Features
Le Louis XV, Monte Carlo, Monaco
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 …
San Angel Inn, Mexico City
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 …
Is the Air Any Cleaner?
Long before the 1920 presidential nomination of Warren Harding in a smoke-filled room, cigars were the incense of politics. A good cigar was the fragrant closure to every formal …
Prime Steaks
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 …
Single Malt's Success
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 …
Living by the Book
You would never guess that this tenement is a place where millions of dollars are won and lost every year. From the outside, the decrepit building in one of New York City's …
High-Seas Luxury: Charter Yachts
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 …
Opinion: Cigar Smoking and Coronary Health
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. I …
A Tale of Tuxedos
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 …
Vegas Suites
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 …
White Heat
It is Sunday morning on CBS' NFL Today and more than 6 million people are watching. NFL analyst Terry Bradshaw is airing it out in the West 57th Street studio. "It's put-up-or-s…
Only As Good As The Memories
His eyes close, his chin lifts and his head tilts back ever so slightly as a grin slowly raises the corners of his mouth. "A cigar is as good as memories that you have when you …
Four Seasons, New York City
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 …
Raffles, Singapore
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 …
Cigars
Crystal Ashtrays
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, …
Cigars Across America: U.S. Cigar Makers
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 Future of Cuba
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 …
Old Havanas
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 …
Ratings from this Issue
Up Front
Rise Up
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 …
Out of the Humidor
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 …