Cigar smokers are shown the door if they want to enjoy a stogie, but now they have a new, welcoming option.
Cigars International, a nearly 6,000-square-foot cigar store and lounge in The Strand at Town Center, is now open.
The store at 4808 Town Center Parkway behind the Firebirds Wood Fired Grill restaurant will hold a grand opening Nov. 16 with music, spirits samples, hourly raffles and giveaways.
The company is based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Contractor Brothers Group Construction Co. of Jacksonville built the store at a project cost of $3.39 million.
Since opening Oct. 31, Cigars International has been drawing aficionados. On a recent weekday afternoon there were about 20 customers enjoying some of the “10s of thousands of cigars” available at the store, said Cyndi Day, general manager.
There are 1,300 brands available.
“We had 23 pallets of just cigars when we unloaded,” she said.
The store resembles a lodge and has nearly 20-foot-high ceilings. The lounge area is about 2,000 square feet, as is the retail space, a library of cigars placed on multiple rows of shelves.
There is a 1,800-square-foot partially covered patio with seating, a firepit and a portion overlooking the lake behind the building.
The lounge, retail space and storage areas each have designated humidifiers to ensure freshness.
Customers and sales staff can smoke cigars, but a captive air system cleans the air inside the store and is designed to eliminate the smell of cigars on clothing.
The lounge has plush, leather chairs. Customers can stock up for home use or smoke one there while having a cocktail or beverage from the store’s full bar.
Cut and Light stations have three clippers and a butane lighter hanging from a post.
“Cutters and lighters have a tendency to grow legs,” Day said.
Purists are given wooden matches and cedar strips to light cigars to avoid any residual butane from using a lighter. The cedar strips are used for the bar’s Smoked Old Fashioned.
Cigars International has 10 locations in Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas. The two other Florida stores in Tampa and Lutz.
The Jacksonville store has 35 employees.
Day has been in the cigar industry for 12 years. She started smoking cigars when her family would meet at the Island Girl Cigar shop on Gate Parkway. It was a convenient meeting place for family scattered around town.
She later worked for Island Girl, which has six stores in Duval, Clay and St. Johns counties. She also managed an executive cigar lounge in Melbourne for a year before returning to operate the new store.
People are what drew her into the business, she said.
“There’s something about the enjoyment of a good cigar and wanting to share it with someone else and make new friends and meet people that are like-minded. So it truly is a community.”
Cigars International caters to cigar and pipe smokers. Pipe tobacco is sold but pipes are not yet available in the store. They are available online at cigarsinternational.com.
Had the legalization of marijuana amendment passed, the use of cannabis products would not have been permitted in the store, Day said.
“We are cigars and pipe tobacco, and we stay pretty true to that. We discourage cigarette smoking and vaping in here. So it’s not an anti-marijuana thing, it’s pro-cigars and pipe tobacco.”
The store sells humidors, cigar accessories and ashtrays and has a Cigar of the Month Club.
Empty cigar boxes sell for $1 each.
“My kids used to store Legos in them,” Day said.
“Teachers will come in and get 20 boxes if they need something for class. They’ll paint them and you’d never know they were a cigar box.”
Cigar boxes are donated to teachers, she said.
Store hours are 9 a.m. to midnight Monday -Thursday and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to midnight on Sunday. The bar opens daily at 11 a.m.