Give Cigars Some Respect!

I don’t like the term ‘Cigar Lounge’. For a cigar connoisseur ‘lounging around’ is not synonymous with active participation in the cigar experience. You don’t lounge with a cigar. You lounge with a cocktail, or you lounge to kill time. Yes, cigars are supposed to be relaxing, allowing you to unwind and forget the serious issues of the day for an hour or two. And yet the cigar demands a level of seriousness of its own, without which the cigar goes unnoticed and unappreciated. With all the nuances of body, flavor, aroma, complexity and so on, I think cigars have character, personality. There is a proper time and setting for enjoying a cigar.

Nor do I like cigar joints with lots of TVs, barbeque, dancing, booze, live bands, DJs, videos, selfies... The list goes on. Yet they’re everywhere. This appears to be the new genre of cigar shops - the new trend on the modern-day cigar scene. One might ask what’s wrong with having fun and a good time. Nothing, of course. One should do this. However, this is more suitable to a night club, a sports bar and the like. Cigars are different. To me these are distractions.

Thus, since the inception of my cigar shop ten years ago, my focus has always been on the cigar! That’s it - the cigar! I have spent plenty of effort to make sure I can answer someone’s question with the words ‘Yes, I have those cigars in stock’. Or, perhaps, ‘I have a very close alternative’. And sometimes, ‘Let me recommend what I think will be a great fit for your preferences’. Selection is key at a cigar shop – not how many TVs are hanging on the walls.

Robusto opened its door in 2012 here in Arcadia, California, offering a brick-and-mortar cigar outlet to the cigar fans in the San Gabriel Valley and surrounding areas. My mission is and has always been to offer a wide yet exquisite selection of cigars, proper advice and a live forum of constructive cigar conversation. My humidor has perfect climate control year-round. The tasting room is well ventilated, and the air is constantly purified. So, when you’re here to enjoy your smoke, nothing gets in the way. It’s you, your cigar and perhaps, if desired, someone to talk to.

One will find an array of mainstream cigar brands here on the shelves of the shop, along with some boutique, limited and vintage cigars. If I can suggest a selection that satisfies your appetite of the moment, then I have succeeded. The idea is to enrich one’s palate with exposure to most types of cigars – new cigars, vintage cigars, high-end cigars, budget cigars, etc. If you walk in here and are interested in expanding your knowledge of profiles with a cigar, say, rolled in 1997, or 2005 – well, I can fulfill your desire. If you want to try a cigar that incorporates tobacco from 5 or more different geographical regions – I got it. If you want to try a single origin puro – yes, I got that too.

So how do I describe the nature of my business? I call it ‘Fine Cigars and Tasting Room’. Yes, here we taste cigars. We learn about cigars. We appreciate good cigars. We dive into a deep level of contentment and comfort. We experience a mysteriously gratifying phenomenon. We encounter a growth process, a maturing of our souls, a refinement of our outlook on life!