A Tale of Two Cigar Shops/Lounges, Part the First

Valentino and I had a couple of errands to run, one of which was actually paying for the tickets we'd reserved for the Broadway Cigars' February dinner at Ciara Restaurant  on February 9. (For details, give the shop a call* (401) 272-9600 or visit the event Facebook page.)

We took Will the Travelling Owl because sometimes it's just easier to bring him than it is to listen to him bitch because we didn't.

We landed at Broadway first, whereby Will demanded a photoshoot:

Oh, we'll do what you want, little owl,
but we're going to photobomb you.

You know we love the La Flor Dominicana Myster...oh, we mean TCFKAM (The Cigar Formerly Known As Mysterio). Will's also a fan.

Will would like to own this box. Just sayin'...

This Alec Bradley Nica Puro Diamond Rough Cut is on our to-do list. I guess it would be a to-smoke list. We don't want to call it a Cigar Bucket List, as we'd like to have more than one before we do any bucket-kicking. The limited-release (which you know makes us swoon) 6 1/2 x 54 toro is a line extension of the already beloved Nico Puro. As the name states, this cigar screams heaven for our Nicaraguan-loving Valentino.

Yep. These AB babies. Where the Nica Puro line all began...
way back in 2012.

This is a super favorite of the entire household!

This is the super-limited, 75th Anniversary release Joel Sherman, from our friends at Nat Sherman. The double corona (7 1/2 x 46) is a perfect blend of an Ecuadorean Connecticut wrapper and Dominican binder and filler. Every once in a while, we'll gift one to a friend and as his** face lights up with delight, we mention that (hahaha) they're hard to find.*** 

We were super surprised to find that Broadway had them, as few other folks do. So, if this is your great white whale that you relentlessly seek, run and get them!

P.S. We cropped the photo so you couldn't have your heart broken, as we did when we saw someone wrote the price on this gorgeous box in permanent marker.

Will is saying, Ah, I remember when
I was first to have one of these...

Broadway also has the J Grotto perfecto P-555 (5 x 55--get it?), which sold so quickly that they, too, are difficult to find. Will wanted to hoard them all. We told him if he wanted to get a job and pay for them, we'd be happy to carry the bag for him.

But we can also understand his desire to have them. We've loved them since Paul Joyle shared them with us pre-release. The Connecticut broadleaf wrapper and Dominican Habano binder work lovingly together to hold the Dominican and other Central American super secret fillers. Want to know more? You should go here!


We turned away for one second and found Will
rolling around in the box of another favorite cigar. Sigh.

We've told you a hundred gazillion times**** about our love of the Leaf.***** It's another we tell folks about all the time. We could probably hand-sell them throughout the land if we were so inclined. But then we'd feel like we were playing favorites, and that wouldn't be right. After all, we are staunch reporters, committed to true journalism. (Hard to say without laughing, so we can imagine how hard it is to read.)

If you haven't had a Leaf by Oscar, from our friend Island Jim Robinson, then let us know and we'll point you in the right direction. Wrapped in a tobacco leaf, this cigar is as awesome as it looks.


Arrrrgh!

Very few cigars can be both awesome and annoying. There's another all-Nicaraguan cigar (awesome) we dig and every time we see it, whether at Broadway, another shop, or in the humidor when we're looking for something delicious,****** that damn Commodores song pops into our heads (annoying). (You're welcome, by the way, for the earworm.)

We have been remiss in telling you about our Brick House love, and promise to get to that soon, but in the meantime, here's an interesting story from their website: "In 1937, J.C. Newman launched Brick House; a true Cuban puro cigar made with the finest Havana tobaccos. To honor his family and heritage, J.C. modeled the Brick House label after his childhood home – the only brick house in their small, Hungarian village. Locals and visitors would gather at the house nightly to eat, drink, smoke and enjoy each other’s company. But with the Cuban embargo came the end of the Brick House." But you can't blow a brick house down, and they are back and waiting for you!

Yes, Will likes the name of this cigar. Sigh. Again.

Mr. J's Havana introduced us to the Crux Cigar family at one of their monthly dinners, waaay back in October, and we've been fans ever since! Crux is relative new to the marketplace, and this Ninfamaniac pays homage to the classic Cuban Ninfa, at 7 x 33, although the tapered cap and foot makes it uniquely Crux. With a Habano Jalapa wrapper, Indonesian binder, and Nicaraguan filler, one of the most interesting things about the Ninfamaniac, besides the fantastic taste, is that the cigars are handcrafted by only two rollers.

Oh, we do go on, don't we? Check out Part the First and a Half here, and Part the Second here.

 

 

*But not today, Tuesday 1/27, because they are closed--as is the rest of Penny World because of, um...all the snow in the world being dumped on us!

 

**Always "he." We know very few local lady cigar smokers.

 

***We are horrible people. We know this. We know you love us anyway.

 

****Go to the right-hand side of the blog, scroll down, and click on Leaf. Then you'll see all the times we brought it up in casual conversation. Blogging conversation, that is. 

 

*****Hey! We said the name of the blog!

 

******Everything in the humidor is delicious, so the search isn't a difficult one.