Cigar Lounges Becoming a Haute Hangout in Santa Monica
Cigarettes may be out of fashion in Santa Monica, but stogies are definitely all the rage.
Two cigar lounges have opened in the beach city during the past month, drawing crowds that pack the house on weekend nights. Cigar lounges are exactly what the name implies: smoky yet intimate places to relax and puff.
“Smoking is like golf--it’s a whole lifestyle,” said Ken Chandler, owner of the Royal Cigar Society on Main Street.
With its hardwood floors, plants and wrought iron furniture, the Royal Cigar Society could be in Jamaica or some other balmy island.
Customers are welcome to bring alcohol into the Royal to maximize their puffing pleasure. Cognac is the traditional accompaniment, but today anything goes, said Chandler.
Just a mile or two away, on Broadway near the Third Street Promenade, the Cigar Cellar offers 80 types of cigars with up to 15 different sized cigars in each brand. Customers can rent lockers in the lounge for $350 a year to store their cigars in vaults.
Never mind that Santa Monica has been a trendsetter for health and fitness. Cigar aficionados pooh-pooh the health risk of cigars, pointing out that most experienced cigar smokers do not inhale.
Besides, cigar lovers say, cigars are on the cutting edge of the clubby social scene--just the place that many Santa Monica locals, including a bevy of celebrities, like to be. Yet when it comes to cigars, Santa Monica is several steps behind Beverly Hills, where there are at least six cigar lounges.
Like those in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica’s cigar lounges attract a wide range of customers, although Hollywood names are the big draw. Jim Belushi, for example, is a partner in the Cigar Cellar and actor Rob Lowe has become a regular customer.
But it is the average cigar lovers--both men and women--who keep cigar lounges in business.
“We get the young aficionados from the ages of 20 to 32. They have just started to smoke and they’re reading all the cigar magazines,” said Joe Briski, general manager of the Cigar Cellar.