Owning a small business today is hard. Owning a boutique shop like Nash Matti’s cigar shop is even harder. As the owner of Smokers Embassy Cigars, Matti, like many other Dacula business owners, continues to adjust to a challenging economy. “Today’s business is hard the way the economy is,” he said. “No matter what kind of business you’re in.” Matti said his clients are also dealing with the effects of the ongoing economic downturn and have reduced spending accordingly.

“Where they used to purchase — for example — a nice box, now they’re bargain hunting and shopping around and I don’t blame them,” he said. “We do the same thing. We watch what our customers do and do the same thing.”

Adjusting to changing conditions and listening to his clientele have allowed Matti to successfully manage his business despite the recession.

“If you can’t manage [your business] the right way, you’ll go under real quick,” he said.

For Matti, managing the right way also involves being smart with a dollar. He describes the dollar as tool — one that if not used correctly is useless. Matti said it is very important for business owners to realize when to spend money and when not to spend it.

“You can’t operate like you used to,” he said.

Though Matti has successfully adjusted his operations, he hopes an economic recovery will happen sooner rather than later.

“It’s hard to predict. It really is,” he said. “I wish tomorrow.”

Until that time, Matti is thankful for the Dacula community and his clientele who have helped him stay in business since first opening his doors in 2004. Matti said his regulars have not only stuck with him, but have also become a part of the shop.

“I’m one of those retailers that loves his clientele. They keep my doors open,” he said. “They’re a blessing. They really are.”

A Palm Coast cigar company has inked a deal to exclusively distribute a Nicaraguan cigar brand. Company officials say they expect to sell $4.5 million worth of the cigars in a year’s time. M. Misti Cigar Co., which has been in Palm Coast for 2 1/2 years, will distribute the Don Duarte cigar line, a recent addition to the cigar industry. That line is a subsidary of a Nicarauga-based tobacco company GBP.

The cigars will sell for $6 to $9 each.

“The brand, since its inception approximately three years ago, is enjoying above average international industry growth,” said Kim Rotunno, chief financial director for M. Misti.

In addition to distributing cigars, M. Misti manufactures its own, under the name Crown Jewel International, in the Dominican Republic and Nicarauga. It sells them in 10 states, including Florida, as well as in Washington, D.C. In July, M. Misti opened its first Crown Jewel Cigar Bar and Lounge at the Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast. That cigar bar carries Crown Jewel cigars as well as other cigar brands.

Rotunno said most of M. Misti’s staff work outside of the United States. Independent cigar representatives and brokers handle out-of-state distribution for the company’s products, she said.

Don Duarte cigars are made in the Esteli, a northern region of Nicaragua.

Roger Duarte Rodriguez, founder and CEO of GBP, the manufacturer of Don Duarte cigars, referred questions about the partnership to Rotunno.

Rotunno said in an email that Palm Coast’s close proximity to three international airports — Daytona Beach, Jacksonville and Orlando — as well as its proximity to the ports of Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami make travel to Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic by M. Misti staff more cost efficient.

Mark Mistie Jr. is the company’s corporate director for U.S. operations. He and Rotunno both operate out of Palm Coast.

Buy cigarettes and tobacco products at cheapest cigarettes shop online.

The number of Maryland teenagers who smoke cigarettes dropped significantly in the past decade, but state health officials say new statistics show that more young people are now getting hooked on candy-flavored cigars instead. In response, the state announced Thursday that it is launching a marketing campaign aimed at curbing the problem and trying to prevent the unraveling of years of work to stop teens from smoking.

“It jeopardizes all of the gains in Maryland we have made in terms of tobacco use, and we cannot let that happen,” said Dr. Donald Shell, interim director of the state Center for Health Promotion & Education.

Cigarette smoking among middle and high school students dropped 38.9 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to results of a survey by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Cigar use increased by more than 11 percent during the same time period.

A decade ago, 12.5 percent of Marylanders under age 18 said they had smoked a cigar in the last 30 days, while 23 percent had smoked a cigarette. That gap narrowed significantly last year when 13.9 percent of young people had smoked a cigar in the last 30 days and 14.1 percent had smoked a cigarette.

Selling tobacco products to minors is illegal, but not all stores check identification, and many teenagers find adults to buy them cigarettes and cigars.

Health advocates have long argued that tobacco companies lure teens into buying the cigars with colorful packaging and flavors like strawberry, peach, mango or chocolate that cover up the taste of the tobacco. The cigars are also sold individually, sometimes for less than a dollar, an amount that many children and teens can afford.

