Cigars have an amazing ability to pull people together.

In my last post I talked about sending cigars to one of the guys over in Afghanistan that stopped by the lounge on leave. Well, one of the customers heard about this and wanted to contribute as well.  So, we set a box on the counter with a little sign.  All I can say is WOW!!!  In about 2 weeks we collected 221 cigars. And this wasn't dog turds people had hanging around their humidor. We had great cigars including Fuente Anejo, Liga Privada, Padron Anniversary, etc.  It was such a success we are going to this again in a couple of months.  Probably Veterans day November 11th.
I want to extend a special thanks to Colonel Garrett Yee.  He is the guy that came in on leave.  I asked him now to get these cigars in the hands of the fighters in the front line and he said "send them to me and don't worry about it". He has a bunch of friends that are commanders in line units that will make sure the front line guys get these sticks!

The most amazing thing about this is how much people wanted help.  Think about it, in 2 weeks we had greater than $1500.00 worth of cigars donated for guys on the other side of the world they will never get to see.  Just saying thanks for doing a hard job in a shitty place.

One thing I didn't expect was the diversity of our customers.  Smoking cigars is a social event.  Last night I paused and looked around a completely full lounge.  Also, it was also a very diverse crowd.  There were men and women, old and young and people from all over the world.  It was standing room only last night.  We have 19 seats in the lounge and all of them were taken and dudes were standing in the back of the lounge.  Front of the store was full as well and they pulled the chairs from outside in.

This is exactly what we envisioned. A great place to hang out and enjoy a great cigar with friends.

Wow, it's been a month since I last posted and I promised then to be more diligent. However reality intervened. I'm not travelling much for the next month so I will get these out every Friday I promise. It it is July 7th and this is the latest post send me an e-mail yelling at me jr@ohlonecigarlounge.com

 There is quite a lot to talk about. We had our Monthly HERF club event. A HERF is a group of BOTL and SOTL enjoying a nice premium cigar. Even before the lounge opened we did this as a group of friends. One of us would go out and buy a cigar for everybody, peel the label off and do a formal blind tasting. It is a really great way to enjoy a cigar. We brought that into the Ohlone Cigar Lounge and have about 30 people in the club. Everybody gets a tasting book for notes and we walk through the experience and talk about what we are all tasting. Our next event is July 11th. The cost is $15 per event or if you sign up for a year it is $150.00 for a year. You get 2 months free for signing up for the year.


 Another really cool thing happened with the lounge. We had Col Garrett Yee stop by the lounge to enjoy a cigar and give some advice to a fairly young marine about to be stationed in Afghanastan. We sent him a box of Cigars which he shared amoung the troops. Several customers saw this on Facebook and wanted to help out as well. We've collected almost 50 cigars heading to guys doing the hard work for us all.

We had an Oliva Cigars event. It was a fantastic time but unfortunatly I was out of town (Houston in late June isn't pleasant by the way). The next event on July 18th is a Double Shot event with Drew Estates and Joyo de Nicaragua. I'm super excited about this event!! And I get to be here for it! Both Drew Estates and Joyo de Nicaragua are great cigars

And to kick off July we are having an informal BBQ and Potluck at the lounge. For those who want a little peace and quite on the 4th we will have a BBQs out front where you can grill whatever you want to bring and if you want bring a side dish as well. There is a sign up sheet in the lounge if you want to coordinate what you bring as a side dish.

Final note: I met a buddy of mine I worked with 10 years ago in a local coffee shop. He hadn't smoke a cigar in years (before I met him). He stopped byt he lounge and now is a regular in several times a week. As he was leaving today he said "Thanks for opening this place". He really likes the relaxing nature of coming in, watching a game or just chilling out.