Cigar lovers’ Washington DC

WORDS BY NEAL LEARNER

On a Roll

In Washington, DC the powerbrokers are keeping historic cigar bars in business. Take a connoisseur’s tour.

DC’s finer restaurants and watering holes still offer a welcome oasis for cigar aficionados.

Sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar, especially in a city like Washington DC.

Since the founding of America, hand-rolled tobacco has been associated with power, inexorably linked to congressmen, lawyers, lobbyists, journalists, judges and more. Cigars were the source of the smoky haze that filled those legendary back rooms. Today, cigars retain their pungent aura of infl uence in a city that has more than its share of smoke-blowing powerbrokers.

While the cigar boom of the mid ’90s has waned in recent years—and the anti-smoking movement threatens to snuff more favorite cigar haunts—on any given night, Washington’s finer restaurants and watering holes still offer a welcome oasis for aficionados to savor a good smoke.

“We’re one of the big cigar cities—obviously with all of these politicians and lobbyists,” says Washington’s native comedian Mark Russell. “My goodness, in fact, where would the politicians get the cigars, if not for the lobbyists?” There may even be more Cuban cigars circulating in Washington than in Havana, he quips.

A long-time cigar smoker, Russell explains his favorite place to puff a cigar is The Monocle on Capitol Hill (202-546-4488), an elegant yet casual restaurant just around the corner from the Senate side of the Capitol. “That’s the most cigar friendly place in town,” he says of the establishment where young senators Jack Kennedy and Richard Nixon found common ground over a good cut of meat and a cigar. “The thing about The Monocle is, you don’t have to go to another room. You can be sitting right there after dinner and smoke. It’s wonderful,” Russell says.

Other Washington restaurants, especially those inclined to serve a thick steak, also continue to welcome cigar smokers.The bar at Sam & Harry’s steakhouse (202-296-4333) is a great place to enjoy a smoke before ordering a signature New York strip. Likewise, the Brasserie Les Halles, (202-347-6848) offers a choice of Paul Garmirian cigars next to the selection of American beef served French-style.

At some establishments, cigars are the main attraction. Ozio Martini and Cigar Lounge (202-822-6000) has a large walk-in humidor offering dozens of premium smokes. The multi-level club, spread across two historic townhouses, contains discreet nooks and on-display dance fl oors where cigar lovers can make the most of the cigar culture.

Likewise, Shelly’s Back Room (202-737-3003) boasts a wall filled with 100 private cigar lockers where regulars can store their favorite stogies for a monthly fee. Even reluctant nonsmoking spouses may want to venture inside. Shelly’s is very comfortable, says owner Bob Materazzi. “We have super ventilation system that replaces the air in the restaurant every 90 seconds. So it’s virtually smoke-free, even when a bunch of people are smoking cigars.”

Materazzi hesitates when asked to describe a typical cigar smoker. “I’m very pleased with our customer base,” he says. “It stretches across occupational and racial and cultural boundaries. I get electricians in here. I get DC cops. I get politicians, lawyers, journalists. I get every fl avor of occupation.”

Power puffing
So what draws all of them to cigars? Cigar smoking is inherently a social activity, explains Senior Judge Loren Smith of the US Court of Federal Claims. “It isn’t nearly as much fun to do it alone,” he says, noting the psychological profile of a cigar smoker is that of Type A personality, an outgoing person who wants to interact with people.

For that reason, cigars have long been associated with powerful leaders in business, politics, journalism, law and entertainment, says Smith, who is famed for hosting cigar events that bring together such individuals for lively evenings of puffing and politics. Many upwardly-mobile professionals, particularly young people right out of college, also see cigars as a symbol of the assent on the career path, he notes. This includes a fair number of women, he adds. “It’s a self-perpetuating image,” Smith says. “The image reinforces the cigar smoking, and the smoking is validated by the image.”

Others say cigar smoking represents notions of relaxation and civilized conversation. “The thing about cigar smoking is that it really causes you to slow down, and it’s something that allows you to linger and take time,” says Eric Robinson, a director at a nonprofit organization.

