Cigar Shops and Pipe Smokers

[mso489]

Up-market cigars became a big trend a decade or three ago and have become a steady revenue stream for small cigar shop owners and chains. Usually, the cigar shops include a walk-in humidor and a lounge smoking area. From time to time, Forums members have mentioned not being welcome to smoke a pipe in these places. Many cigar shops consider buying a premium cigar for ten to umpteen bucks the cost of admission, and don't want pipe smokers pulling out their pipes and tobacco pouches. Besides which, they don't want cigar smokers to discover that a tin of premium tobacco provides about twenty smokes and costs about as much as one of the less expensive premium cigars. It's the way people are discouraged from bringing their own snacks to the movies, in light of the fact that the snack bar at the movies is their main source of profit. Have you found any pipe friendly cigar shops? Grand old pipe and cigar shops like the now-closed Nat Sherman in Manhattan and Iwan Ries in Chicago welcome(d) both, but they are the exceptions, I believe.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Up-market cigars became a big trend a decade or three ago and have become a steady revenue stream for small cigar shop owners and chains. Usually, the cigar shops include a walk-in humidor and a lounge smoking area. From time to time, Forums members have mentioned not being welcome to smoke a pipe in these places. Many cigar shops consider buying a premium cigar for ten to umpteen bucks the cost of admission, and don't want pipe smokers pulling out their pipes and tobacco pouches. Besides which, they don't want cigar smokers to discover that a tin of premium tobacco provides about twenty smokes and costs about as much as one of the less expensive premium cigars. It's the way people are discouraged from bringing their own snacks to the movies, in light of the fact that the snack bar at the movies is their main source of profit. Have you found any pipe friendly cigar shops? Grand old pipe and cigar shops like the now-closed Nat Sherman in Manhattan and Iwan Ries in Chicago welcome(d) both, but they are the exceptions, I believe.

I don’t want to smoke there anyway

 

[pauls456]

In Tucson AZ, the local cigar lounge owners have been welcoming to have me as a visiting pipe smoker. As a general rule I put a ten dollar bill in their tip jar, because I don't want to spoil things for myself or other pipe smokers.

 

[kcghost]

Always buy something when you come in the store. Too often guys think of these stores as meeting places that they don't have to spend money in.

 

[LotusEater]

I’m welcome to smoke my pipes at the two cigar shops closest to me - Outlaw Cigar and Ash Cigar Lounge. I’ve never actually smoked in either place though because, well… because I don’t want too. Not my scene.
The staff at both places but especially the guys at Outlaw are very accommodating. I go in often and buy a tin here and there, some pipe cleaners, or sometimes a cigar or two. Actually they usually get a few tins of limited release offerings when they come out although they charge a premium.

 

[mso489]

I think Iwan Ries does well with their pipe and cigar lounge, though it costs the customers. Nat Sherman welcomed both, and they went out of business, but I think that had to do with the pandemic closing down foot traffic on 45th Street in NYC. Purely in terms of managing retail outlets, it may be that too few hires understand both worlds and couldn't talk both pipes and cigars. I know a certain amount about pipes, very little about cigars. Although I think many hires know little about either until they educate themselves out of interest in the subject (if they do).

 

[Jaylotw]

I've never really wanted to hang out at my closest cigar shop. The staff are great, and although the tobacco selection is small it's well curated, and the owners have suggested that I can have a seat and pop the tin I just bought, enjoy a smoke and watch some football. But sitting down with those dudes who hang there is just not something that appeals to me. They fart, a lot, for one thing, and are generally crass and uninviting. Maybe it's just the times I go.

In Asheville, NC, I had some time to kill and found a cigar shop with a small selection of tins. I bought a few and lounged with the owner and another fella smoking a pipe, and that was more my speed. We talked fishing and they asked me about the steelhead run in Ohio.

 

[5star]

When visiting cigar lounges (rare under current circumstances) I always bring 1 or 2 of my own properly-rested-in-my-humidor cigars. But I also buy a cigar or two from the proprietor. I ask beforehand if this is acceptable & have never had it be an issue. If I brought a pipe, I would do the same - buy a premium cigar or two after asking these same questions first.

 

[daveinlax]

I work at a pipe shop with a lounge and we welcome both our pipe and cigar customers. No shop wants freeloaders taking up space.

 

[Servant King]

I've never really wanted to hang out at my closest cigar shop. The staff are great, and although the tobacco selection is small it's well curated, and the owners have suggested that I can have a seat and pop the tin I just bought, enjoy a smoke and watch some football. But sitting down with those dudes who hang there is just not something that appeals to me. They fart, a lot, for one thing, and are generally crass and uninviting. Maybe it's just the times I go.

In Asheville, NC, I had some time to kill and found a cigar shop with a small selection of tins. I bought a few and lounged with the owner and another fella smoking a pipe, and that was more my speed. We talked fishing and they asked me about the steelhead run in Ohio.

