Stogies

If you are a fan of the "good-life," then you would be a fan of Stogies on Grand in St. Paul. There are other GREAT stores out there that offer a small selection of premium tobacco, Heimies Haberdashery also in St. Paul, but few places (none other that I know of) offer a smoking lounge to get you through those cold winter days or hot summer ones at that!

My father-in-law and I sat down yesterday in the Diamond Crown Lounge at Stogies and played a tournament of cribbage. The best part of this, other than almost skunking my dad twice in a row, were the cigars. I warmed up to a Hoyo de Monterry and my dad had an Olivia. Both scored over 92 in Cigar Aficionado. It was the epitome of living it up and I am going to have to make this a regular thing.

Now, in case you're thinking of starting your own cigar shop and lounge I should warn you. As my dad and I were leaving, we stopped to talk over the idea of getting one of these shops in Forest Lake. Well, we were informed that it takes roughly between $300,000 and $500,000 to start one up. I guess real estate, equipment and inventory is still pretty pricey! The racking if Cuba by hurricanes hasn't helped things either. Perhaps President Obama can include lifting sanctions on Cuba to help fuel the economy by bringing more quality cigars into the states.

Ah, cigars. Now if we can only get fedoras to come back into style...