Many teenagers don’t believe cigars have the same health risks as cigarettes. But state health officials said that cigars have more tobacco than cigarettes, burn longer and give off greater amounts of secondhand smoke. They put people at risk for ailments such cancer, emphysema and infertility, just as cigarettes do.

In addition, officials say, the cigars are sometimes hollowed out and filled with marijuana.

Several attempts at the state and local level to ban the sale of the flavored cigars or to require that they be sold in larger packets to drive up the cost, have failed. Baltimore is fighting in court to end the individual sale of the cigars.

The Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of flavored cigarettes nationally in 2009, but not cigars. Pending legislation could soon give the agency more regulatory authority over cigars, although that doesn’t necessarily mean an immediate ban.

A representative with the Cigar Association of America did not return calls Thursday, but the group has spoken out against cigar bans in the past.

State Secretary of Health Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein said the new marketing campaign is a good first step to help reduce cigar smoking by teens until broader change is made.

“What this adds up to is a real threat,” Sharfstein said. “It’s not just about cigarettes and cigars. It’s about health.”

The $125,000 campaign funded by federal stimulus money will start in mid-December. It features a picture of children chasing after an ice cream truck with a giant cigar on the roof.

The message on the advertisement reads: “Warning: Cigars are sold in the same flavors & prices as ice cream. No matter how they sugarcoat it, cigars kill.”

The marketing campaign was unveiled at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School in Baltimore, where students said cigars are easy for young people to get.

Taneisha Carter, a 17-year-old senior who lives in Cherry Hill, said that she thinks the tobacco companies shouldn’t use such colorful packaging. She also doesn’t like how prominently they are displayed in stores.

“You go in to get a chicken box or buy candy, and they are right there, tempting kids,” Carter said.

Carter said she tried a cigarette once when she was 12 years old and didn’t like the taste.

Health advocates applauded the campaign even as they said more can be done.

Kathleen Dachille, an associate professor and director of the Legal Resource Center for Tobacco, Regulation, Litigation and Advocacy at the University of Maryland School of Law, said hitting people in their pocketbook would help cut back on cigar use. She supports a tax on cigars and banning single sales.

It might be hard to believe, given today’s strict smoking regulations, that cigar advertising was once everywhere. But for those of us who appreciate the artwork as part of the cigar experience, box art from the golden age has been collected in Labeling America: Popular Culture on Cigar Box Labels by John Grossman (Fox Chapel Publishing, 320pp.)

Labeling America is a visual history of label art printed from 1849-1971 by three generations of the Schlegel family. George Schlegel Lithographers was one of the premiere American companies producing artwork for cigar boxes of the time, and this volume collects a wide and vivid sample of the artwork they produced.

Grossman applies his expert knowledge in an approachable but informative history of the rise and fall of lithography and how the cigars of yesteryear connected with the artwork.

The book traces the evolution of cigar advertising through trial and error, offering forgiving evaluations of a pioneering industry: “Some of the imagery now seems quaint, naïve, even odd. Yet the beginning of familiar advertising themes can be seen, such as the portrayal of famous men and women on the labels, with or without their permission, suggesting product endorsement and use.”

The reprints in this book (which retails for $39.95) are actually from the John and Carolyn Grossman collection, which is on display at the du Pont estate Winterthur in Brandywine Valley, Delaware.

John Grossman’s painstaking work in authoring this volume makes for a pleasant read whether you’re flipping through the decades of artwork, or reading it cover to cover, absorbing the history of a printing dynasty and a bygone era’s elegant tobaccania.

The bar at East Third and German streets has gone back to its roots as a Prohibition-era speakeasy. Not only is the drinking at Scotty’s Cigar & Martini Lounge legal, owner Scott Little is embracing the concept completely. Renovations have restored the interior of the building, a liquor establishment since the 1920s, to the original Caesar Batista Club setup. Oversized black-and-white photos of the old club — which was open during Prohibition, then continued as a speakeasy — are on the walls. Bartenders dress in 1930s-era vests with bow ties and matching garters around the upper arms of white dress shirts.

Patrons can imbibe in the lavish upscale lounge while enjoying the finer points of their favorite robusto, corona or portofino cigar. The back room has a pool table and several other games along with a sitting area featuring a vintage sofa and chairs.

Gems like the mirrors behind the main bar and intricately decorated tin ceilings, both installed in the 1930s, tell a story of nostalgic opulence when Caesar Batista thrived in the 1930s and ’40s after liquor was again legal.

