A Visit to Cigar-Ette City and Gary Griffith (and a Grimalkin)

Yesterday was a bit on the chilly side, so I figured I’d look for a nice, warm indoor smoking location.  I’ve been wanting to take a ride south of the boarder and visit Gary Griffith at his Peoples Plaza Cigar-Ette City store for a while, and decided the time had come.  I grabbed the GPS and hit the road, taking the 1 hour and 7 minute drive.  I got there a bit ahead of schedule and Gary greeted me warmly and we went into the enormous walk-in humidor. It was at that point that I realized the flaw in my plan: The State of Delaware frowns upon smoking indoors!  Here we have a store that sells cigars and other tobacco products, and you can’t smoke in it.  If you have been complacent in contacting your elected officials about the FDA issue, do it now.  Not being able to smoke in your local shop is only scratching the surface of the “inconveniences” we’ll face it the FDA is allowed to regulate Premium Cigars.

 

 

Anyway, all was not lost.  I wandered around the humidor for a while talking to Gary, and marvelling at the ridiculous amount of inventory.  He had all kinds of boutique brands that I don’t see a lot of in my local shops, but hear about everywhere.  The Viajes, Tatuajes, Illusiones, 262s, you name it.  Boxes stacked to the ceiling, I even saw a stack of the Para Japon cigars that La Aurora made to aid the Japanese earthquake relief. Of course the Emilio and Grimalkin lines were well represented, and I picked up a couple Grimalkin Robustos while I was there. The moral of the story is that one could leave a ton of cash behind in this store, and the prices were competitive with Pennsylvania prices given that the lack of a state sales tax offsets the cigar tax.

 

Here’s a little video I shot with Gary telling us about what’s coming down the line in 2012 for the Emilio family of cigars.  I know I’m excited to see what comes next.

 

httpv://youtu.be/VzeaLToxhR8

 

 

After I got home and fed, I still needed to smoke the cigar I set out earlier in the day to smoke, so I grabbed a Grimalkin Robusto and took a long and satisfying walk.  The cigar was awesome, although I believe more of the subtlety and complexity is apparent when the temperatures aren’t around freezing.  Still, this is an incredible cigar that everyone should try if they can.  My thanks to Gary for his hospitality, and for making dynamite cigars.

 

That’s it for now.  I used a new camera for the video this time, I’d like to know if you think the quality is better than my previous videos.

 

Until the next time,

 

CigarCraig

 

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6 Comments

Filed under Editorial, Review, Stores

6 Responses to A Visit to Cigar-Ette City and Gary Griffith (and a Grimalkin)

  1. Allen

    Sounds like that was bigger then the 3 small places we found in Pattaya Beach Thailand. The one that hade a walk in humidor had about 30 boxes or so to chose from but way over priced. They are not big about smoking Cigars there. Smoked my stash i brought on cruise, so now we are waiting for my shipment of the Bender ender from Cigar International to come in. A variety of cigars for a few of us out here to indulge in untill our next port call where ever that might be. Thanks for the review Craig, will have keep on eye out for some of those when we pull in.

  2. Swede214

    Looks and sounds great, nice video, and very interesting comments from Gary.Thanks, good job.

  3. foozer69

    damn, too bad u couldnt spark up !!! nice site

  4. Jake

    Great writing and video. Thanks to Gary for his time and interview. Looking forward to this year for sure.

  5. Great interview with Gary. Sorry I couldn’t join you there, Craig!

  6. Tad Smith

    Enjoyed the interview very much Craig. Gary is a class act for sure!