Over the past two years we’ve all done a great job of filling the map on CigarPlaces.com with cigar friendly bars and restaurants. With all of the legislation being passed around the country to ban smoking, many of these places have lost their cigar friendly status since they were added to the map.
Flagging a Cigar Unfriendly Place
If you know of a place on the map that isn’t cigar friendly anymore, you can now easily flag it as unfriendly. From the page that displays the details of the location, click the Flag as Not Cigar Friendly link.
On the next page, leave any details that you have about why the location isn’t cigar friendly anymore. The details will be added to the comments section of the location’s page.
What Happens to Flagged Locations
Locations that you flag as unfriendly will be marked with a red pin on the map when people conduct a search. The locations will be kept on the map to avoid having someone search for a location and then wonder, “maybe the place I’m looking for is cigar friendly, but CigarPlaces.com just doesn’t know about it.”
Thanks to everyone for continuing to make CigarPlaces.com the best resource on the web for finding cigar friendly places!
March of this year marks the two year anniversary of the launch of CigarPlaces.com. I thought it would be fun to poke through the web stats to take a look at where we’ve been.
Some Cool Quick Stats:
- We’ve had over 25,700 visits.
- Visits from Google have come from 10,317 different keywords
- We now contain data on over 800 locations around the world.
The 10 Most Popular Cigar-Friendly Places Were (in order by page views):
- Maker’s Cigar & Piano Lounge (Oklahoma City, OK)
- Texas Avenue Cigars (College Station, TX)
- Havana House Cigar Bar (Northborough, MA)
- Lord Byron’s Cigar Bar (Katy, TX)
- Stag Tobacconist (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Ignite Nightclub at MGM Grand Casino (Detroit, MI)
- Broadway Cigar Company (Portland, OR)
- The Cigar Factory (Troy, MI)
- On The Rox (Houston, TX)
- Boulevard Steakhouse Martini Lounge (Edmond, OK)
The top 10 (non-search-engine) Referral Websites Were:
- ClubStogie.com
- CigarAficionado.com (forums)
- StogieReview.com
- CigarAsylum.com
- CigarJack.net
- CigarMonkey.com
- CigarCommand.com
- CigarAdvisor
- Brian Hewitt
- Puff.com
The Top 5 City Pages Were:
Congrats to the locations that made the top 10 list, and thanks to all of the bloggers and cigar websites that have helped make the last two years great!
If you have first-hand knowledge of how this law is affecting a cigar-friendly location in Michigan, please comment and tell us what you know!
A long-standing fear of mine is going to come true on May 1st, 2010 in Michigan. The smoking ban that was signed into law in December of last year will have a drastic impact on the cigar-friendly bars and restaurants in Michigan that are listed on CigarPlaces.com.
For many establishments that people frequent, I suspect the line is somewhat gray with regards to what constitutes a cigar bar that would be exempt from the smoking ban.
Cigar Bar Exceptions
Are there any places that are not required to comply with the smoke free law?
Yes. Cigar bars, tobacco specialty retail stores, and the gaming floors of casinos may be granted exemptions from the smoke free law.
How can my bar become a cigar bar?Cigar bars must file an affidavit for an exemption with the Michigan Department of Community Health on or before June 1, 2010 and must renew that exemption by January 31 of each subsequent year. The cigar bar must also meet the following requirements:
- Gross Revenue: The cigar bar must demonstrate that it generated 10% or more of its total gross annual income from the on-site sale of cigars and the rental of on-site humidors.
- Physically Separated: The cigar bar must be located on premises that are physically separated from any areas of the same or adjacent establishment in which smoking is prohibited. Physically separated means an area that is enclosed on all sides by any combination of solid walls, windows, or doors that extend from floor to ceiling. Smoke may not infiltrate into those nonsmoking areas.
- Humidor: The cigar bar must have an installed, on-site humidor. A humidor means an enclosure or fixture that is stationary and used for the humidification of cigars that is on the premises of the establishment.
- No Minors: The establishment must not allow individuals under the age of eighteen to enter during the time the cigar bar is open for business.
- Retail: The cigar bar must allow only the smoking of cigars on the premises that retail for over $1.00 per cigar.
- Cigars Only: The cigar bar must prohibit the smoking of all other tobacco products.
(The excerpt above is from the Michigan Smoke Free Law – Frequently Asked Questions document on the Michigan.gov website)
Exempt Bars & Restaurants that will Stay Cigar Friendly
I just started my guerrilla research (asking bar and restaurant owners how the smoking ban will affect them) last week. All of the infromation gathered here will be used to update the map on CigarPlaces.com so we can be certain that we have a good resource for finding cigar-friendly locations after May 1st, 2010.
