 
New York StoriesA Walking Tour of Cigar Shops in the Big Apple by Glenn Greenburg
There is one thing that most folks who have experienced New York City - whether as a native or a newcomer - can agree upon: it can be one hell of a hectic place. A seemingly endless sea of people of all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life, rushing from one side of the island to the other for business or pleasure - or maybe a little of both. It can all get quite overwhelming at times, leading one to wish for even a brief escape from the maddening realities of life in the big city.
Now, picture an oasis of tranquility and relaxation in the midst of all the chaos. A place where you can sit back, relax, and take the time to enjoy your favorite cigar, with like-minded gentlemen and ladies. Enter the smokeshops of New York.
For the uninitiated, it may be difficult to distinguish one of these cigar havens from the others. They all sell cigars of all brands and types, along with accessories such as lighters, cutters, and humidors. Many even look alike - resembling the parlor of some beautiful mansion, complete with large, antique wooden cabinets, and cigars, pipes, and humidors neatly stacked on the shelves, behind glass doors. And yet, there are differences. Just as the city’s various neighborhoods have their own paces, flavors, and atmospheres, so too do its smokeshops.
“We have four locations, and each has its own personality,” says Vince Nastri, owner (“and sweeper and window-washer,” he jokes) of Barclay-Rex, Inc. The flagship store is located at 75 Broad Street, in the Wall Street section of Manhattan. The personality of each location, according to Nastri, “depends on the neighborhood it’s in.”
Nastri elaborates: “Down here (Broad Street), the customers are a little more on the move; they want to be in and out quickly. Uptown, at our Grand Central store (70 East 42nd Street), they’re not as rushed.” Barclay-Rex’s other locations are at 570 Lexington Avenue (between 50th and 51st streets), and the ground floor at 3 World Financial Center.
Nastri is a third-generation tobacconist, whose grandfather started the business in 1910. While he reports having a diverse clientele, the majority of his customers at the Broad Street store are stockbrokers and attorneys. The store’s lounge, an enclosed room in the back that can comfortably seat around eight people at one time, is meant to “give the customers a place where they can relax, take it easy, get away from the stress.”
Although Barclay-Rex’s Broad Street location is fairly new (the store moved there last May), the place has an undeniable sense of history. Nastri proudly displays a framed, black-and-white photo of a very young Frank Sinatra, a one-time customer. With a smile, Nastri reminisces about how the store got its name, a tale that shows how the shop’s history is intimately linked with the city’s.
“My grandfather started on Barclay Street, where the first store was. And Rex was his pet Great Dane. Back then, no one had money for big ads in the Times, so they had to find other ways for advertising their businesses. One of his ways was having a horse that someone would walk up and down the street, with a big blanket that advertised the name of the shop. But that became too much, so he then had Rex, who was almost as big as a horse, sitting in the store with a blanket over him that advertised the place.” Appropriately, a framed photo of the blanket-covered Rex is on display at the front of the shop.
Customers can rent lockers at Barclay-Rex for a one-year fee of $500, although the store does not offer any official memberships. In addition to carrying all the major cigar brands, the store also has its own, made in the Dominican Republic. “We don’t wholesale it; it’s just sold in the Barclay-Rex stores,” Nastri explains.
But if you’re in the Wall Street area and looking for an evening social scene as well as cigars, there’s probably nowhere better to go than J-R Cigar, located at 1 Wall Street Court, on Pearl Street (right off of Wall Street itself). J-R not only has the largest humidor in New York City (two floors, stocked with a staggering number of cigars and all the smoking-related accessories you can imagine). The place also has a spacious bar and lounge area where customers can eat, drink, smoke, and socialize in a comfortable, relaxing environment.
“We’re going for that downtown New York feel here,” says Ken O’Connor, J-R’s general manager, who has been with the company for five years. “There’s not many places today where you can have a cocktail and smoke a cigar and not annoy somebody, or be accused of stinking the place up. This place is a respite.”
And for many of J-R’s customers, a respite is exactly what’s needed. “Wall Street’s a boiler room,” O’Connor comments. “You either get people crying in their beer or celebrating with their champagne, depending on the day. And I think the people who work on Wall Street like us because they can relax here - it’s like a little nirvana.”
J-R’s clientele is not just limited to stockbrokers, bankers and lawyers, however. “We also have blue-collar workers, because we have a large post office down here, and we have the Fulton Fish Market,” says O’Connor. “So it’s a very eclectic group of people. And we’re open on Saturdays, when the stock market is closed and the street is quiet, so we get many tourists, especially European tourists.”
