Name: ALFRED DUNHILL, Ltd.
Address: 30 Duke Street, London, SW1Y6DL
Tel.: (44) 171 499 9566
Proprietor: Philip Spencer-Watts, Humidor Manager
Luc Daine, Cigar Sales Associate (pictured).
Years Operating: 103
# of Brands: 13
Hours: 9:30-6:00 Mon.-Fri.; Sat. 10:00-6:00.
Special Features: The famous Dunhill keep lockers are probably the most eagerly sought after property in London. If you are one of the privileged few to obtain one -- and you purchase at least 10 boxes a year in the store -- your most guarded smokes will be in one of the most luxurious cigar repositories in the world.
Name: DAVIDOFF OF LONDON
Address: 19 St. James Street, London, SW1A1ES
Tel: (44) 171 930 3787
Proprietor: Edward s. Sahakian
Years Operating: 16 years
# of Brands: 20
Hours: 9:00-6:00 Mon.-Fri.; Sat. 9:30-6:00
Special Features: In addition to one of the most knowledgeable staffs around, Davidoff has a world-class proprietor who gives the name "gentlemen" a whole new meaning. Mr. Sahakian has been known to keepsake some of his U.S. clients' cigars in the downstairs humidor, since they can't bring them home.
For may years London had no challenger, no one city that posed a threat to usurping its crown as the world's true cigar city.
Amost 200 years after Robert Lewis Cigar Merchants first opened its doors, and 140 and some odd years after the London-based banking firm of H. Upmann started importing Cuban cigars in cedar chests for their board of directors and assorted chums, the little city of Beverly Hills, far on the other side of the "Pond," had quietly and stealthfully stolen the crown and become King. This is not to say that London is dead -- far from it! But I venture to say, "Long live the King, for the other king is slightly retired."
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