Unlike many pursuits in today’s fast-paced world, cigars can’t be rushed, he says, taking a long draw on his Montesino. “A cigar is something that allows for conversation, for refl ection, pauses in conversation, not having to strain your vocal chords to get a quiet point across.”

An excellent place to enjoy a quiet conversation over cigars is the Round Robin Bar in the Willard InterContinental Washington (202-628-9100), just down the street from the White House.

The elegant, dark green, oval watering hole sells a selection of cigars from $5 CAO Petit Coronas to $45 Zino Platinum Crown Double Grandes.

The historic hotel has catered to generations of famous cigar lovers. Author Mark Twain would light up in the hotel’s elegant salons. President Ulysses S Grant used to duck out of the White House during his two terms in office, 1869-1877, to enjoy a cigar and a brandy in the Willard’s grand lobby. His twin pleasures, however, were frequently interrupted by would-be infl uence peddlers seeking to twist the president’s ear. Grant called these men “lobbyists,” coining the term that endures today.

Another bit of cigar lore associated with the Willard originated in 1916, when Thomas Marshall, vice president to President Woodrow Wilson, criticized the price of cigars at the hotel’s newsstand. His immortal words: “What this country needs is a good five cent cigar.”

Today, cigars can set you back a lot more than that. The most expensive cigar at Signature Cigars (202-822-1380) is a 1940 Gurkha pre-embargo Cuban priced at $75, explains Courtney Smith, vice president of the family-owned shop. “We have 23 left,” she sighs. “And that’s it until the end of time.”

While Cubans still rule, at least in popular legend, Smith explains some of the best cigars are coming from Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Smith recommends family-owned cigar companies over the corporate variety. Her favorites are La Flor Dominicana and Arturo Fuente cigars from the Dominican Republic, Rocky Patel cigars from Honduras and Padrón cigars from Nicaragua.

Cigars on the wane?
Smith says her customers today are more interested in learning about cigars than they were during the craze of the late ’90s. “It’s a smaller scene, but more knowledgeable,” she explains. “Smokers are much more savvy now than they were during the boom. They’re interested in tobacco. They spend a lot more time and interest in it than the fl y-by-night smokers of the boom.”

Knowledgeable, yes. But even diehard cigar connoisseurs are facing new pressures to extinguish their beloved habit. A local DC government health panel recently passed legislation that would ban smoking in bars and restaurants. The bill, which must go before the full DC counsel, wouldn’t affect bars until 2007. The bill also makes exemptions for existing cigar bars.

Nevertheless, it’s becoming noticeably harder to find cigar-friendly establishments in Washington, says long-time Washington journalist, Chuck Conconi. Many of the cigar bars that opened with a fl ourish during the boom have since shut their doors. “For a while, it was really going very well,” he says. “It has diminished considerably.
I’m not sure that a lot of people who converted to it stayed with it.”

Conconi, who has cut back on his own cigar consumption, finds people aren’t shy about expressing their anti-cigar feelings. He recalls once enjoying a cigar in an outdoor café in Washington’s trendy Dupont Circle. “And suddenly the next table was just outraged, complaining about the horrible smoke. They were almost going to get into a fight about it,” he says. “I start thinking, ‘Well, I can’t really do that anymore. I can’t really smoke.’ When you find a place where you can smoke, it is quite pleasant. But most people won’t do it.”
Ironically, the people most likely to shun cigars in public today are the ones historically associated with cigars: politicians.

“It doesn’t serve them well,” says Russell. “A politician won’t smoke a cigar unless he’s been in office for 40 years and doesn’t care any more. Otherwise, he does it on the sly, because it is still the cartoon of the ‘fat politician smoking the cigar’—the whole smoke-filled room kind of thing.”

In the final analysis, cigar smoking, like politics, will endure even if the masses disapprove. Russell just wishes he could get a little peace when savoring one. “It’s crazy, you light up a cigar and immediately all of the people around you think that we must talk about cigars,” he says. “Everybody has to stop what they’re talking about and ask the same question: ‘Oh, is that Cuban?’
My answer is: ‘No, but its grandfather was.’ ”