O’Connor adds that women are no strangers to J-R, either. “There are more women working in the Wall Street area now than ever before,” he points out. “They’re now doing more of the things that men have been doing for years, and smoking cigars is one of them. Our atmosphere makes it conducive for women to feel comfortable.”
J-R’s atmosphere has also been known to attract celebrities. O’Connor explains, “It’s not a private club, but it’s low-key enough that (celebrities) can blend in with the crowd and not feel like they’re surrounded by paparazzi.” Those public figures include New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, for whom the shop reserves a special balcony for his exclusive use, and comedienne Janeane Garofalo.
Beyond the enormous humidor, beyond the bar and lounge, what does O’Connor believe sets J-R apart from other smokeshops? “First and foremost, we’ve been in business for over 30 years, and the owner of J-R, Lew Rothman (currently a regular columnist for Smoke), has done things that no one else in the cigar business has done - first of which is to do right by the consumer. We’ve endured the highs and the lows of the cigar market and the industry.” In fact, J-R Cigar has a second shop, at 46th Street and 5th Avenue. “We get more tourists and shoppers there,” O’Connor points out.
J-R Cigar does not offer shop memberships, nor do they rent out private lockers. What J-R offers, though, is a smoke shop where you can socialize, grab a bite, have a few drinks, and choose from over 3,000 cigar sizes and brands - including 83 premium house brands.
If midtown is more of your scene however, then the obvious choice is Nat Sherman, located at 500 Fifth Avenue, at West 42nd Street - right across the street from the world-famous New York Public Library.
Nat Sherman boasts a wide variety of customers, from casually dressed men in their 20s to the older suit-and-tie crowd, and everything in between. On the second floor, an automated piano plays tunes from such Broadway classics as “The Sound of Music,” “Annie,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” The store has both a small lounge overlooking 42nd Street and the library, and a more private, enclosed humidor in the back, overlooking Fifth Avenue. The shop has been at this location for the last nine years.
Store manager Peter Stonehill has worked at the shop on and off since 1967. He explains that there have been drastic changes in the area-and in the clientele-in the years since Nat Sherman moved to its present home.
“When we first came here, there were a lot of camera shops, a lot of drug peddlers in Bryant Park (located next to the library). Down the block, there were just a lot of junky stores. But then there was a cleaning up of the park and the city, landlords renovated their stores and got quality tenants in. The street’s been cleaned up.”
Stonehill cheerfully describes the store’s clientele as “everybody-from kings to presidents. They’re all spending money. Even the homeless. They come in for their pure natural cigarettes.”
How has the store fared in the aftermath of the cigar industry’s boom of the mid-to-late 1990s, when it seemed like everybody and their mothers (literally, in some cases) were taking up cigar smoking and the demand was far exceeding the supply?
“We’re more dependent on the tourists since the end of the boom,” Stonehill explains. “It’s gone down as far as the locals, but we get a lot of tourists. Cigars are still hot. Not as hot as they were, but still hot.”
Stonehill acknowledges that there is “definitely a ‘club’ feeling” to Nat Sherman. But despite that, Stonehill assures that new smokers are made to feel welcome, as well. “We try to make friends with all our customers. If they’re new to smoking cigars, we show them how to cut it, how to light it - we almost smoke it for them! We spend some time with each new smoker, and hope to develop them into a permanent customer.”
According to Stonehill, it seems as if some of the shop’s permanent customers never want to leave. “We have people coming in every day, from when we open until when we close, just to get away from it all and relax.” Hey, it’s cheaper than Aruba, right?
Having started in 1930, Nat Sherman has its share of history. “We started in the garment district,” Stonehill explains. “We would get lots of dress manufacturers and racketeers coming in-some real characters, a little rough around the edges.”
The store would also get lots of celebrities. Near the humidor on the second floor, the walls are covered with framed letters from such regular (and satisfied) customers as Jerry Lewis, Edward R. Murrow, Henny Youngman, John Wayne, George Burns, Dick Cavett, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Humphrey Bogart.
“We always had a lot of celebrities coming in,” Stonehill says. “We still get some - James Woods, Tom Selleck, Harry Connick Jr.”
There is no official membership at Nat Sherman. However, if you buy 10 or more boxes of cigars, the shop will store them for you free of charge. The shop carries all the major brands, along with 10 lines of its own, including the popular VIP and Host selections. And the shop provides the incentive to relax while you’re smoking them. As Stonehill says, “You can walk in, buy one cigar, and stay here for hours.”
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