The Tobacco Shop of Ridgewood (NJ)

[radio807]

I've been intending to visit this shop for quite some time, and yesterday my oldest son and I finally made it. It's located about an hour from my home, and the distance combined with the fact that I seldom get to that part of the state kept me from making a visit to the place. My primary reason for going was to pick up a meer (which I did, a nice SMS Dublin, but that's a subject for another post). The experience was very good, yet slightly disappointing in one aspect.
On the plus side, the shop is very nice and well stocked with pipes in every price range, starting with those in the $40 range up through Dunhills and others on the high end. They have a good selection of house blends as well as tinned tobaccos. There's also a pretty nice looking cigar humidor that I didn't enter, having no interest whatsoever in those vile things (cigar lovers, please forgive me). The owners, a husband and wife team, are very friendly, helpful and gracious. The gentleman is himself a pipe smoker, who had a bowl going the whole time I was there; the lady is a cigar smoker. The store has a small upper level, which has a nice selection of pipes and a very small smoking lounge. The smoking lounge provided my only disappointment with the store: pipe smoking isn't allowed in the lounge! It's only for cigar smoking.
After I selected my meer, my son and I settled into a couple of chairs to have a quick smoke and sample a house blend before going on our way. Shortly afterward the lady very politely and apologetically informed us that the smoking lounge is for cigar smoking only. She did allow us to take our time and enjoy our smokes, but she indicated that it would be OK only for this time. She didn't come out and say it, but I surmised that because the lounge is so very small (no more that six chairs, if I recall correctly) they probably want only cigar smoking in their scant real estate. After all, an hour's cigar smoke will probably result from a $15 stick sale, as opposed to an hour's pipe smoke which would be a small fraction of that. I have no issue with that, but I was disappointed nonetheless.
I would definitely recommend the place if you're looking for a friendly shop that carries a fine selection of pipes and tobacco; just don't expect to settle in to smoke a bowl while you're there.

 

[austinxpipe]

I was born a few towns away in Montclair, NJ. I have a road trip planned to go out there in February. I'll have to check the place out!

 

[keith929]

I live not too far from Ridgewood. I have had a previous encounter with a B&M that sell both cigars and pipe tobacco but do not allow pipe smoking in their smoking lounge. Sorry but they will never get a penny of my money.

If all smoking inside is banned that is one thing but if I am purchasing tobacco from your shop and you tell me that

cigars are okay but not pipe tobacco,well fuggetaboutit I'm out of here. :evil:

 

[sal57]

I have never heard of a tobacco shop that would not allow one or the other to be smoked and I do find that troubling.

 

[tbradsim1]

I would never go there I am not a second class citizen. The old cajun

 

[keith929]

Sorry rothnh that dog won't hunt. This is the 21st century and shop owners who set policy like that better have a monopoly because there are too many options for consumers to put up with this crap. As a shop owner you have the right within the law to set your own policy and as a consumer I have the right to thumb my nose at you and shop elsewhere.

 

[tbradsim1]

Roth I hear you, believe it or not I am a very agreeable person, I believe the shop owners have the right to say what they will or won" t allow in their shop, that being said if they allow Stoogie smokeing and sell pipe stuff then I feel I am within my rights to smoke my pipe, their right is to tell me to leave which I will do, after all it is their shop, makes sense? The old cajun

 

[dlattim]

+1 keith929

 

[ssjones]

I have this place on my GPS but will forgo the visit. My primary reason is to drop in when I'm on the road for a comfortable place to enjoy a bowl and read the paper,etc. I typically buy two tins on these kind of visits, so its worth the shop owners while. I get their emails too, which is always cigar related so I assumed they didn't have any pipe items. Unsubscribing....

 

[chopz]

that's right boys. boycott tobacco dealers who don't allow you to smoke in their establishment. speak up for your rights. hell, even if they are pro smoking. had a b&m here who allowed both pipe and cigar smokers to light up inside. now it's gone and i miss the place. but regardless - if we all boycott those shops we can just stick to ordering online, ya know?

 

[mso489]

Though this thread goes back two years, it raises an interesting issue. I've been to a number of pipe and cigar shops and have never encountered this. Big or small, many chairs or few, they've all had a relaxed first-come-first served policy on seating for smoking. This shop sounds pleasant, and run by pleasant people. And I realize with no dispute that right now cigars are still the revenue stream for brick and mortar shops. Still, I don't think factionalizing your clientele is ever a good idea. Years ago -- I don't know what the policy is today -- two restaurants in New Orleans had two different policies. When you went to Antoines, as you waited in line, all kinds of hot shots marched past you and were seated, not with reservations but with bribes and political or fat-cat status. When you went to Gallatoires, they cheerfully announced to one and all, "You stand in line whoever you are." Some years later when I went back to NOLA, I went back to Gallatoires but somehow didn't have time to revisit Antoines. So there you go. The proprietor makes more money that day, but less money over the long run.

 

[deathmetal]

I know I wouldn't feel comfortable in such a place, thus they'd lose me as a smoking lounge customer. At that point, the question is what else they offer that I wouldn't feel more comfortable getting somewhere else. We have a local B&M that through sheer snobbery drove me and others off through sheer pretense masked as benevolent rules in the same way.