I am curious to hear about your experiences with cigar and pipe BARS.
I first fell in love with tobacco after visiting the Owl Shop in New Haven Connecticut. I spent so much time in that city in my youth. At first, it was just a place where I could buy my favored Stokkebye Amsterdam Shag and have a coffee but the absolute grandeur of the room was not lost on me-the old wood, the maroon walls, the weathered tin ceiling, the handsome long bar, the glass display cases brimming with cigars and briar, the jars of mysterious house blended tobacco, even the impossibly tiny bathroom. It has an energy all its own, no doubt residual from that millions of epic nights had between those walls over the almost 100 years this place has been in business.
When I started smoking cigars and pipes, it was the first logical place to go. This was the first time that I was really able to interact with the tobacconists and owners on any meaningful level and they guided me through the process of figuring out what I liked. They're OG's, they know what they're talking about and dispense good service.
When I turned 21, I came to appreciate all of those bottles behind the bar, all of the brown liquors, craft brews, house cocktails and bartenders competent enough to talk about them.
I see shades of the Owl Shop in many of the lounges that I visit but never the whole package.
I understand that some places are limited by ordinances and insurance or regulatory hurdles and a generally unfavorable political climate. Or they just don't want to run a bar. As a former bar person, I can totally respect that but right now I'm wanting to focus more specifically about bars that also sell tobacco products and cater to their use on premise.
Many of the places that serve drinks have menus that were clearly picked by their distributors featuring a relatively commonplace selection of slightly-above-average national brands. I like drinking Maker's Mark just fine but I feel like I'm paying an absurd markup to drink something with a smoke and that's less fun than it could be. I would prefer a creative cocktail, something local and interesting, something rare or old, something that somebody behind that bar gave enough of a damn about to choose to serve.
I'm sure there's other spots like the Owl Shop in your town or city and I want you to tell me about them.
I first fell in love with tobacco after visiting the Owl Shop in New Haven Connecticut. I spent so much time in that city in my youth. At first, it was just a place where I could buy my favored Stokkebye Amsterdam Shag and have a coffee but the absolute grandeur of the room was not lost on me-the old wood, the maroon walls, the weathered tin ceiling, the handsome long bar, the glass display cases brimming with cigars and briar, the jars of mysterious house blended tobacco, even the impossibly tiny bathroom. It has an energy all its own, no doubt residual from that millions of epic nights had between those walls over the almost 100 years this place has been in business.
When I started smoking cigars and pipes, it was the first logical place to go. This was the first time that I was really able to interact with the tobacconists and owners on any meaningful level and they guided me through the process of figuring out what I liked. They're OG's, they know what they're talking about and dispense good service.
When I turned 21, I came to appreciate all of those bottles behind the bar, all of the brown liquors, craft brews, house cocktails and bartenders competent enough to talk about them.
I see shades of the Owl Shop in many of the lounges that I visit but never the whole package.
I understand that some places are limited by ordinances and insurance or regulatory hurdles and a generally unfavorable political climate. Or they just don't want to run a bar. As a former bar person, I can totally respect that but right now I'm wanting to focus more specifically about bars that also sell tobacco products and cater to their use on premise.
Many of the places that serve drinks have menus that were clearly picked by their distributors featuring a relatively commonplace selection of slightly-above-average national brands. I like drinking Maker's Mark just fine but I feel like I'm paying an absurd markup to drink something with a smoke and that's less fun than it could be. I would prefer a creative cocktail, something local and interesting, something rare or old, something that somebody behind that bar gave enough of a damn about to choose to serve.
I'm sure there's other spots like the Owl Shop in your town or city and I want you to tell me about them.