I don’t know much about cigars.
I’m intimately familiar with smoking as a vice/hobby and I remember the cigar fad of the 1990s, but it’s never really been my way of relaxing.
But offer me a smooth, beginner stogie (is there a brand with flavor notes of applewood-smoked bacon?) along with a tumbler of good tween- or teenaged scotch, a comfortable overstuffed leather chair and a 220-inch television to watch, and I’ll give them a shot.
Those amenities and several others are available to cigar aficionados and wannabes at the Cigar Lodge in Coventry Township, strategically situated near golf courses, the Portage Lakes and Thomas’ Classic Cars.
Many cigar and smoke stores are just that — retail stores. There’s a humidor, a cash register, maybe a couple of older dudes hanging out and vying for the lone butt-worn chair.
You get in, buy a bunch of cigars, get out, go home and smoke them wherever your spouse will allow you to light up. But the concept behind the Cigar Lodge is to offer a full cigar aficionado experience.
It also really helps the experience if you love golf.
A lot.
The exterior of the Cigar Lodge, which opened about 10 months ago, looks pretty bland. There’s a simple sign, ample parking and a building with tinted windows. But inside it’s a cigar-loving, golf-addicted (or golf-loving, cigar-addicted) person’s fantasia.
High ceilings and good ventilation keep the spot from smelling like the pockets of somebody’s grandfather’s khakis. There are plenty of leather couches and big overstuffed chairs, there’s that 220-inch television on which Tiger Woods looks gigantic, and several more TVs conveniently placed near seats.
There’s a nice little bar stocked with mid- to top-shelf liquors — including some of that teenaged scotch — and a few basic mixers (it’s not a bar, so don’t go there asking for Long Island Iced Teas, Red Bull shots or some other silliness). And, of course, there is the Cigar Shrine, aka the humidor room, which holds around 300 boxes of 75 different brands of cigars and has its own television.
There is no beer or wine (again, the nonbar status allows the customers-smoking-inside thing to be legal).
For most cigar obsessives, the main room and the contents of the humidor should be plenty.
But the Cigar Lodge also offers memberships at $50 a month that get you a personal humidified locker for your cigars and your personal bottle of whatever.
You also get a special card allowing access to the member area, with a game room featuring a full-sized card/gaming table, more big televisions, a lightly stocked bar and the piece de resistance for golfers: A $25,000, full-swing, life-sized golf simulator with six different courses, including nearby Firestone.
Perry Hane of Coventry Township has been a regular at the Cigar Lodge since day one.
“I live right across the street. … It’s fabulous, it’s just what the neighborhood and this area needs,” he said.
For Hane, a longtime cigar smoker and fan of the Acid line by Drew Estates, coming to the lodge is relaxing, and he enjoys the company.
Likewise, Hane’s buddy Mike Houska of Sharon Township is also a big, big fan. “This is where I get my mail, I’m here so often,” he said.
“Yeah, I come here about five days a week,” said Houska, who owns a medical manufacturing company. “It’s the atmosphere, the clientele. I’ve met so many new people here, friendly people, and it’s just a nice place to enjoy a friendly cigar.”
Hane and Houska aren’t allowed to smoke in their houses (“I can smoke on the tractor and out in the yard, but not in the house,” Houska said), so now they have their own house away from home to indulge.
“You meet good people, you make friends. You can have a drink and a nice cigar, it’s great. You don’t have that bar atmosphere where there’s all the noise. You can bring your lady and don’t have to worry about guys hitting on her and acting drunk,” Hane said.
“We get people from all walks of life, male, female, people have parties here,” Houska added. (Hane and Houska are such frequent visitors and feel so at home, they often refer to the Cigar Lodge as “we.”)
For folks just looking for a bar where you can smoke indoors, the Cigar Lodge may not be right. But for cigar aficionados who also enjoy a nice drink in a welcoming chair, along with conversation and perhaps a bit of networking along with their Macanudo Rothschild, this may just be the relaxing haven you (and the loved one who won’t let you smoke in the house) need.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Follow him on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1lNgxml or on Twitter @malcolmabramABJ .