Potential Cigar Bar.

[Citizen B]

[I am just excerpting below. When I think of cigars, I think of Pipe Smokes Forums. I do not expect anyone to get all the New Orleans references but the text would lose nuance if I cut them all and I don't feel like rewriting the whole story fresh for here. I have already cut a lot to make it appropriate for here. I trust I am not bothering anyone by sharing something professional that I think may be of interest to the general membership.]

I am sitting across from three large, bald, black men in expensive suits. They are about my age. Though I am a businessman, like them, my aesthetic is different from theirs, we have different professions, but, when gentlemen of distinction meet, they acknowledge a well-put-together outfit. You either have got or you have not got style.

A hat is not a hat unless it is rakishly tilted.

These guys are businessmen, they are locals. They live in the East. They are thinking about opening a cigar bar in the 7th Ward. I am not their target demographic since I rarely go that far down North Broad Street, where they are thinking of locating it. Where they are thinking is by the Showcase.

I have never been in the Showcase. It is a strip club. I prefer Club She-She’s in the East. They have the best lunch buffet. They just added mini muffalettas to the menu.

I told the businessmen that there should be a cigar bar in the East, not that I ever go there either. I am told there is an unfulfilled communal need. That is the word on the street. The businessmen had already considered the East but all the choice potential cigar bar locations are taken. Village de l’Est is not really a cigar bar neighborhood. Vietnamese-American shrimp fishermen smoke cigars but not in at the price point and margin that these businessmen have in mind.

They have a Sunday brunch buffet at the Showcase. They call it Legs and Eggs. The cigar bar could capture some of that overflow business. Men who like to frequent strip clubs are often fond of cigars, the bigger the better. All four of us agreed on that. We had a quorum.

There is a brass band playing in the room directly above me. It is pleasant but difficult to concentrate surrounded by the muffled notes of the tuba. They are playing a song I do not recognize and I cannot tell if it because of the ceiling between us or because it is an original composition. Of course, it is all just a form of jazz.

The businessmen were talking about another man who was not present. They were not gossiping, only noting that the man who was not there had no style. That is why he was not invited to lunch today.

The businessmen were talking about how often they smoke cigars. “One a day on weekends,” the first guy said, the one wearing the navy windowpane suite with no tie.

“About five a week,” the second businessman said, “Including weekdays.” He was wearing a black sharkskin suit and a shirt with a mandarin color.

The third man who was present, not including me, he was wearing a black worsted suit with chalkstripe stitching the palest shade of pink. He paired this with a pale yellow shirt punctuated with a shiny silk pink power tie that shone in the sunlight outside every time he moved. He sat in the middle, so he moved a lot. You can tell who’s style I appreciated the most. You cannot be afraid of color. The only thing that would make that look better, in my eyes, is a yellow carnation boutonnière like I was wearing the other day.

The third man said he only smokes cigars at weddings, bachelor parties, occasional poker games, and when he scores big at the track.

I was the fourth man, the odd man out. I just had happened to show up, as useful to the conversation as a fifth wheel. They asked me how often I smoke cigars. I told them. I am not going to tell you.

[ncrobb]

I really enjoy your writing style. Thanks for sharing.

[rlucas]

@Citizen B that's alot of typing to not tell us how often you smoke cigars. Just sayin

[Piping Abe]

I read this in my email earlier. Was another great story. I never wanted to go to NO becauss of all the bad rap. But if you were my tour guide I would be there!

[Citizen B]

@Citizen B that's alot of typing to not tell us how often you smoke cigars. Just sayin

That was a confidential casual business consultation.

[pipedrum22]

“Legs and eggs”

[rekamepip]

Not that I don’t cleanup well

Something tells me that I probably wouldn’t fit in with these guys projected customer profile nor would I feel comfortable in that setting

More than likely I would go out on the town with a new pair of converse tennis shoes a vintage rock concert T-shirt and would be turned away at the door