Cigar Bars
January 1999 April
Update
Smoking was prohibited in Victorian restaurants at the end of 2000.
More and more restaurants in Melbourne have smoking restrictions yet at the same time are offering, in fact encouraging, the smoking of cigars ...
Not only are they stocking a range of expensive and hard to obtain cigars, but they are also dedicating an area (outside their dining rooms) for cigar smokers. Some of them are terming this their ‘cigar bar’.
Interesting the combination of drinking and cigars, because when tobacco first appeared centuries past there was no name for what you did with it. People spoke about "drinking smoke" and the term ‘smoking’ only came into being some time later. Cigar aficionados are quick to say they only puff and taste, they don’t draw in smoke.
At Langton's , smoking is completely banned in the restaurant but allowed in the wine bar where the staff do a brisk trade in cigars from the handsome portable humidor which manager Patrick Walsh installed at Christmas. Patrick sees no paradox in this, saying that with the restaurant’s carpet, linen and timber, all porous, it is essential to keep out the smell of tobacco from the air. However, in the bar area, "which is all hard polished surfaces with a fiercely powerful extractor, the smell does not remain". Patrick chooses the cigars to match the drinks served at the bar and even supplies tasting notes - such as, the flavors of sweet spices and nuts of Cohiba Siglo, a Cuban cigar, to enjoy with a glass of muscat or port or the Monte Cristo No 3 which has tastes of cinammon and nutmeg with cognac or Tabacalera Corona to go with brown rum.
As cigars must be fresh, he keeps the range small, usually half a dozen selling from $5-30.
He explains, "I’ve found that as you get more into cigars, there’s so much to learn - like with wine. And (as with wine) more and more people want to experiment with different flavors. It’ s also a fashion thing, they want to be seen trying cigars, particularly as the American magazines show so many incredibly beautiful people doing it."
Florentino Cellar Bar has a humidor on display with 20 different cigars ranging in price from $5-30. Elizabeth Grossi, not a smoker herself, says that people are using it quite a lot, particularly at night. Often they will come down from dinner upstairs and finish coffee and drinks with a cigar in the bar. Smoking is permitted in the Grill and in the Florian Room but is allowed only after 2.30pm and after 10.30pm in the Mural Room. Elizabeth believes that people are experimenting with different cigars in the way they do with wines and with cheeses. "There are many types of cigar and all have individual characteristics."
And cigar smoking areas are not just confined to glamorous city establishments, in Prahran’s own corner of the Caribbean, restaurant Yeah Maan, there will soon be a cigar bar installed upstairs along with a range of Barbados beers, Jamaican rums and exotic drinks from Cuba to match the cigars.
And out in Glen Waverley, there is now Churchill’s Grill and Cigar Bar for steak and grill lovers who like to leave the table and ‘retire’ to the bar to puff on a cigar. Set up by James Pantelis who was previously manager of Fidel’s, it stocks more than 20 premium cigars ranging from a Cuban Cadette or Dominican Petit Corona at $13 to the Cohiba Esplendidos for $78. The dining area which has a full a la carte menu and wine list is separate to the bar but there are now a number of places in Melbourne set up and being planned which are dedicated exclusively to the "stick" as cigars are known in the trade. Last year saw a huge boom in cigar smoking round Australia.
Fidel’s which was set up at Crown Casino two years ago, is still the ultimate in luxury with its grand dark interior lavishly decorated in total dedication to the big puffers. Wines and drinks are available but virtually no food.
At Southbank, Simply French, is about to open a Cigar Lounge for which a large humidor is currently being constructed. New cane chairs have been installed and a stock of Havana Rum and Cuban cigars are in readiness. A blue neon sign will herald its opening in a fortnight.
For more information on which restaurants allow smoking and on the cigar bars, visit Mietta’s web site Some of Melbourne’s good eating establishments which do allow smoking in their dining areas include Bamboo House, Cafe di Stasio, Caffe Bizzari, Chine on Paramount, De Los Santos, Dragon Boat, Florentino Grill, Florentino, France-Soir, Guernica, Pepper Chilli, Punch Lane, Rickshaw Inn, Japanese Teppanyaki Inn, Treasure, Blue Tongue in Elwood.
Mietta O'Donnell
This first appeared in the Herald Sun on 6th April, 1999.
©Mietta's 1999.
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