The club was sold to the American Legion in 1952 and later housed a biker bar (Rex’s) and, eventually, O’Brien’s, a popular hangout for day-shift workers, fishermen and cops.

By the late ’90s the neighborhood declined, and the place became known as a nuisance. Little bought the building and decided to return it to its former glory as an upscale lounge, though he faced challenges.

Scotty’s quickly became known as an ultra-cool bar that specialized in mixing a great martini, offering patrons handmade premium cigars and some of the best live jazz in the region. Then came the city smoking ordinance.

Many bars had to ban smoking, but not Scotty’s. In fact, Little went so far as to get his bar a state smoking license.

Today, Scotty’s is Erie’s only cigar bar, featuring a walk-in humidor. The bar also installed a sophisticated fresh-air exchange system to keep smoke from bothering nonsmoking patrons.

So, everyone can step into the future of Scotty’s, enjoying the colorful history of the bar’s building. Have a martini, play the jukebox and smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.

It’s a place for men to go instead of hiding out in the garage or the back deck. It’s actually the men’s version of a tea room. Main Street Cigars has opened on Main Street in Medford. It is a sophisticated business, with the largest humidor in the region. Cigars sell from $4 to $20 and patrons can become members in a private lounge with leather chairs and big screen televisions all while smoking a cigar and maybe talking sports or politics with other cigar smokers.

Owner Deborah Rulli, who lives in the downtown district in Medford, is no stranger to operating a business on Main Street. For 12 years, she ran For the Senses, a popular store that became a victim of a bad economy.

“People just stopped shopping,” she said.

Looking for another business to open because she needed the income, Rulli began talking to people in the cigar business. She went to Las Vegas to meet some of the vendors. She sought out mentors to teach her the finer points of cigar smoking.

“Even in a bad economy, cigars are a small luxury. People will buy a good cigar.”

She is introducing her business through her website, www.mainstreetcigarsnj.com and is expecting that as word about the shop spreads virally through the area, people will be stopping in.

“And they’re going to love it. It really is a place cigar smokers can go to enjoy their cigars in a pleasant, relaxing atmosphere.”

She did an informal survey in the area and found that cigar smokers said they had no place to go to enjoy their cigars.

It’s been a little more than a month since Paul and Jennifer Groh purchased the former Jack’s Tobacco from owner Jack Cummens, and slowly but surely the Grohs are making changes to the 18-year old Brookfield establishment while retaining Cummens’ longtime customers. The shop, now named Metro Cigars Brookfield, is the third cigar shop owned by the Grohs in the Milwaukee area.

Like the two stores in Germantown and Port Washington, the Brookfield location features a walk-in humidor — a sauna-like room where customers can choose cigars that come from the Dominican Republic to Honduras to Nicaragua. There is also a smoking lounge where customers can smoke their purchased cigars or have a beer or coffee.

“We are excited about the opportunity to learn about pipe tobacco and pipes (something that Jack’s was known for) and growing that side of the business, and also getting to know the customer base here,” Jennifer Groh says. “It’s really the camaraderie of it that we enjoy most. The people are number one.”

There are the “Pipe Guys,” members of the Milwaukee Area Pipe Society, who meet every third Thursday of the month to discuss all things pipes and tobacco.

There are the regulars, like retired salesman Harry Spriggs of Brookfield, who has been coming in nearly every day for the past 18 years.

“Harry comes in every day like clockwork,” says 12-year patron and part-time employee John Losano. “Once in the morning and once in the afternoon.”

Losano, who comes in nearly every day as well, compares a cigar smoker to someone who enjoys wine.

“It’s about the textures, the flavors and the relaxation. A cigar is a complement to the conversation,” he says.

Both Spriggs and Losano are long-time friends of Jack Cummens, and say that the Grohs were the right people to come along and take over and bring the store back to what it once was. Quantity and variety of products are already increasing from the all-time low seen in the past year, and customers are starting to return.

Competition comes from Havana Lounge and Cigar in West Allis, which features a full bar and live entertainment. Metro Cigars Brookfield started offering bottled micro, domestic and import beers two years ago but does not offer hard alcohol.

“Part of the charm about this place is you come in and see someone you know. It’s a place people can come, sit down, have a cigar and socialize,” says Losano.

Boosting inventory, lower prices
Jennifer says the main priorities are to get the inventory levels back up and make aesthetic changes. The Grohs have already implemented new point of sales and inventory systems to track customer purchases.

