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Home > What's New > The California Opus
The California Opus
Posted: Monday, August 11, 2003
By Jack Bettridge
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| Brande Roderick and Stacey Kamano celebrate at Grand Havana. |
The scene was the atrium entrance to the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills two weeks ago as guests waited eagerly to enter for the celebration of the club's eighth birthday and the release of James Orr's excellent documentary on DVD, "The Fuente Family: An American Dream." The mood was robust, if charged with the sort of anticipation that accompanies events like movie premieres and award ceremonies attended by celebrities like Tom Selleck, Jon Voight, Arturo Sandoval and Peter Weller (for more on the celebration, see an upcoming issue of Cigar Aficionado). As the area filled with people clamoring for mojitos, hors d'oeuvres and their choice of Fuente Fuente OpusX or Ashtons, Keith Park, who manufacturers luxury cigar accessories under the Prometheus label, turned to a group of other cigar industry people and said: "It looks like the cigar boom all over again."
He was right. The air was filled with that same heady excitement that came hand in hand with the world's sudden fashion for cigars 10 years ago. You remember how much fun it was to finally come out of hiding and be proud to light up a cigar with other lovers of smoke in a cigar bar, or at a smoking night, or just with some buddies at a place that was smoke-friendly. It seemed having a cigar in hand was a badge of coolness. And as a result, you saw people who didn't really appreciate good cigars smoking them conspicuously because of the luster that they conferred upon them.
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| Cigar aficionados Tom Selleck and Jon Voight enjoy the Fuente-made cigars at the Grand Havana Room. |
What was different about this night was that not one person was there to raise his cool index by being caught up in the draft of a fad. They were there because they genuinely love cigars—and this was one of the few places they could go to enjoy them in peace or parade their enthusiasm for smoke. That's because cigars are not as trendy as they once were -- of course, that's the nature of fashion, it changes -- and because in the last few years smokers have been persecuted and driven into smaller and fewer venues in which they can smoke. In so many states and cities across the country, we are not allowed our right to smoke. And so if a chance arises, real aficionados take it -- with enthusiasm.
Park's comment quickly led to a discussion of the trend in legal encroachment on smokers' rights and how, ironically, it has been serendipitous for some establishments: the cigar shops that have become oases of smoking for workers who can't have a cigar at lunch anymore at their favorite tavern; the cigar bars that are suddenly filled again because patrons can't smoke anywhere else at night; the cigar clubs, such as the one we were standing in, that have had surges in membership.
I wouldn't wish to take anything away from the windfall profits that some are enjoying -- I'm happy when anyone makes an honest buck from cigars -- but it is sad that it comes at the expense of our rights. Rather than be mollified by the few glad winds that restriction blows the industry, we must remain forever vigilant and forestall encroachments on our rights.
I called my friend and smoked fish supplier, Lewis Shuckman in Louisville, Kentucky and talked about the situation. Shuckman told me there has been a movement afoot to outlaw smoking there, but the local restaurateurs are coming out strong against it. They know that customers want the option to smoke when they go out for a meal or a drink. What's more, Kentucky is a state that has large interests in tobacco and spirits (Bourbon). As we all know, the two go together. To undermine the enjoyment of either would be to cut into the state's economic base. Let's hope cool heads and Kentucky tavern owners prevail.
Shuckman does. He spoke as he puffed on a Partagas and sipped some Woodford Reserve. Then he told me about his recent luck in being chosen for a segment on "Good Morning, America" about spoonfish caviar, which he also sells. Before the spot, producers asked him what goes best with caviar. "I told them, ‘Russian vodka and Cuban cigars.' They said, 'Cigars! You can't say that on TV.' I said, 'You gotta be kiddin' me.' "
Lewis, I concur.
Photo credit: Michael Caulfield/WireImage.com Also in Cigar News:
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