The Perfect Storm Cigar Dinner: Alec Bradley, Opa, and Habanos--all in one place!

About a hundred years ago (November), our friends at Habanos met up with our friends from Alec Bradley who met up with our friends at Opa.

It was the perfect storm of cigar events. If you didn't go, you should be both sad and jealous. While we're waiting for you to finish the sadness and jealousy, we'll let you enjoy the first of Will's many antics at the event.

We all received a four-pack of cigars at the event.
Mine went missing. Will feigned innocence.

Better? Good. As an aside, I find snacks always make the sad or the jealousy better.*

Drinnan Thornton, our friendly neighborhood Alec Bradley rep, brought many gifts for many folks. There was much rejoicing!


Caution: DDT doing the Drinnan
(Drinnen, Doc, Tino)

Valentino started with this delight:

I'd be an Alec Bradley groupie if that were a thing. Wait. Is that a thing? It totally should be.

According to CI, the "Connecticut boasts an array of big-time flavors, all while remaining pleasant and tame in body. Dressed in a seamless Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrapper, and chock full of Honduran and Nicaraguan long-fillers, Connecticut produces a highly satisfying mild to medium-bodied experience. Plumes of creamy and cool smoke coat the palate as notes of cedar, nuts, and toast enter the fray before ​a slightly sweet finish. It's a lot like a light beer that tastes really damn good."

It really is damn good. Because it was an AB event, I was surrounded by like-minded smokers, many of whom started with the Connecticut. As a result, I got myself a snout full of woodiness, which sounds weird when  say it like that. Like the woods of Dunsinane** marched right into my face. Well, when that happened, they also brought some pepperiness and creaminess, so...yeah.

Then this happened:

Will was the official Guardian of the Meat.

We have more than once proclaimed our unending joy for any and all foods created by Joe, he of Opa fame. For this event, we had a million tons of food, but you only need to know about my most favorite, the thing that if we're passing by the restaurant, smoking a cigar as we wander around the mean streets of Federal Hill and Tino needs*** raw kibbeh--my favorite thing is hummus with ground meat and pine nuts on it with fresh pita bread. Oh gawd, that sounds great right now.

We ate until we almost--and really, we were thisclose to literally busting a gut--at maximum food capacity.

In order to aid digestion, Valentino moved on to this:

I fell in love with the Coyol at first smell. Actually, even before that.

Drinnen told us about how the cigar honors one particular farm. "Sometimes tobacco has great aroma or great flavor, but rarely does one have both," said company president Alan Rubin in Cigar Aficionado. "That is what makes Coyol so unique. The blend for this new cigar is designed around the Coyol tobacco, which is why I had to name the cigar Coyol." Oh, come on. You know by now that I like a story to go with our cigars.

According to CI, the cigar is a "bold, medium-bodied profile with notes of earth, leather, and spice flourish around the palate from first light. Subtly sweet notes of cherry and nutmeg are also present on the finish. Yet another masterpiece from Alec Bradley…par for the course these days."

Mr. Rubin, you had me at the sweetness. Perfect for after that fantastic meal.

In the meantime, some other folks were doing this, which lots of folks do at Habanos. I think it looks like a lot of work, but that's just me. Too many contraptions for the likes of me. And way too many things to remember and then mess up. But Will sure did like it:

Now if I only had a cheese plate...

We're cigar people rather than hookah people. And we know you probably are too! In celebration of this most fabulous event, we're giving away a five-pack of cigars and a jaunty cap for this month's Cigar of the Month!



Yep! We're giving this to one awesome reader!
Click the picture to find out how you can win!

*That is not a sign of a problem. You should be quiet.

**The blog's first Macbeth reference! Woohoo!

***Neeeeeeds, by way of me suggesting it

Opa!: Opa!

Outstanding customer service: We all want it. We rarely get it.

True story.

Except!

Except yesterday* we were punched in the face with awesomeness.

(I'll throw a cigar reference in here somewhere to make the post relevant, but sometimes an amazeballs deed needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Or the back patio with the scent of fresh linen citronella candles wafting in the air. From wherever, it needs to be shouted...)

We were on Federal Hill, natch, and stopped at Opa, which we may have mentioned we love once (or a hundred times). We sat at one of the sidewalk tables so Valentino could smoke his cigar** while we drank sangria and waited for our food.

Not last night, but representative of a night. 
See that table on the left? That's where we were!

Valentino ordered the thing he loves, raw kibbeh, which is usually accompanied by fresh pita bread, raw onions, and mint.***  Except the dish, she was mintless.  He asked the young man,**** who brought the food, for mint (which is probably growing out of control in all your back yards).  He reported back that they were out.

[This is worthy of a separate paragraph rather than a sparkle--they were out because their delivery that morning included a box of old, yucky, brown mint rather than new, delicious, green mint. It was not the kitchen's fault.]