As for the economy, Jennifer says it has affected the industry as a whole. For example, manufacturers have had to lower the prices of their cigars, but that can actually be good for businesses like hers because it makes products more affordable. “Our most expensive cigar right now is around 30 dollars, but we also have ones for five, six or seven dollars,” she says.

Another pressing issue Metro Cigars has escaped is the statewide smoking ban that went into effect July 5, 2010. Like other tobacco shop and cigar bars that already had a smoking lounge established before the ban took effect, it was “grandfathered in” and not required to abide by the ban. Now, however, new shops that open are not allowed to have smoking lounges.

“The cigar community is like a family because it is so niche. They lobbied together and really helped against the ban,” says Beth Urpanil, manager of the Brookfield store.

Jennifer says cigar smoking differs from cigarette smoking because “it’s not habitual, it’s about the socialization.”

Whether it’s the daily patron like Harry Spriggs, after-work customers, sporting event crowds, or people who come in with laptops to sit with a cup of coffee, “you usually know someone when you come in, and if you didn’t before, you do when you walk out,” says Urpanil.

Losano admits the store sees significantly more male than female customers, “about 90/10,” and there are especially more males that hang around on the high-top stools at the bar or on the brown leather couches. But, whoever happens to be hanging around on a certain day, the conversations never turn into debate.

“We talk about everything from politics to sports,” says Spriggs, and, oddly enough, “It’s rare to talk about cigars.”

The quest for the perfect cigar does not always end in riches, but sometimes the accomplishment is in the journey itself. I rolled into Mexico last week with my wife and a couple of friends for eight days of R&R at a resort on the island of Isla Mujeres, off the coast of Cancun. Being in a tropical paradise and a country where Cuban cigars are legal, I obviously set out to find the perfect cigar. In the end, it was the experience of the adventure and the search for the cigar that yielded more enjoyment than the cigar itself.

The first stop was the duty free-shop in the Cancun airport. I encountered the usual Cuban staples: Partagss, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta. Three-packs and five-packs, most in the $50 to $100 range. A total rip-off. Are they even real? They had the hologram and the seal from Habanos, but I knew those were easy to fake. I decided to give it a chance though— given that I was in a duty-free shop and not talking to some vendor on the street, I figured the odds were slightly in my favor. I bought a three-pack of Romeo y Julieta No. 5 cigars for $25.

Motioning for the attendant to unlock the glass case, he smiled and asked, “¿Habla Español?” I held my thumb and forefinger an inch apart. “Un poquitito.” Just a tiny little bit. “¿De donde?” He asked. Where are you from? “Minnesota.” “Ah,” he nodded. “Venezuela.”

“No,” I waved a hand. “Mnnesota.” I pointed to my baseball hat and quickly realized I’ve just pointed to the red and white Minnesota Twins TC embroidered on my hat, surely confusing the poor gentleman. He’ll never connect TC to Minnesota, I thought, so I quickly explain, “The Twin Cities.” He nodded and smiled and I’m not sure how much he understood, or how much he cared, because the next thing he did was point me to the cash register. I paid for my three-pack and the girl bagged my stogies in plastic and secured them with a twist tie. I passed through customs and an hour later, my party and I were on Isla Mujeres.

I knew the island would be filled with cigars and vendors pushing them on every corner and after five minutes I knew that even if these Cubans were real, I wouldn’t want to touch them. The vendors cared for their cigars the same way I care for my dirty laundry. If there was a bin they could have used to toss these cigars in for their store for display, they would have used one. I saw boxes of cigars arranged outside on the steps leading into a shop, probably boiling to death under the 90-degree sun or sopping under the 90-percent humidity. I saw wrappers cut and wrinkled like the cigar had been carried in someone’s pocket. I saw gnarly, makeshift variety-packs where a Cohiba shared a box with a pair of cheap Montecristos and a handful of nameless mix-and-match cigarillos. The prices weren’t bad but these cigars were so unattractive that I was happy I brought a six-pack of Sancho Panza Double Maduros from home.

I shared the Romeo y Julietas with the couple we traveled with, giving one to the husband, another to the wife, and keeping the third for myself. This would be the first cigar either of them had smoked and they needed a quick seminar. I cut their ends and demonstrated how to light it, and how to puff on the stogie. “Don’t pull too fast,” I warned them. “You don’t want to hotbox it.” “Do I inhale?” asked the wife. “No,” I said. “Just enjoy the taste.”

