Was recently in the East Coast of the United States for the baptism of my friend Doug's third child - Sebastian - so took the occasion to spend some time in NYC and exploit some of the cigar lounges in the Big Apple...
Despite the smoking ban, there is a good selection of smoking places available in the city... since I was only there for a small period of time I cannot give you in this occasion a full overview but hopefully will eventually have the opportunity to show all the available options...
Some cigars shop also offers the opportunity to smoke (for example, De La Concha on 6th Avenue between 54th and 56th Street). This time, however, I decided to visit the Davidoff upscale shop on Madison and 54th Street - where i got hold of the new Davidoff Puro Doro cigar. Davidoff also owns the De La Concha shop nowadays but currently does not allow smoking in its Madison Avenue shop due to a restriction implemented by the building owners. The pictures below show the well assorted Davidoff's walk-in humidour.
One of the couple of evenings I spent in NYC I also visited Club Macanudo together with my friend David. Club Macanudo remains in my view one of the best places to enjoy a cigar - perfect atmosphere (large leather chairs and comfy sofas) combined with a good selection of food and drinks. Cigars offered are maybe not always the best (but if you want a good one, I recommend the Club Macanudo 1968) so we decided to enjoy something not on the menu...
An overview of Club Macanudo
My friend David at Club Macanudo enjoying his drink
Here I'm smoking the new Romeo & Juliet Wide Churchill...
In this picture I'm with my friend Doug. The day after the Christening we also enjoyed a cigar together - I had the Puro Doro that i grabbed at the Davidoff shop while I gave him a Cohiba Behike 54... we did enjoy them but also confirmed that the Behike are definitively cigars for the "heavy smokers".... don't smoke them if you are a cigar novice or not on a full stomach...
Finally, just before taking my plane back to London, I made a short stop at Velvet Cigar lounge, in the picture above, on E7th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue. This lounge is very small but they sell their own cigars made with Domincan tobacco (with Cuban-seed). Their cigars are offered in three styles - full bodied (The Tompkins), medium bodied (The Astor) and mild (The Cooper). I found their cigars to be a good smooth alternative to Cubans, not as strong but pleasant and spicy. At Velvet they also have a small selection of other brands available - I found Nubs in the past, this time they had Tatuaje, another good choice for non-Cuban cigars.
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