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| mouth. I almost gag." Galdieri says. Las Vegas Cigar also offers a cigar flavored with spiced rum.
Galdieri sells only his cigars, figuring that adding other brands to his humidor would create competition with his own brand. "I'm in control here. I know what my rollers are doing and I can control the quality." Across the street from the Las Vegas Cigar Co. store is the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino which opened in June; a block to the south is the MGM Grand Hotel. A little farther south on the other side of the boulevard is Las Vegas' most ambitious effort yet -- a hotel casino dubbed New York, New York, the exterior of which is a reproduction of the Manhattan skyline. The enthusiasm that Galdieri displayed about his new boots is emblematic of his relationship with his customers. Whenever they stop in, a greeting is always extended along with an invitation to linger in the well-stocked walk-in humidor. "Whenever I walk into a store ready to spend my money, I want to be greeted," Galdieri says. "I make sure we do that here. A greeting and a smile breaks the ice." Galdieri's goal is to provide customers with inexpensive, yet high-quality, cigars. "I don't go for the high dollars," Galdieri says. "I want to give people a good cigar at a good price." A five-and-a-half-foot cigar store Indian in |
muted yellow, red, blue and green beckons customers from the factory's front window. Ceiling fans turn slowly to keep the extremely dry Las Vegas air in motion inside the store. "It's difficult to make cigars here because of the low humidity," Galdieri says. "You have to be careful with the tobacco. you have to make sure it's humidified properly."
the store has six rolling stations arranged in two aisles that extend from the front door. People walking by are invited into the store to watch the rollers by a door that remains open even in 100 degree+ temperatures. Tobacco that is to be used by the rollers is given to them each morning in a white plastic bag. The morning is spent bunching the tobacco and placing into molds that are then put into presses to establish the cigar's shape. The afternoon is set aside for adding the wrapper after the cigars have been taken out of the presses. The rollers work earnestly at their benches, first choosing the tobacco that will go into an individual cigar and then individually testing the leaf by holding it to their noses and inhaling deeply. Typical of Las Vegas Cigar Co.'s rollers is Leonardo Rosario, a 35-year-old from the Dominican Republic began working in cigar factories at age seven. After working for 20 years -- primarily at a Matasa Factory -- he came to the United States eight years ago, and has been rolling cigars for Las Vegas Cigar Co. for the past two years. The only difference, Rosario says, between rolling cigars in the |
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