike mentioned our pipes, thanks for including them in the foreground in the video. It was great to see our pipes in such a sophisticated establishment. It proves there is a place in every pipe smoker’s collection for a good looking, great smoking, 100% American made corncob pipe!
Oh Man! We should have mentioned the corncob pipes! It is pretty neat that they were right in front of us the whole time though.
Our man Bob did an event in the DC area this past weekend where he handed out free corncob pipes and free tobacco to new smokers. He got about 4 – 5 new guys started smoking pipes this weekend and the corncobs were instrumental in the endeavor.
I wish I could take credit for cleverly positioning the corncob pipes to be in the video, but to be honest, I think the truth is even better.
Where you see them is right where they were when we walked in the door. Nat Sherman keeps the Missouri Meerschaum Corncob Pipes prominently displayed on the front counter with the bulk tobaccos. I think that says a lot for their importance.
Here’s a picture too:
https://pipesmagazine.com/wp-content/gallery/nat-sherman-nyc/nat-sherman-nyc-035.jpg
Cobs are great and inexpensive pipes!
Every piper should have a few cobs in their collection!
It’s taken me a while to get around to watching the video but well done Kevin!! What a beautiful store!!
Fantastic. Thank you for taking us to such a wonderful place. So informative. I really like hearing how pipe smoking is growing to a new consumer. That is the future of our hobby. I like the comparison to music aficionados. Very cool.
The interview with Mike was also very upbeat, as opposed to the sort of downbeat interview with Mr. Sherman. I suppose that’s the difference in a salesman, and the man who has pay the bills. With all respect to Mr. Sherman.
ahh this was really cool and kudos to Kevin for the interview and the chance to see this place.. I’ve been in Manhattan a few times, but was not a pipe smoker at the time and was unaware of this place; my loss!
A wonderful look into the past, present and future of an icon in the tobacco world! I remember back in the 70’s receiving catalogs from Nat Sherman and reading them over and over. Even Nat’s catalogs are works of art as is his offerings of pipe blends and incredible cigars. Thanx for the awesome video and for taking the time to interview one of the finest tobacconists in the world!