Of all of the improvements that have been made to CigarPlaces.com over the years, this may be one of the coolest when it comes to making the site more useful to those of us looking for a cigar friendly bar or restaurant.
View Foursquare Tips on CigarPlaces.com
As of today, when you browse to a cigar friendly place on CigarPlaces.com, you’ll see tips from Foursquare users about the location. The site will also display who the mayor of the location is (the person who has checked in most frequently at the location).
Why is this such a big improvement?
As 
Foursquare’s popularity and user base continues to grow rapidly, it is proving itself to be a useful source of real-time, local information about venues. For example, the venue used in the example to the right (336 Main in Plymouth, Michigan) includes the tips:
- Best early/mid-day patio sun. No food, but you can order carry out from Compari’s, they’ll even deliver it to you on the patio.
- Steve Acho at the piano tonight w/ Karen Newman. Awesome show.
- Hip little martini bar that offers a vast array of martini concoctions and light hors d’oeuvres. free lot nearby (back of establishment).
This is useful stuff! Someone who has never visited 336 Main now knows where to park, when to go, and where they can get some food to compliment their cigar (Compari’s is an extremely good Italian restaurant, btw).
Any time we can get more information about cigar friendly bars and restaurants around the world, we see it as a great improvement.
If you haven’t heard of Foursquare
It’s time to jump on board. Foursquare is a simple smartphone application that allows you to check in to places you visit. Checking in shows your friends (people who you’ve granted access to your profile) where you are at any given time.
Foursquare just raised its latest round of venture capital ($20M) to continue its expansion (according to the WSJ – June 29th, 2010). The service is approaching 1.8 million users, and is continuing to expand rapidly.
Because of the geo-location aspect of the application and the security risks that come along with displaying your location to people, do some research before you start using it and determine what your personal guidelines will be (for example, everyone gets added to my Twitter account, some get added to my Facebook page, a select few get added as Foursquare friends).
What’s the Catch?
As Foursquare’s popularity spreads like wildfire, a lot of people are jumping on the integration bandwagon (like CigarPlaces.com). Because of this, you may experience situations where you pull up a location on CigarPlaces.com and Foursquare information isn’t displayed. We’re getting the data for free, so we can’t complain!
So I realize that for a blog that’s supposed to be dedicated to cigar bars and cigar friendly spots around the world, the posts have been very Michigan-focused recently. For everyone that’s coming here for cigar bar info in other places, I apologize.
There have been a lot of newsworthy incidents leading up to the May 1st ban, and well … it’s where I live, so I’m compelled to write about it.
Last week the exemption in the smoking ban that allows cigar smoking in establishments that meet the required criteria was clarified. There has been a long-running discussion here about whether or not cigar bars would be allowed to sell and serve food and beverages, and the matter has finally been settled.
Last week, a regular contributor to the blog (Mike), uncovered a memo issued by the Michigan Department of Community Health Director Olszewski. Click the image to view the memo.
At least the writers of the law realized that there has to be a way for cigar bar owners to come up with the other 90% of their revenue.
Thanks for digging this up, Mike!
Since the Michigan Smoking Ban was announced last year, there have been a lot of articles written about Robusto’s Martini Lounge in Grosse Pointe, and its exemption from the ban. Even the lounge’s own website states that they’re exempt from the ban and that they’ll allow cigar smoking after May 1st.
Yesterday (April 22nd), I shot down to Grosse Pointe to meet a friend at Robusto’s to catch up over a martini and enjoy a great Padron 4000. I also really wanted to talk to someone there and confirm first-hand that they had an exemption.
There has been a lot of discussion on this blog over the intricacies of the smoking ban and the exemptions that have been issued. Perhaps the most confusing aspect is the serving of food and beverages.
It was my previous assumption that if a bar or restaurant was issued an exemption, they would need to isolate the area where cigars are smoked from the portion of the restaurant/bar where food and alcohol is consumed. Now it seems as though if an exemption is issued, the establishment is exempt from any of the smoking ban’s requirements.
Simply put: If you qualify for all of the criteria required to earn an exemption, none of the rules of the smoking ban apply to you. Not a bad situation, if it ends up to be true.
Many of the places that should be exempt from the smoking ban have separate, walled-off areas for cigar smokers (Fuse in Rochester, Big Rock Chophouse in Birmingham).
This was the most perplexing aspect of the Robusto’s exemption from my perspective. Even if they were only to allow smoking in the upstairs are (where the humidors are), it’s still not a separate room.
After speaking with the people at Robusto’s yesterday evening, they’re quite sure that they’re exempt from the ban. Great news for a location that has been a perfect place for cigar smokers in Detroit to gather for many years.
