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Home > What's New > New York City's Nat Sherman Moves Across the Street
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New York City's Nat Sherman Moves Across the Street
Posted: Thursday, January 31, 2008
By Gregory Mottola
A view from the mezzanine inside the new Nat Sherman store
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Nat Sherman has moved from the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to the southeast corner at 12 East 42nd Street. The shop, originally slated to reopen in June, opened its doors in October. The grand opening celebration took place last month.
Unlike the previous location, the new store resides in its own freestanding building, which was completely gutted and redesigned with superior state-of-the-art ventilation.
The space occupies about 5,700 square feet on three floors, giving it more retail space than in the previous shop. Because of the ground floor’s 30-foot-high ceiling, architects were able to create a larger grandiose façade that would not have been feasible in the old shop. The front of the building still has the Nat Sherman bronze clock that hung over the entrance of the former location, but large windows and a high copper roof make the front more distinct.
The interior of the new shop offers much the same ambience as the old, with wooden surfaces, plaid materials and the overall Londonesque gentlemen’s social club decor. In addition, the third level adds a library feel carefully planned out by Hollywood set designer Charles McMarry, who was instrumental in designing the previous store as well. Many of the old shop’s antique fixtures and cabinets were installed to maintain the old-world appearance.
Amenities include a conference room, large climate control humidors, 228 private lockers and the new Johnson Club room on the shop’s lower level. The club room is still incomplete but should be ready by mid-February. According to Michael Holba, marketing associate for Nat Sherman, the Johnson Club room is intended to be a sequestered, members-only lounge uninterrupted by the bustle of staff and customers, and will offer full bar service, light fare and private-label coffee.
The store’s main-level walk-in humidor, with its slate floors and gallery-type spot lighting, seems more like a wine cellar than a cigar shop. Within the humidor is a gated inner chamber called the Blender’s Vault containing some third-party cigars as well as special brands made exclusively for Nat Sherman by cigar companies such as Oliva and Matasa. These cigars are not available online or at any other Nat Sherman retailer.
The Nat Sherman headquarters is located in Fort Lee, New Jersey, while its cigarette manufacturing facility is located in Greensboro, North Carolina.
From the current issue of Cigar Insider.
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