# Cigars in a restaurant...



## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

Kind of a rare treat...going to a restaurant that actually allows cigar smoking...but, I was just wondering...is it considered poor form to bring your own cigars to such places??? I have friends that do, I always though that was kind of weird...although, I can see the sense of it, the last time I went to a kind of nice restaurant that allowed cigars I paid like $85 for an Opus X, and for an extra $5 the waiter even mangled the end with a cheap cutter for me and held a lighter that look like it came from a miami hotel gift shop circa 1962 for me to light it with...so I can see the sense in bringing your own stogies...but still, it's kind of like bringing your own wine to a restaurant...isn't it???


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## rip (Jul 13, 2005)

Would you consider it poor form to bring your own cigarettes to a restaurant that allowed smoking? I actually don't know which is the more apt comparison, cigars to cigarettes or cigars to wine. Of course you don't generally bring your own wine to a restaurant that has their own cellar, but you do generally bring your own smokes. I guess it would also depend upon whether the establishment in question is simply a restaurant that allows cigar smoking or one that is specifically designed to be a cigar restaurant. 

Back in the day, IIRC pre-April 1, 2003 in NYC, I frequented a bar (still do; the King Cole at the St. Regis) that allowed cigar smoking, even to the point of maintaining a couple of humidors of excellent cigars, but almost everyone brought their own. Today, should I go to Club Macanudo, for instance, I would never consider bringing my own cigars. Their very existence is designed for you to purchase and smoke their (very fine and very pricey) cigars.


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## Karl89 (Feb 20, 2005)

GG,

They charged you to cut and light a cigar that they already sold to you at quite a high mark up? Talk about chutzpah!

But I have never encountered a "corkage" fee at places that allow you to smoke cigars and also sell them. Assuming you purchase alcohol or a meal at such a place I don't think such a fee would be in order.

Karl


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## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

Karl89 said:


> GG,
> 
> They charged you to cut and light a cigar that they already sold to you at quite a high mark up? Talk about chutzpah!
> 
> Karl


Well, I kinda got tricked into that...they bring you a cigar "menu" at first, you pick your smoke, the guy asks if you want it cut...

...well...sure...

...what I didnt realize is that they charge for that, I suppose I could have just brought my Xikar along and cut it myself...truth be told the way that buffon hacked it up, I could have just used my teeth and done a better job...

...but my whole thinking behind not bringing your own cigars is that the idea of people sitting around tying up a table for an hour plus smoking cigars and ordering maybe one or two drinks per person has to be pretty costly to a restaurant, so if they gouge you on the cost of one stogie, they recover the money they'd have made if other diners got to take your table...it only seems fair to them...


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## xcubbies (Jul 31, 2005)

Yo, Dude, shouldn't be using a lighter to light your $85 dollar stogie. Be cool with you.


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## Acct2000 (Sep 24, 2005)

While I have a severe tobacco allergy, I actually did smoke part of a cigar in a bar about five years ago and liked it. I had not touched tobacco in at least ten years before that and have not touched it since. (Why play with fire, but I was surprised that smoking the cigar was pleasant!!)

I can't be around the cigar smoking (Cigar smoke bothers my allergies more than cigarette smoking does) but I guess I can understand why some people like them.

In regard to Xcubbies post, how would someone (properly?) light a cigar without a lighter? (Are matches also not the way to go?)


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## egadfly (Nov 10, 2006)

forsbergacct2000 said:


> In regard to Xcubbies post, how would someone (properly?) light a cigar without a lighter? (Are matches also not the way to go?)


Cedar splits are the preferred method, as I understand it. I myself use either sulfur-free matches or a butane torch lighter.

EGF


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## Wayfarer (Mar 19, 2006)

As Arizona passed an extremely harsh law this year, my cigar and Scotch bar was effectively forced out of business this spring. Just relish the fact you still live in a state where you can be charged for having your cigar cut and lit GG!


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

Wayfarer said:


> As Arizona passed an extremely harsh law this year, my cigar and Scotch bar was effectively forced out of business this spring. Just relish the fact you still live in a state where you can be charged for having your cigar cut and lit GG!


The anti-smoking nannies are gaining ground here in the Kansas City area, but many bars and restaurants are fighting back. It will be an interesting fight to watch. As an occasional cigar and cigarette smoker myself, I really don't like to be around it when I'm eating...though I have absolutely no problem with it being allowed in a bar (or the bar area of a restaurant).

I have often seen people bring their own cigars, and I have done this on occasion...if only for the facts I already own a decent handful of cigars in my small humidor at home, and I feel the mark-up on cigars in restaurants is laughable.

An aside...the Fuente folks opened a fantastic little cigar bar in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace a couple years ago. The selection and cocktails (or coffee) are outstanding, but the best view is the women they have working there. Ouch.


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## Trilby (Aug 11, 2004)

Completely outrageous for them to sell you a cigar at a steep markup and then charge you to cut it. It would be like ordering a bottle of expensive wine in a restaurant, and then having them charge you for opening it. You would have been justified in refusing to pay the extra charge.


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## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

Wayfarer said:


> Just relish the fact you still live in a state where you can be charged for having your cigar cut and lit GG!


Oh...don't I wish...nah, Cali is where this Anti-smoking nonsense started, I used to enjoy smoking cigars in restaurants in Miami, but Fla. banned that, now, it's pretty much only in Vegas that I get to enjoy my smokes in a restaurant...the above mentioned incident however happened in Dallas back before smoking in restaurants was outlawed there...


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## KenR (Jun 22, 2005)

Luckily, in New York we still have the Macanudo Club. Enjoyed some lite fare and a cigar with my nephew there last week.


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## Akajack (Jun 15, 2007)

I don't know of anyplace where you can still smoke in a restaurant (i'm sure there are lots, just none where I live or travel), but if this option were available to me I would certainly bring my own cigar as i've found in past years poor selection and/or poor storage conditions of cigars in restaurants. There used to be a service that they could subscribe to and once a week someone would come in, restock what was gone, get their cut of what had sold and basically tidy up. It wasn't like every restaurant cared enough to maintain a good selection or keep them in prime condition.

Not to mention i've only smoked cigars not available in the States for many years now.


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## rip (Jul 13, 2005)

Akajack said:


> I don't know of anyplace where you can still smoke in a restaurant (i'm sure there are lots, just none where I live or travel), but if this option were available to me I would certainly bring my own cigar as i've found in past years poor selection and/or poor storage conditions of cigars in restaurants. There used to be a service that they could subscribe to and once a week someone would come in, restock what was gone, get their cut of what had sold and basically tidy up. It wasn't like every restaurant cared enough to maintain a good selection or keep them in prime condition.
> 
> Not to mention i've only smoked cigars not available in the States for many years now.


That's a shame. While I'm not in favor of everyone being able to light up just where they please, there ought to be places where they can. As I, and others, mentioned before, we're blessed in NY to still have some good cigar bars and clubs, my two favorites being the already mentioned Club Macanudo and the Carnegie Club. Several of Bar and Books chain are in NY, my favorite of which, Beekman Bar and Books, has now closed or become something else, but they recently opened one in Prague, which is really, really nice, but does not have a humidor. Of course, smoking in resaurants in Prague is just not an issue at all.


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