Yesterday comScore and Mashable reported that Facebook now commands 41% of all social media traffic. Considering the incredibly social nature of cigars, that was all the nudging that we needed to do some cool CigarPlaces/Facebook integration.
As of today, if you check out a cigar friendly place on the site, and it’s a place that you frequent or enjoy smoking a cigar at, you can click the “Like” button to post it to your Facebook profile. Doing this will allow your friends to click through to CigarPlaces to see more about the place. Pretty cool, eh?
We also added the button to the bottom of each post on the blog, so if you read a post on here that you think would be helpful to your stogie-chomping Facebook friends, click the button and share the goodness.
Also, if you’re not already a part of the CigarPlaces Facebook Group, this is a great time to join.
If you’re a cigar bar owner or you’re in the industry, feel free to post cigar event or industry information to the group!
Leave it to Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson to try to keep the party going for cigar smokers in Oakland County Michigan.
Early this morning Kathleen Gray of the Detroit Free Press reported that Brooks (@brookspatterson) was planning on filing suit against the State of Michigan over the state-wide smoking ban that will go into affect May 1st, 2010. He took the position because he believed the ban was an unfunded mandate. Basically the Oakland County Health Department wouldn’t have the funding to hire the staff necessary to police bars and restaurants and make sure that people aren’t smoking.
The suit was filed this afternoon (Thursday) with the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The glimmer of hope for Michigan cigar lovers unfortunately vanished as quickly as it appeared. After receiving over 70 phone calls and numerous emails from Oakland County residents that disagreed with his opposition of the ban, L. Brooks withdrew the suit.
Although it was an exciting day for smokers in the state, the ban is still being fought along the wrong lines. This law is about removing citizens rights, and denying people the right to make their own decisions (if you still want to cry about 2nd hand smoke – go read The Myth of Second Hand Smoke). If the county/state doesn’t have the money to enforce the ban, and that’s what gets it repealed, then it’s obviously a positive thing for cigar smokers. The bigger picture, however, is still the idea of the government dictating what we can and cannot do.
Like Brooks, I have also never been a cigarette smoker. I don’t see the appeal of it, and I obviously believe in the scientific proof that it causes cancer and other serious life-threatening illnesses.
However, even if I don’t like smelling like cigarette smoke every time I go to a restaurant or bar, I strongly believe that smoking is a personal decision that people should be able to make for themselves. Personal freedoms tend to slip away quickly when the government gets involved, and are always incredibly harder to get back. I fear this is a slippery slope that will continue to a point where the government is telling us how to behave in our own homes.
Enforcing the Smoking Ban
The issue of enforcement continues to come up in discussions about the ban. It’s clear to me that the patrons of bars and restaurants will do the enforcing.
We’ve seen how loud everyone can whine about the smell of smoke. Try lighting up a cigar (or cigarette) in a bar or restaurant in Michigan after May 1st, and you’re going to be swarmed with screaming people telling you to put it out.
Patterson, who doesn’t smoke and has never been a smoker, also pointed this out in a live interview with Stephen Clark of Channel 7 Action News (@sclarkwxyz) which wrapped up the day of cigar ban drama.
As the interview wrapped up, Patterson joked about filing the suit and withdrawing it in the same day as, “not my finest hour.”
I’ve always held Brooks in extremely high regard. In countless instances I’ve respected him for standing his ground for what he believes in, even in the face of extreme adversity. Today I still respect him, for making a decision which he believes represents the will of his constituents.
The sad part is that it’s the small number of activists that always yell the loudest (calling him today and sending emails) while the rest of us sit idly by while our rights are stripped away.
If you asked most people to describe an open-air dive bar in a beach town, they’d probably come pretty close to describing the Smokin’ Oyster Brewery (S.O.B.) in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
Complete with surf boards hanging from the wall and a guy playing the acoustic guitar, this place is plucked straight out of one of Jimmy Buffett’s margarita-induced sweet dreams.
During my last visit there a few weeks ago (March 2010), the patrons confirmed for me that this place was indeed cigar friendly. As I sat with friends enjoying a beer and watching locals and tourists alike dance to the music from the acoustic guitar, I had three separate people come up to our table to tell me that the cigar I was smoking – a CAO Lx2 – smelled great.
The experience was a fantastic departure from the glares and dirty looks that often accompany lighting up a cigar in a bar or restaurant.
The Smokin Oyster Brewery is two blocks north of the beach on Old San Carlos Boulevard. If you’re in Fort Myers Beach, don’t miss the opportunity to visit. Each time I’ve been there the crowd (and musicians) tend to thin out fairly early (11:30ish), so get there before 9 or 10pm.
