D'Onofrio joins us in the lounge. Impeccably dressed and exuding an air of confidence, he looks every bit the successful businessman. "The timing is right," he says. "We're taking it to a different level. It's like Mrs. Fields Cookies. Before Mrs. Fields, everyone sold cookies, but then she went and baked them in front of the customer. You could see them being made; you could taste the freshness. That's what we're doing with cigars."
And they are doing it all over the country. The company will soon have concessions at the El Dorado in Reno, Harvey's Casino in Lake Tahoe, and Harrah's Hotel in Las Vegas. Limparis says, "When we started out we never imagined we'd go from one cart to where we are now; maybe we'd add one more store. Then the Hyatt came along and now we've added the shop at Dearborn and Adams. We're expanding all over Nevada. It's gotten big real fast." They are working now to open in Atlanta and Atlantic City, and then will open up in New York. Back in Chicago, there are now four carts and a kiosk at Navy Pier, as well as accounts with Harry Caray's and Mike Ditka's restaurants, the Carlucci restaurant chain, and the Mercantile Exchange.
"But you're only as good as your product," D'Onofrio says. "You can hype something and pump money into it - and money's important - but you need a good cigar and buying experience. The customer can go home with the cigar and say 'I saw this being made.'"
Their cigars are still Little Havana Cigar Factory's best asset, and it is Julio Ramirez who provides both the leaf and the expertise. All their tobacco (including the wrapper) comes from the Ramirez vega in the Dominican Republic. The 79-acre farm, located near the town of Villa Gonzales in the Tamboril district, is a family operation. The vega has drying and curing sheds, storage facilities, and a large inventory of aged tobacco on hand to ensure a steady supply of quality leaf.
Hailing originally from Havana, the Ramirez family has been in the business since 1938. When Castro came to power, Julio's father, uncle, and grandmother fled Cuba, arriving in the Dominican Republic with only a single tobacco plant and a white orchid. They planted the tobacco and the orchid, rebuilding their lives and raising a new generation to carry on the tradition. Julio says his grandmother taught all the children to roll cigars. She is now 96 years old and still smokes five or six a day.
Continued on next page...
