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This used to be where I would go, sit in the back on the big couch, and discuss careers and other matters conspiratorial or political. Now, at the urging of friends and people I barely know, I am revealing knowledge that is not so much a secret, but is also not top-of-mind. I am doing this only because I am moving to the West Coast of the United States and no longer feel the need to keep the crowds down so that I can get my favorite seat and smoke a cigar after work. New York City, even with its champion of antismoking safely into his second term as mayor, has seven public places that are officially cigar-friendly. One of the best is The Carnegie Club on West 56th Street. That's Midtown, near Carnegie Hall, and that means it is close to what used to be my office. That's the first measure of "best," but hardly the most important.
The Carnegie Club is the place that was to be the locus of a cigar event during the 2004 Republican National Convention. But city officials advised that the club did not have a permit excepting it from the antismoking ordinance and this made the papers. The Carnegie Club has fought the good fight in getting to where it is now. It's been fined for keeping the fire glowing. At one point, the club allowed smoking only in the loft (you'll understand if you visit). Tenacity has paid off and smoking is allowed throughout the premises.
The Carnegie Club has wallpaper with a design resembling the North Star on it. The bar has a green top and a large plasma TV behind it. The best seats in the house -- I call them mine -- are the two very comfortable armchairs just beyond the big column in the middle of the main room and just behind the bar stools. Perfect view of the TV, which is usually carrying the sporting event you've asked the bartender to put on. There's a small cocktail table between the two chairs where you can set your Gosling's Black Seal on the rocks next to the ashtray that a female server has brought over. The servers, in line with an effort to lend some elegance to the proceedings, generally wear black cocktail dresses as they deliver the silver tray carrying the cigar you've ordered from a list of 16. On the tray are cedar strips that the young ladies set ablaze to light your cigar. Nice touch.
The cigar menu is vital to The Carnegie Club. First, so that you can still smoke there, 10 percent of the club's revenues must come from tobacco sales. So, there is what amounts to a minimum tab of $20 per person, $10 of which "must be tobacco." The "house cigar" costs, not surprisingly, $10 and is an acceptable representation of a robusto produced in the Dominican Republic. There are some very good cigars on the list. A Davidoff Millennium Petit Corona ($20) is a superb small cigar. The Bolivar Toro ($16) and Partagas Black Label Maximo ($20) are on the list, as is the Macanudo Hyde Park ($14), a superb mild smoke. Padrón, Fuente and Ashton are also on the menu.
Geoffrey Williams, the club's manager, says the list is a work in progress. "I want to offer some different cigars," he says. "We offer the cigars on the list and some others on a silver tray. People want to see the cigars they're buying." Williams explains that his customers are beginning to understand that paying a premium for cigars at a place where you can also smoke them is just part of doing business in New York. You really won't find lower prices at any of the other joints in the city. Williams is passionate about his bar and about what he's offering. You should feel free to ask if there's anything special that's not on the menu, whether it's a cigar or a libation. Don't be looking for anything Cuban. That ain't gonna happen.
"I've got more rums than are listed," Williams explains. The Gosling's, for example, is not on the menu. "There's just no room on the menu. I also just got some great Burgundies, a Pomerol, that aren't on the list."
The Carnegie Club has pumped up its food menu to six dishes, one of which is sorbet. That's fine. Even better is the live entertainment you can enjoy on Monday (jazz, 9 p.m. to 12 a.m.), Friday (jazz, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.), Saturday and Sunday (blues, 8 to 11 p.m.) nights. Saturdays are particularly popular when Steve Maglio and the Stan Rubin 11-piece orchestra do two shows (8:30 and 10:30) of Sinatra tunes. They don't repeat songs from one show to the next. This is an act worth checking out and you can finally light up that double corona you've been saving and smoke it indoors. Just the way the cigar gods intended.
The Carnegie Club, Cocktail & Smoking Lounge
156 West 56th Street
New York City, NY
212-957-9676
Sunday and Monday: 4:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.
Tuesday to Saturday: 4:30 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
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