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Ted Raffouly is telling Ed that he got home around 3:30 in the morning. Ed says that he left at about 2:30. That was early Sunday morning. Now, it's about 2 p.m. on Sunday and both are sitting at a metal outdoor table on the sidewalk at the Westlake Village Promenade in Westlake Village, California.
And they're smoking big cigars.
Raffouly owns this very California cigar venue. He sells a superb selection of about 80 premium smokes, many of which would make anybody's list of "best." Among them is the Paul Garmirian Connoisseur I've chosen for the afternoon after buying a bottle of water and a double espresso at the café inside the Barnes & Noble bookstore just behind Raffouly's Cigar Zone.
The cigar store is a cart, humidified and temperature-controlled, out of which Raffouly has been doing business for about three years.
"I have my regulars," Raffouly says. "Sometimes they come by and we stay late. Like last night." He smiles.
No booze, no food sold here unless you hit the La Salsa or Cold Stone Creamery -- or, on the weekends, the hot dog cart from which Ed has acquired a chili-cheese dog and BBQ chips -- or other restaurants in this lifestyle shopping center. Raffouly is selling cigars and accessories. And the customers come to buy them, sometimes using the impromptu "drive-thru," pulling up to the curb and telling Raffouly what they'd like. The customers also come to join Raffouly at the table for a smoke. It's a great opportunity for me, having just moved to the area, to meet fellow aficionados and enjoy blue skies while savoring a corona.
"The bookstore provides a lot of foot traffic," Raffouly explains. Like I did, many shoppers go in to buy coffee and something to read and then peruse the Ashton VSGs, the Toraño Exodus 1959s, the Fuente Don Carlos Double Rs, and the Oliva Os. They're all here, including the Flor Dominicana Chisel, and they are generally reasonably priced despite the Golden State's nearly 50 percent tobacco tax.
"I wish I had more room," Raffouly explains, noting the limitations of the cart.
"I have many more cigars I'd like to sell here."
The Cigar Zone sells a lot of Romeo & Julietas and Macanudo Hyde Parks.
They're the labels people know, but Raffouly turns on his customers to some of the less well-known brands, like the PG.
Dale, a visitor from northern California, sits with us and lights up a Rocky Patel 1992 Vintage Series Churchill. He's two-thirds of the way through when his mobile phone rings. It's his wife, who's been shopping and is ready to go.
"But I'm not ready," he says. We all laugh. "No, that's just the radio," he says. He negotiates another 15 minutes. "That's gonna be the most expensive 15 minutes ever."
Raffouly came to the United States from Iraq, via Italy, in 1981. He'd like to open a more traditional store, you know, one with, like, four walls and a roof, but the rent would be significantly more than what he pays at his outdoor location. He basically has no overhead. Raffouly just wants to sell the products, about which he is very passionate.
"This is the best country in the world," he exclaims. No one argues. Who could? We're all smoking great cigars in generally great weather in the middle of the Santa Monica Mountains. We all feel right at home.
The Cigar Zone
Westlake Village Promenade
180 Promenade Way
Westlake Drive and Thousand Oaks Boulevard
Westlake Village, CA
805-496-0778
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