Name: J. J. FOX LTD./ROBERT LEWIS
Name: SAUTTER OF MAYFAIR
Address: 106 Mount Street, London, W1Y SHE
Tel: *44) 171 499 4866
Proprietor: Desmond Sautter
Years Operating: 39 years
# of Brands: over 30
Hours: 9:00-6:00 Mon.-Sat.
Special Features: Desmond is an encyclopedia of knowledge when it comes to Havanas. It is worthwhile to sit and chat a spell with him if he has the time. If you are lucky, he will show you his private collection of pre-recolutionary cigars. While the pre-revs are not for sale, Desmond seems to always have a selection of well-aged cigars at hand, so don't be afraid to ask.
Name: HAVANA CLUB
Address: 165 Sloane Street, London, SW1X 9QB
Tel: *44) 171 245 0890
Proprietor: Neil Millington, Manager
Years Operating: Since September 1995
# of Brands: :15 or 16, mostly Cuban."
Hours: 10:00-6:00 MOn.-Sat.
Special Features: Part of the ultra-hip private night club, Monty's--named for the cigar not the general--the Havana Club offers a cozy refuge for people to enjoy a fine cigar--but after 6:00, it's members only.
| It had been almost three years since my last trip there, and all the time I had spent watchng the cigar boom in Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles area had prejudiced my thoughts. However, upon landing in London and touring the various shops -- those that had been around far before I was, and one that was new and shiny as those in Beverly Hills -- my mind changed. While I still find it easy enough to say that Beverly Hills has become the reigning cigar capital of the world, with nine cigar establishments in only a six-block area, London still more than holds its own. London cigar merchants can trace their roots | back to 1787 when Robert Lewis first opened his doors. Some 90 years later, J. J. Fox -- the firm that would acquire and merge with Robert Lewis to occupy the current St. James Street location -- opened its first store. Now long after Fox arrived on the scene, Alfred Dunhill succeeded his father in heading the family firm in 1893. It was later, in 1912, that Dunhill's now famous Bond Street location opened. During the 1900s, other stores came and went. Of the "new" stores that remain, Desmond Sautter's establishment, Sautter of Mayfair is the last store of the Sautter retail chain founded in 1958. |
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