grand havana room

In March 2011, I was fortunate enough to be invited to Camp Camacho in Honduras, to tour the fields and factories and observe what a Central American premium hand rolled cigar manufacturing was all about. Of the many new lifelong friends I made on the trip, one of my favorites is a madman from Kansas, named Paul. Besides being one of the funniest guys I’ve met through cigars, Paul has a voracious apetite for all things consumable, cigars being one of his favorite.

Paul recently spent an afternoon with me running around NYC with me to visit my favorite shops. My goal was not to “WOW” Paul with the NYC scene, but rather let him reconnect with some buddies who were also on the Honduras Trip. Paul is a student in Kansas and a PT employee at The West Side Humidor in Witchita, Kansas. He’s got a better palate than I, and working at a cigar shop, certainly tries a lot more than I do.

The 3 midtown shops that we visited were Davidoff Madison Ave., DeLaConcha & The Grand Havana Room, we also visited O.K. Cigars in SoHo.

Here’s a few pics of the man in Honduras:

Paul Roping Dinner after a school vist.

Our Man, Chillaxin in deep thought back at the Camp Camacho Hacienda

Our first stop was Davidoff of Geneva’s Madison Ave. Flagship Location (Davidoff Madison Ave.). We were able to catch Chris and Lino and share a cigar while we were there. These are 2 extremely knowledgeable, extremely personable guys. We had a great time in Honduras w/them.

Hanging with Lino & Chris from Davidoff Madison Ave.

Davidoff Madison Ave.

Next, we went to see Ron and Chris from DeLaConcha. Ron was out of the shop with his family for the holiday, but we were able to chat & smoke with Chris while we were there. I love chatting w/Chris. He always makes me laugh.

Hanging with Chris from DeLaConcha

DeLaConcha

Then, we went to my stomping ground, The Grand Havana Room for a smoke and some Flor de Cana Rum, that made us reminisce about our ossified times in Honduras. Good times.

Grand Havana Room

Lastly, we took the subway downtown to SoHo and tried to catch Len at O.K. Cigars. He was out for the holiday as well, but we toured the shop and fell in love with come classic tobbaciana on sale. Great shop if you are ever downtown looking for a smoke. We didn’t take any pics here (probably, because of the rum at our last stop.)

I had a great time running around the city with Paul and I hope that we can do it again soon. I’ll come to Kansas too, really. Say hello to Ryan and Gordon also!

From Paul:

“Rolling through New York with Big Sexy him self was a blast. The man has his finger on the thriving pulse of the smoking comunity”.

Well said Paul.

Big Ronnie out.