So I'm in Lake Charles helping my son make a local move. We decide to take a break and as we're driving down the street we see a big sign on the Cigar Club saying, "Now Open to the Public". Since until a few months ago this was a private club, we decided to stop and look around.

The walk in humidor is kind of modest in size and it's overly packed with boutique brands at the moment, but I did find some a very good selection of Camacho, CAO's and some other very good blends. I walked out of there with three Illusione 888's and three Nordling toros by Rocky Patel (I think).

The Cigar Club has a big room with leather recliners and a big flat panel screen TV where customers can six and enjoy a smoke. I guess they didn't have enough paying members (the membership fee was pretty high) so they opened to the public. Good move.
[Reply]

I'll be sure to check it next time I'm in the area.

How are prices?
[Reply]

Oustanding you found a decent place to smoke.... Norfolk could use one.
[Reply]

Congrats on the new place to smoke! I envy you...until we get our shop opened one of these days, we have nowhere in which we can retreat to enjoy a stick or two in Northwest Alabama :-)

Jason
[Reply]

As I recall from a time I ventured through that part, you can't even buy booze is many of the counties.

No booze, no smokes, how does a man survive?
[Reply]

No Booze? In Louisiana? You must have been in some parishes north of the I-10. Most of this southern part of the state have drive-thru daiquiri shops, and you can buy beer, wine and liquour at gas stations, drug stores, grocery stores, etc. That's not saying there are some areas that are still technically dry, but for the most part, this state is about as wide open as you can get.
[Reply]

On correction. The Nording is a robusto, not a tora.
Did I mention this was the first time I've seen a Nording?
[Reply]

What you say is true, though....not of my city. They waited til about a year and a half ago to finally make draft beer legal here, though. Apparently, bottled beer is ok w/ the religious zealots, but draft beer is the devil. :-)

Jason
[Reply]

That's good to know. I spend a week each summer fixin' houses in Lake Charles, would be good to have a place to go for a smoke break!
[Reply]

Oh yes, I know. I live south of I-10, and enjoy drive through daiquiris quite often.

I was referring to Alabama. I was on a road trip last summer with my brother and we stopped the night in a town called Cullman. We went driving around looking for a liquor store so we could get a sixer for the night. No luck. We couldn't even find a grocery store, so we had to go to Wal-Mart. Know, I know I should have just stopped while I was ahead, because what good beer do they have at Wal-Mart, but I had been driving all day and wanted to relax in the motel room.

Well, we get to the place where the beer usually is to find nothing. In fact, we found a whole wall of mixers (grenadine, margarita mix, etc) but no alcohol. I asked my brother, "Where's the booze?" Some lady behind me replied "Oh you can't get that here. You could always pour that over ice and pretend!". I said, "I don't want to pretend, I want to get drunk." She just laughed and walked away.

Thankfully, we still had a couple in the ice chest from the night before, although technically, that was probably bootlegging.

That is absolutely ridiculous. But what can you do, right?
[Reply]