- Fuse Lounge (Rochester, MI)
- Robusto’s Martini Lounge (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI)
- La Casa De La Habana (Detroit, MI)
- La Casa De La Habana (Plymouth, MI)
- La Casa De La Habana (Ann Arbor, MI)
- Churchills (West Bloomfield, MI)
- 1701 Executive Cigar Bar (Detroit, MI)
- Smokes On Burdick (Kalamazoo, MI)
Places That Could Stay Cigar Friendly
These need to be verified. If you have first-hand knowledge, please let us know!
- Got Rocks (at Big Rock Chophouse – Birmingham, MI)
- Ignite at MGM Casino (Detroit, MI)
- Rochester Chop House (Rochester, MI – Upstairs Cigar Bar)
If you know of a location that will still be cigar-friendly, please leave a comment and let me know; I’ll add it to the list. I’m hoping this post will help soften the blow that all of us cigar smokers will experience on May 1st.
There’s no denying the social aspect of cigars, so CigarPlaces.com has recently taken to the social media scene. In addition to the Twitter account (which has been around for a while), we now have a CigarPlaces.com Facebook group.
If you’re a bar or restaurant owner, please post your upcoming cigarevents to the Facebook group!
It’s always a pleasure to drive as much awareness as possible to the great Cigar Places that are listed on our site.
CigarPlaces.com mentioned in the New York Times? Now that’s exciting stuff!
A couple of months ago I received a call from Tyler DeAngelo, Interactive Creative Director of DeVito/Verdi, an advertising agency in New York. He explained that he had been hired by a cigar manufacturer to create a website for a new brand that they were launching, and that his focus was a creative approach to cigars and social media.
He had some new ideas about how to leverage the data that had been collected on the CigarPlaces.com. Given the prominence of his agency, and the popularity of E.P. Carrillo, I was eager to hear them.
Now as much as I would love to say that my life is dedicated to reviewing cigars and cigar friendly places, it’s sadly not the case.
For my real job I own and operate an interactive marketing company in Detroit. I’ve always felt that cigar manufacturer websites typically undeserved their audience (like many other industries – fairly standard brochure websites – no big deal), so I was excited by this intersection of cigars and social media: a brilliant approach! For most of us, cigars are as much about the social aspect as they are about the flavor.
E.P. Carrillo & Social Media
So what’s really going on here? A 42 year old cigar company that dates back three generations suddenly sees the light and decides that social media is the way to go?
Pretty much.
The new brand is being run by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., 58, his daughter, Lissette, 36, and his son, Ernesto Perez-Carrillo III, 28. This combination appears to provide an interesting mix of established age-old cigar rolling practices, with new-school marketing ideas. See the full New York Times article for more details about DeVito/Verti’s approach.
To see how the CigarPlaces.com data is being used, visit the new E.P. Carrillo website and click on Places to Smoke Cigars. The homepage of the site is a great Twitter / Google Maps mashup that shows a bubble any time someone mentions cigars on Twitter (you know by now how much I love a good Google Maps mashup).
You can find out even more details about the brand by joining their Facebook Page and following them on Twitter.
Congrats to the people at DeVito/Verdi and the Perez-Carrillo family for launching the cigar industry into the social media space. You are accompanied on this journey by an entire new generation of young cigar smokers who are eager to see this concept continue to grow!
Starting in early January my work has taken me to Chicago at least every other week. After trying desperately on Twitter to find somewhere to enjoy an after-work smoke while I was there, I turned up empty handed.
On our third trip, my colleague Bob (pictured pouring our scotch) and I asked our hotel concierge if there was any place to enjoy a cigar in the area. After a few conversations with other hotel employees, he returned and told us about Tesa Cigar.
We needed no further convincing so we set off to find a cab, and after a quick stop off to pick up something to drink (it’s BYOB at Tesa) we finally arrived.
Walking through the door, I could feel the weight of the day’s work being lifted off my shoulders. Leather couches and chairs were filled with people doing exactly what we were there to do: unwind over a nice cigar.
The shop owner was extremely helpful while helping us to pick out a medium to full bodied churchill – we found our spot, poured scotch, and settled in. Later in the evening we were joined by two bankers from the Chicago area who we invited to share our couches and our drinks. The atmosphere and the people at Tesa make it feel completely natural to invite strangers to join in on libations and good conversation.
As the crowd thinned out and the clock passed 10pm (their weekday closing time), we began to think that our evening was coming to an end. 
To our pleasant surprise, the store owner grabbed his acoustic guitar, began to casually strum, and invited us to stay a bit longer. We had found heaven, right in the middle of Obamacountry.
Needless to say, if you’re in the Chicago area, definitely take the time to visit Tesa.
Location information and details can be found at their page on CigarPlaces.com.
Their website also contains some more pictures.
You can also follow them on Twitter!
UPDATE
Cigar Jack is holding his 1st Cigar Tweetup at Tesa on March 25th, 2010. Register and get more information on his blog.
