I just spent the better part of an hour trying to find my cell phone. It’s something that seems to happen to me a few times a day as I get older and stupider. My daughter Samantha says I should use my “find my phone App” – I don’t know …
Read More »Drifting Off Fort Lauderdale — An Evening with the Aganorsa Leaf Rare Fusion Reserve Maduro
Some afternoons offshore are measured by the fish you bring home. Others are measured by the moments you never want to end. That evening aboard The Reel Paws turned out to be the second kind. The late South Florida sun hung low over the Atlantic as I eased the boat just off …
Read More »Pre-Castro Havanas by Simon Camacho… GANGSTAS and the Miracle on 45th St.!
Holy Smokes! This is such a long story that I’m not sure where I should actually begin, but let’s say… the fall of 1972. Me and LaVonda had just moved back to Manhattan from “the middle of nowhere”. We had lived on a farm about 5 miles outside of Marion, …
Read More »“Sombras de La Habana”; An Afternoon with the El Titan de Bronze 30th Anniversary on Calle Ocho.
There are cigars you smoke… and then there are cigars that become part of a moment in your life. The El Titan de Bronze 30th Anniversary became exactly that for me. I was walking through the heart of Little Havana with a few out-of-town friends on a warm Miami afternoon, …
Read More »Lew’s Lessons in Geography! (written years ago, involving the creation of the Montecristo Afrique Cigar Brand)
Did you know that Pierre is the State Capital of South Dakota??? Yes, it is, with a population of just 14,000 souls. But it’s still 75% more populous than the 8,000 that live in Montpelier, the State Capital of Vermont! These and thousands of other completely worthless facts are what …
Read More »“Vice Nights at the Sandbar”; A South Florida Sunset with the El Mago Smoke Inn Exclusive Mago Vice Review
As the sun slowly melted into the South Florida horizon, I found myself anchored at the legendary Haulover Sandbar aboard my seafoam green 2018 Sea Fox 248 Commander. The tan and beige upholstery glowed warmly beneath the fading amber sky while old-school Cuban music drifted through the salty breeze like …
Read More »Not Your Typical Employee: Al Goldstein – Pornographer Extraordinaire!
Obviously, you’re gonna look at the pictures I’m attaching to this story way before you read anything I’m writing. But after you stop laughing, just read the story…. Al Goldstein was just bout the most bizarre customer we ever had… well, except for maybe Moondog who I already wrote about! …
Read More »Fire, Fortune, & Cigars: Lew Meets The Smartest Man He Ever Met!
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the weirdest customer I ever met—Moondog, a tall weird looking Viking that used to light his cigars with the cellophane still on. So, I thought this week I’d switch to the smartest guy I ever met… and I’ve met an incredible number …
Read More »Porch Stories, Cigar BS & the Strangest Man I Ever Met!
Today was a really interesting day out here on the porch with our geriatric cigar group. In fact it got kinda testy when we got on the subject of interesting people we had met during our careers. You gotta understand that besides me, someone who just grew up behind the …
Read More »Valore in the Air: A Morning of Craft, Coffee, and Quiet Satisfaction
There are mornings that move quickly—and then there are mornings that settle into you. This one belonged to the latter. Fresh off a focused meeting at the bakery, I stepped into my office carrying the quiet momentum of the day. The air was still alive with the aroma of freshly …
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