Its business plan is simple: high-end cigars and high-end drinks.
Gambrills cigar shop puffs past smoking ban
May 14, 2007
By KATIE ARCIERI, Staff Writer
By KATIE ARCIERI, Staff Writer
Its business plan is simple: high-end cigars and high-end drinks.
The new Titan Cigar shop in Gambrills welcomes patrons to puff on an Ashton 898 and knock back Courvoisier inside the same room.
Sales have been high since the store’s opening at the Village at Waugh Chapel in February.
But owner Dave Williams expects profits to spike once the state’s smoking ban is enforced in February and prohibits restaurants and bars from offering patrons cigars.
“Where will someone go to enjoy a fine cigar and spirit?” said Mr. Williams, whose business obtained a liquor license last year.
The state’s smoking ban does not apply to tobacco retailers whose primary business comes from the sale of tobacco products and accessories. Mr. Williams expects cigars to make up 95 percent of Titan’s sales.
The ban, however, applies to restaurants and bars.
That means popular places like Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Annapolis and Lewnes’ Steakhouse in Eastport will be prohibited from offering cigars to patrons.
That would make Titan Cigar the only place locally to offer customers a drink and a cigar in the same place.
Roger Pastore, general manager at Ruth’s Chris in Annapolis, said customers will be “upset” once the ban is enforced.
“The reason they come out to dinner is because they want to enjoy a cigar after dinner,” he said. “There’s going to be a drop (in sales,) no question about it.”
The owner of Lewnes’ could not be reached for comment.
The new law defines smoking as the “act of smoking or carrying a burning cigar, cigarette, pipe or other tobacco product of any kind.”
Local cigar shop owners who don’t offer drinks in their establishments worry about the smoking ban’s impact on sales because consumption in general will dip. Still, they expect loyal clientele to keep them in business.
“They like smoking cigars, it’s a combination of aroma, taste, the act of doing it,” said Rome Zaffaroni, owner of the Annapolis Cigar Co. on Main Street.
Francis Keller, owner of the Smoke Shop, a Maryland Avenue business that sells pipes, cigars and other smoking equipment, said he caters to a group of regular clients who like to discuss politics.
“It’s kind of a men’s club, the last bastion of testosterone,” he said.
Sales of tobacco will no doubt be affected by smoking bans across the country, said Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America.
“There will be fewer opportunities to light up and we expect that to affect consumption,” he said.
But for now demand for cigars is still growing nationally.
Americans bought 9.8 billion cigars last year, up from 9.1 billion in 2005 according to the Washington association with 66 member companies including cigar manufacturers and importers.
Mr. Sharp said the perception of cigar smokers has changed drastically over the years. The image of cigar smokers as “loud boisterous gangsters” in the 1970s has taken on more glamorous connotations in the 1990s, when sports figures and movie stars made cigars fashionable, he said.
But the premium cigars Mr. Williams’ business offers have always been associated with “education and affluence,” he said. He said his shop has widespread appeal.
“We’re pulling people from D.C. and Baltimore because of the variety, because of the selection,” Mr. Williams said.
And selection there is.
The shop, beside Caribou Coffee, is a cigar aficionado’s dream.
Hundreds of cigars of all types and sizes are stacked to the roof in Spanish cedar and mahogany cabinets. The cigars – from places such as Nicaragua and Dominican Republic- range in price from $5 to $40.
After buying a cigar, clients retreat to a lounge area. There, they can enter a beverage card into what looks like a high-tech soda machine, only it spouts out rum and bourbon, among other drinks.
Then, clients can kick back at a table to read the newspaper or watch a game on the large-screen plasma TV.
Cigar lockers, marked with special plagues, are available for storage.
Mr. Williams said demand is so high he expects to open two more cigar bars and lounges in Maryland next year.
“People are calling me because there’s nothing like this,” he said.
