Cigar Smokers:
Coming Out of the Humidor
by Karen Tina Harrison
There's one issue Rush Limbaugh and Fidel Castro agree on. And they're not the only cigar-savoring moguls around: Hollywood honchos like Bruce Willis, Matt Dillion, David Caruso, Jason Priestly, and David Letterman are Montecristo-mad - and so are droves of successful, confident, young professional men from Seattle to Sarasota.
This isn't a phony trend concocted by publicists and paparazzi;
sales of premium cigars are indeed booming. While premium cigars -
hand rolled, imported, costing several bucks - are only 5 or 6%
of the cigar market (the rest are those vile, machine-made, two-bit
stinkers), their imports and sales have increased over 50% in the last
five years. This trend shows no sign of letting up, says Norman
Sharp of the Cigar Association, a trade organization.
Cigar smoking is more than a movement - it's an insurrection.
Says Marvin Shanken, editor and publisher of two-year-old
Cigar Aficionado, a smokin' success of a slick, upscale
lifestyle magazine, "Because cigar smoking has been almost
outlawed, there's a sense of partnership in crime. Our
freedoms have been taken away, and we're back to reclaim
our rightful place on earth."
Their rightful places seem to be everywhere you look (and breathe) these days. Despite, or perhaps because of, the ban on cigarette smoking, more and more restaurants and clubs okay cigar smoking in designated areas. This was always true of steakhouses and bar-and-grills, but now, laws permitting, not-so-macho eateries - like Manhattan's tony Tuscan Le Madri and Pasadena's poshly casual Parkway Grill - are glad to see you and the seven-inch Macanudo in your pocket.
In the past year or two, soigné bars and by-membership-only private clubs consecrated to cigar smoking have sprung up like tobacco bushes. New York's Le Cigar at Tatou, Aspen's Caribou Club, and Beverly Hills' Havana are becoming known as six-figure pickup joints and celebrity sighting grounds. This isn't surprising, considering that Cigar Aficionado has found that the "average" premium cigar smoker has an annual household income of $194,000 and a net worth of $1.54 million.
