Cigar Culture:
Up in Smoke?
Not Quite

One of America's most revered cigar smokers, Mark Twain, once famously said, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." It's a phrase that came to mind recently after perusing the gossip page in my local daily. Neil Travis of the New York Post - a paper whose editorial stance on smokers' rights is usually in line with ours - made a disappointing and ill-informed statement in the June 26 edition. "Fads pass," he wrote, "and it would now seem the cigar bar concept is passe." As proof, he cited the recent closing of Beekman Bar and Books, recognized by some as New York's first true cigar bar. Travis goes on to point out that the new venue opened up by Beekman's proprietor Mark Grossich will be "observing the clean air act," implying, apparently, that the old place was some sort of illegal speakeasy. (Never mind that another of Grossich's establishments, the tony Campbell Apartment in Grand Central, hosted a very cigar-friendly casino night event that I attended earlier this year.) All this in the same edition trumpeting the odious new tax declared by New York Mayor Bloomberg raising the price of cigarettes to a daunting $7.00 a pack.

I'm not a cigarette smoker, and continue to believe that cigar smoking has more in common with wine appreciation than with a pack-a-day butt habit. But the rising tide of anti-smoking legislation continues to be disturbing to anyone who cherishes the personal freedom of indulging in a perfectly legal product. Personally, I think it's fine to have separate smoking areas in restaurants; often, I'd prefer not be exposed to cigarette or cigar smoke while I'm appreciating a good meal. By the same token, I enjoy having the option to dine in a restaurant where I can light up a cigar with an after-dinner drink. More importantly, I appreciate living in a society where a restaurant owner can choose for himself if he wants to allow smoking, instead of the government deciding for him.

Despite the efforts of the anti-smoking brigade, however, I am pleased to report that my city's cigar bars, albeit embattled and perhaps out of favor with the trendoids, are still faring well. Club Macanudo on the Upper East Side still draws a good after-work crowd, and remains a destination of choice for some high-profile folk. When I brought some friends there a few months ago, a reliable source told me that former New York Mayor (now "America's Mayor") Rudy Giuliani - a Club Mac regular with a private humidor right next to SMOKE's - actually visited there on the evening of September 11, citing "a long day" and in need of a quick cigar with a dose of live Latin jazz. A few weeks ago, I attended an event at another Big Apple cigar destination, the Grand Havana Room, a gorgeous top-floor lounge in midtown, located at the old Top of the Sixes, and offering a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline. The evening, sponsored by our friends at Bucanero Cigars to introduce their new El Capitan size, featured a top-notch gourmet buffet meal, great wine and cigars, live music and dancing, and, lo and behold - a sizable and well-heeled crowd.

Someone also must've forgotten to tell the New York City Police Department that their cigar hobby was out of fashion. In late June, I had the honor of attending a gathering of "Blue Smoke," an informal cigar club formed in 1996, and now comprising about 75 active members culled from the stogie-puffing ranks of the NYPD and other local law enforcement agencies (at least one representative from the FBI was present at the event). The members of the club meet two or three times annually, and this particular function took place at Nat Sherman's, the famous cigar shop on 42nd Street. While not a cigar bar per se, Sherman's maintains an upstairs lounge area, complete with comfy leather chairs and automated piano, for customers to settle in for a cigar and conversation. On this night, however, the piano had a real-life player, the friendly staff served up beverages as well as cigars, and I had New York's Finest cigar enthusiasts to thank for a remarkable evening of camaraderie. While I admittedly have little in common professionally with the members of Blue Smoke - they saved lives on September 11; I write about cigars and other relative frivolities for a men's magazine - a night of good cigars and good drinks tends to put everyone on even and comfortable ground. The club's membership has grown rapidly in just a few years, and continues to expand its ranks. Are you listening, Neal Travis?

What's passe is not the cigar bar concept, or the social cigar smoking hobby, but instead the hordes of flash-in-the-pan poseurs using cigars as props to enhance their social status before moving on to the next trend. After all, the hipsters aren't flocking to coffee houses like they used to, either, and many of the ones that sprung up in the 1990s have gone away just like many of the cigar clubs, but no one is pronouncing the coffee house dead. And last time I checked, Starbucks was still doing just fine, despite its evolution from Next Big Trend status to part of the cultural mainstream. "Cigar Bars" is still an active category in the Nightlife section of Citysearch, the online search engine, along with such diverse options as "piano bars," "sports bars," and "wine bars."

The Cigar Boom of the late 90's is indeed a thing of the past, but what it's left us with are mostly positives: tighter quality, better prices, greater availability of popular brands, and a cigar culture that's leaner, meaner, and, in many ways, more closely-knit. Despite being largely abandoned by the arbiters of "hip," cigar clubs and cigar-friendly restaurants and taverns are not only still here, they have a golden opportunity - some might say a responsibility - to become not only safe havens, but bastions of defiance in this increasingly smoker-unfriendly society. And to anyone out there who feels persecuted, I say this: pay a visit to your local stogie-friendly joint. Get out of the house for a while, light up and relax with your like-minded peers, simply because - at least as of this writing - you still can.