| Smoked meats out, smoking cigars in.... |
Culbertson gutted the building to create what he calls the largest cigar store in the United States: the 7200-square foot spaces boasts a well-ventilated smoking lounge with comfortable chairs and three TV screens and huge humidor room filled with fragrant stogies including a 32-year-old Partagas cigar that retails for $60 -- that's for a single cigar, not a box.
| Kendall Culbertson and his cigar stash |
And there will be a lot more food -- "about 800 pounds of food, including a roast pig," said one employee -- this Saturday, when cigar celebrity Charlie Torano of Torano Cigars is the store's featured guest. "He won't be lecturing on cigars, but meeting people and talking about cigars with our customers who are coming in for a good time," said Culbertson.
The Outlaw Cigar Company attracts a predominantly male clientele. On a recent weeknight, all of the chairs in the smoking lounge were occupied by gentlemen -- young, old, black, white, some in expensive shoes, others in sneakers -- puffing away on fragrant cigars and looking very content.
Members of the staff -- including Colleen, an attractive female salesperson who told me she was pleased to get out of retail and into the cigar trade and smokes cigars herself -- are happy to give guided tours of the place, including the room with 75 private lockers, all with little brass markers engraved with the patron's names.
"We leased every locker in two months," said Culbertson. "Our staff can also introduce smokers to the kind of cigar that they'll like best. If someone likes spicy food, for example, we have cigars with a spicy taste."
If not, vending machines are filled with candy for patrons who like a Snickers with their stogies.
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Perhaps they haven't seen JR CIGARS
their bathroom is 7200 square feet.
The JR store is the size of a COSTCO.
Oh yeah and there is 5 of them.
Anonymous: I agree, it looks like a bunker. To his credit, Outlaw Cigar's Kendall Robertson did a nice job with the interior. I was ready to sit down and smoke a (cheap) cigar myself.
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