Valentino sulked for a moment and began the process of eating, because freshly ground meat served raw really shouldn't sit around, mint or no.

Francois, son of owners Aline and Joe Karam, poked around to see how we were doing. Valentino mentioned his disappointment at the missing ingredient and he started to go back to the kitchen to check.  We stopped him, saying there wasn't any. He went to check anyway, and then came out of the restaurant and headed...away.

He came back and told us he'd just asked two neighboring restaurants***** if they had mint. They didn't.  Then, before we could stop him, he headed in the other direction, returning a moment later with a bagful.

Success!

Francois didn't have to seek out the mint, but he did. Little courtesies like that make all difference between a good restaurant and a great restaurant. Time and again, Opa is a super great awesome restaurant.

The couple who sat next to us just before we left ordered the raw kibbeh as well. Their dish had mint. To them, we say, "You're welcome."

I'm going to tell you more about this cigar, which he smoked at Opa, later.
But let's call this cigar reference #2. Feel better? I do. 

 

*It actually wasn't yesterday, but the actual day doesn't matter to the story. I would have gotten this out on time but I was stymied (both good and bad) every time I got close to posting. First, the power flickered a few times, which meant the modem reset and I'd have to fiddle with that silliness. Then Cabellero #2 said he was on his way to the area and did we want to meet up. This involved some serious costume change from curly-haired house-bound crazy-writer****** to semi-normal person who would not elicit gasps of disgust or horror (hopefully). Double then, we get home, I settle in, and...the power goes out on the whole street. I ate Reese's cereal and went to bed. What else could I do?

**Cigar reference!

***Perfect date food? You can tell we've been together for quite a while...

****We're old, so we can say things like this without irony.

*****In case you didn't know, Atwells Avenue on Federal Hill is literally lined with restaurants, with the occasional tattoo parlor and bakery.

******Poor Valentino. The bloom is off the rose.

The Two Caballeros*, part the first: The Cuban Trade and '64 Padrons

Last night, I had a double date--yes, two of my favorite men** wined and dined me. Actually, sangria, not wine, and by "dine" I mean "ate until we almost died from deliciousness."

 

Valentino and I dragged our friend Doc to one of our most favorite restaurants on Federal Hill in Providence, RI (and really, one of our favorites in the universe), Opa the Phoenician, owned and run by Joe Karam.  (We learned about the place years ago because his daughter was in one of my classes and she remains one of my all-time favorite students--and not just because she makes a delicious sangria.)

 

Anyway, if you go (and you SHOULD go) you must must must get the tasting menu at this Lebanese/Mediterranean restaurant.  Do not order off the menu.  Do. Not. Please, just let Joe decide what you're going to get; you will not be sorry.  If you like unique stuff that you can't get just anywhere, this is your place.  If you ask really nicely, and it's available, get the raw kibbeh. (Follow the link, read about it, and don't you dare turn up your nose until you've tried it.) And if you're super adventurous, you should ask if Joe has raw liver (not for me, but the men loved it) and the lamb testicles, which you should stop your laughing until you try it, because those em-effers were damned good.

 

So when I rolled out of the restaurant, a little more slowly than the men because some nose-powdering was necessary, I found the guys chatting about (what else?) cigars with Joe. Actually, by the time I got out there, trades had already occurred, a couple of unbanded sticks to my guys and a banded but of the same heritage to Joe, if you catch my drift. 

 

Then we headed to Tammany Hall, a cigar bar down the street, where Doc's generosity hit a pinnacle.  He handed Valentino a Padron Family Reserve 1964 45th Anniversary Maduro that had been aging in his humidor for five years. They lit them up. I almost died of happiness. Five years of aging on top of tobacco that had already been aged for ten years, the hallmark of the Padron Family Reserve series.

 

Valentino to the right of me.

 

An article on the Cigars International website beautifully describes the aging process: "You know the taste of a well-aged cigar: the subtle complexity, the certain 'je ne c'est quoi,' that light kiss of tobacco flavor left gently lingering. Aging is often what makes a good cigar a great one."

Doc to the left.

Man, oh, man, when a great cigar becomes an even greater one? There are no appropriate words for this 52 x 6". I wanted everyone else to put their smokes out because the smell was polluting this delicious experience--like when you're trying to listen to your favorite song and people keep talking through it. I was lucky that they were both smoking the same thing on either side of me.  Now that's heaven!

Doc also gave Valentino a Padron Magnum 50 x 9" natural, which had been in his humidor for seven years. Seven effing years, on top of the two and a half years of aging the tobacco. You're going to have to wait to hear about that smoke (and second-hand smoke).
 



*Almost forgot! Caballero is one of my favorite words. It's Spanish for "knight" or "gentleman." I don't know which descriptor is more appropriate!

**Sorry you couldn't join us Cathie! Hope you're enjoying your vacation!!