Tip: if you farted more, their farting would seem rather diminutive by comparison. It's a little like fat guys who hang out with guys fatter than they are, just to seem thin. As for what to consume to increase your flatulence, you're on your own there, buddy.

 

[weezell]

As for what to consume to increase your flatulence, you're on your own there, buddy.

Hard boiled eggs with a dash of hot sauce and a Pabst Blue Ribbon will do it EVERY time... ? ? ?

 

[Country Bladesmith]

There’s a shop near me that sells pipes, pipe tobacco, and cigars. The owner is a pipe guy. I’ve seen patrons smoking both in the lounge area of the store.
But generally most tobacco stores that have a lounge seem to be cigar-oriented.

 

[mso489]

As with many social settings, company in any cigar/pipe lounge is problematical. Sometimes you catch some good conversation that is reciprocal and interesting, but often there are one or two people who want to hold forth and want an audience to passively listen. If they are raconteurs, that can be worthwhile, but if they are opinionated and arrogant, it makes you want to move along. I think some people just keep talking as a defensive measure to keep others from speaking and in some way seeming to offend them, whether they are or not. Ah humanity. But if you run up on interesting folks who can share the time and sometimes enjoy a silence, that's a fine moment.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Yep.

Schwab's Pipes N Stuff

 

[ssjones]

A cigar lounge isn't different from restaurants/bars, etc. Join in conversation if you want or don't. When I traveled for work, I was in most of the cigar lounge in the mid-Atlantic enough that they remembered my name. I was never treated rudely, etc. Most cigar smokers treated me as a curiosity. I typically had my branded restaurant shirt on, so they were usually more curious about my job.

I met some memorable folks in 19 years of traveling regularly, and miss getting to those lounges. I met and enjoyed many pipes with John Wayne's stunt double in NY (sadly, that bar moved across the street, and lost their smoking privilege). I also met many of our forum members for pipe club meetings, etc.

As KCghost recommended - ALWAYS buy something. I'd pick up pipe tobacco of course, or $20 worth of cigars for my son-in-law. I never had an issue in a shop following that practice.

 

[pappymac]

Always buy something when you come in the store. Too often guys think of these stores as meeting places that they don't have to spend money in.

I agree with this.
When the NOLA Pipe Club was having meetings pre-pandemic, just about everyone made a purchase of at least a tin of tobacco. I can't remember too many times when at least one new pipe was bought at each meeting.

It was mutually beneficial because they would provide an occasional new blend to the club for sampling at the meeting.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

When my pipe club separated from The Briary for a year (Skip just got tired of staying in his shop till 9-10 at night waiting on us to finish up gabbing), we asked a few cigar shops if we could meet there. They were all cool with it, as long as we all bought cigars. What freaking lover of tobacco can't enjoy a good cigar occasionally, right? In talking to them, they had this notion that all pipe tobacco was like a goopy aromatic. I assured the cigar shop guy that we didn't have any women in the group, but I found his notion about pipe tobacco interesting. It's funny when people "assume" or "stereotype" like that, ha ha. I hate it.

But, I've never had a problem smoking my pipes in a cigar lounge. I just buy a fistful of sticks, sometimes opting to smoke the cigar over my pipes anyways.

But, I think that the reason most cigar shops would tell people that they don't allow pipes is because pipesmokers are notoriously penny pinchers. Just look at the majority of posts here about the price of the cheapest tobaccos out there, pipe tobacco, or when someone posts about a Dunhill, people go off on costs of a pipe that just cost a mere few hundred.
Also, another factor may be men choosing to smoke an aromatic inside with the cigar guys, because this seems to be cigar guys' notions... and I can tell you from going to pipe shows and trying to enjoy a straight Virginia or cigar blend with a group of three or more smokers smoking a freaking cherry aromatic in my vicinity. It's awful. It taints my own smoke. And, that cherry smell sticks to my clothes. I can imagine that an aromatic smoked close to a guy smoking a heavenly $20 cigar is obnoxious as hell.

Now, I'm not against aromatic smokers. I will always stick up for the fairer sex, the weaker of the species. I vow to knock the shit out of anyone who picks on an aro smoker. But, come on. Don't smoke that stuff around other smokers.

Skip eventually begged us to come back to the Briary, plus we kept getting into bar brawls with the cigar guys, mopping up the place with greasy tatoo necked grease balls. You know, boys will be boys types of stuff.

 

[winton]

The CPCC has good relations with several cigar shops, in the Chicagoland area. (This Saturday, 25th, will be at Arlington Pipe Shop.) But, I really don't like the taste of cigars. I will open a tin of Bourbon Bleu from 2018, at our meeting. I will still try to buy something from them.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

But, I really don't like the taste of cigars.

Really? Wow, I would never have thought that a pipesmoker wouldn't like a nice cigar. This gives me a great idea for a new thread.

 

[winton]

Ooops! Next Saturday is the 25th.