Cigar Aficionado

No international food event in the 1990s has generated more culinary electricity than the Monte Carlo birthday blowout staged three Septembers ago by chef Alain Ducasse to honor Craig Claiborne, dean of American gastronomic letters. The …

When you first enter the San Angél Inn, modern Mexico City falls away and the comfort, style and grace of an old-time Spanish colonial hacienda enfold you. The more often you visit--as you become a regular over the years--the sensation …

Smoke-Filled Rooms are in Washington, D.C., But Cigars Survive Behind Closed Doors

If you want to know how seriously Americans take their steak, rent a video of John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, in which outlaw Valance, played by a reptilian Lee Marvin, causes lawyer-turned-waiter Jimmy Stewart to drop John …

There is a popular image of Scotland displayed in 1,000 calendars. It shows the Highlands ringed by soft-green mountains with heather in full autumnal flower and herds of deer on the hill. But there is more to the Scottish landscape, and …

Illegal Gambling Operations Handle Millions of Dollars Every Month

The hull shudders ever so slightly as the perfectly tuned brass propellers bite into the turquoise sea. As the huge diesel engines collect momentum, the boat gathers speed. The bow rises, the stern falls and the heart picks up the beat. …

When it comes to smoking, I guess we cigar lovers constitute one of the last beleaguered minorities. Yet even among smokers, the habit has been a source of conflict.

For many, the word tuxedo conjures images of Cole Porter, hair parted and slick, plinking out a poetic little ditty on the ivories. To others, the image evokes Noel Coward lounging in an overstuffed chair with brandy snifter in hand, …

For 45 years Las Vegas has existed as a dream city, a place to get away from the real world for a weekend or a week or forever. The Second Chance City, she's been called. To others, she's Lost Wages. Francis Ford Coppola transformed her …

The fire still burns for Terry Bradshaw, former Super Bowl MVP quarterback.

Raul Julia has charted an unconventional path through film and stage.

The Four Seasons Hotel New York, which opened this summer on Manhattan's sleek East 57th Street, has everything--including details so fine-tuned that it's hard to find anything amiss. This 367-room, $360 million hotel is so new, perfect …

Any old hotel worth its salt will have plenty of stories about the great and not-so-great who have passed through its portals. But it is a rare establishment that will have an historian on its staff and a museum on its premises. Experience…

Actor John Goodman tells a story of some advice he received from Peter O'Toole while making King Ralph in 1991. During a break in filming, Goodman, in awe of the British thespian, asked to borrow an ashtray. O'Toole, with characteristic …

An intense August heat blows in through the narrow doorway of a dimly lit, hallway-shaped store in Union City, New Jersey. A few yellowing posters look as if they are melting into the stucco walls behind them. The air inside is thick with …

I returned to the United States from Cuba in late September, and, for the first time in more than two years, I felt a sense of optimism. In Cuba, shortages had still been apparent at every turn; people continued to wait in long lines for …

The cigar's wrapper has an opulent dark brown color; its texture is silky and flawless. A large band, slightly yellowing and oily like the surface of an old painting, encircles it with the name "Belinda" printed in block letters. Perhaps …

After years of suffering in exile, cigars are back. It's almost impossible to recount the extraordinary media attention focused on cigars as well as on CIGAR AFICIONADO during this past year. But let me just run down a few examples:

Dear Marvin: After my first wife died, I made a habit of smoking my first cigar in bed before breakfast. When I was making the decision for my second marriage, I wanted to make sure that I would still be able to continue to do this, …