We sat on a cliff overlooking Mexico’s easternmost point, watching and listening to the waves, smoking Cuban cigars. After 15 minutes of peace and solitude unknown to the American hustle-bustle, it was time to move on. “How do you put it out?” they asked.

“You don’t,” I told them as I gently placed my smoldering nub on the edge of the cliff. “Just let it go out on its own. Respect the stick. Leave it here, and let it be.” They did, and we walked back to our golf cart and began the journey back to our hotel.

On the way back we passed a small baseball stadium with a capacity of probably 5,000. There was a bronze statue of a baseball player outside but we passed it too quickly for me to read the name. Then I realized, they have their own baseball heroes in Mexico. Their own great games, their own legendary moments. Mexican baseball was a whole new universe, and one where I could happily spend a lifetime.

When we got closer to our hotel, the vendors appeared with their calls to Cuban cigars. But aside from the Romeo y Julietas, the Sanchos were all I smoked. Sure, the vendors are constantly pointing to their, “Cigars! Cuban cigars!” They think that since you’re a guy, you’re going to jump all over them but these guys are clearly marketing to the cigar-ignorant, and based on the volume of product available, this is a market that thrives.

Sadly, I never found the perfect cigar. Sure, the cigars from the airport were good, but I was hoping to try an authentic Cohiba Behike. All I encountered was the bottom of the bargain bin. As I stared into the blue water I realized that every quest does not end in glory, especially the quest for the Holy Grail. My crusade would have to continue on another trip, to be resumed on my next journey overseas. Until then, I could only relish in the excitement of the search and the anticipation of another adventure.

Leaf Restaurant Cigar Bar and Lounge was a surprising explosion of sight, sound and smell when I visited. The place was packed; the noise of Friday night revelry reverberated across the room, and the aromas of grilled steak commingled with subtle hints of tobacco. So much light and energy was unexpected in the midst of the autumn darkness that enveloped the restaurant’s way-out-there industrial park location.

No doubt Leaf’s finely appointed decor and good food, along with the opportunity to combine food and drink with a good stogie, has made the cigar bar popular, even though it opened only about two months ago.

Wood predominates here contributing to the patrician tone. A few tasteful prints add color, and flat-screened televisions at the bar along with lots of bar-height tables keep the contemporary ambience casual and comfortable. A ventilation system on steroids assures haze-free air even though tendrils of smoke waft from the ends of cigars.
Leaf’s fare, prepared with fresh ingredients from local, sustainable sources, features appetizers such as Belgian frites (fresh-cut fries tossed with black truffle sea salt and fresh watercress, served with house-made Belgian aioli) that set menu’s sophisticated standard.

The theme continues with sandwiches such as Polynesian turkey burger with chipotle-mango salsa and red curry coconut dressing and entrees such as fried yellowfin tuna and toasted macadamia nuts encrusted in crispy phyllo with coconut-curry sauce and chipotle-mango salsa.

From the specials menu, duck empanadas ($8), filled with duck confit, manchego cheese and caramelized shallot, served with peppadew-lime grastrique, were tasty enough.

A cup of silky roasted tomato bisque ($3), topped with aged cheddar, crostini and fresh watercress, was smooth in taste and texture. Hickory-smoked Caesar salad ($7, half), an intriguing change of pace, included house made dressing, Asiago cheese and anchovy.

Served on a baguette with lettuce, tomato and horseradish mayo, the skirt steak grinder ($12) — made with marinated and grilled meat topped with caramelized onions, sauteed oyster mushrooms and aged cheddar cheese — was a fine sandwich. I especially enjoyed the side of potato salad: Even though it was heavy on mayonnaise, it also was heavy on flavor and crunchy with celery.

Half of a certified-organic game hen ($21), marinated in fresh herbs, citrus and olive oil, was blackened from grilling and infused with smoky flavor. Served over wonderfully lumpy smashed bliss potatoes, with “ale’d” and herbed natural jus, the hen was as tender as the sauteed baby carrots that added color to the plate.

At once original yet traditional, too, house-made sweet corn ice cream topped a square of pumpkin bread pudding ($5) in a warm, satisfying harvest dessert drizzled with maple anglaise.

Leaf is a destination restaurant for cigar smokers. For others, it’s worth a stop when you’re in the neighborhood.

Dinner for two, plus one after-dinner cigar, totaled $79 with tax and tip, but no alcoholic beverages.