Hi All,
I am again sitting on my balcony, this time sort of celebrating; well a micro celibration... I just finished an extremely long RFP that is due on Friday and I thought I would have a smoke and relax for a moment before going through all of my emails from this morning.
Today I would like to give a fair and accurate review of my local B&M, Mission Pipe Cigar Shop off Santa Rita road in Pleasanton California. I think this review will be unique in the since that this my first real B&M experience that did not include some business function.
About a month ago, maybe 3 weeks, my girlfriend and I were walking and saw the Mission Pipe Cigar Shop and I thought I would toss out a line and see if she bit. I said "why don't we go in and get a cigar" and thought for sure she would give me a scowl. 2 years ago I stopped smoking cigarettes after an 18 year stint. Instead what I got was "sure I have never tried a cigar before." I know she is very adventurous but this caught me by surprise. Thus our cigar journey begun...
The first time we entered, we have now been there 5 or 6 times, we met Greg (G-Money lol). We told him we were looking for two cigars of good quality and price was not a concern; I did not think we would ever be back so I wanted something good. Greg asked us if we had smoked before and if so what did we like. After explaining our limited to no knowledge of cigars he walked us around and pointed out several cigars ranging from $8 to $12 a stick. Having passed over several sticks with price tags well above $15, I asked him if those would be better. He politely explained that the lower priced cigars would be a better choice as we were not experienced enough to necessarily know what we liked and he did not want us to waste our money; though if we wanted he would sell us anything we saw. WOW! I was immediately impressed and we purchased two cigars at around $12 each; I honestly do not remember what they were at this point. My girlfriend and I talked about the place all the way home and enjoyed our cigars that night.
Lindsay, my girlfriend, and I enjoyed the relaxation of smoking a cigar on the balcony so much we decided we would give this hobby a try. So, the very next day we went back and met Todd, the manager. I have to say I have not met many people in the cigar industry, but Todd is extremely knowledgeable, friendly and has a great personality. Based on our request, Todd took us on another tour and gave us a quick (like an hour) lesson on cigars, the fermenting process, the rolling process and the industry as a whole. Holy s**t! We had only spent a whopping $24 in his store at this point! I cannot stress how friendly the staff and environment is in this shop. They take their business seriously and want you to feel at home and non pressured at all times. Suffice it to say, we spent more than $24 the next day and got 6 cigars each. Since then we have been back several time, never felt pressured and even stayed to smoke a few cigars.
Now to the physical shop review... The shop is pretty small as you would expect since it resides in a strip mall. There is no walk in humidor, but the cigars are well stored and displayed in an orderly fashion with names and prices clearly visible in the cabinet humidors. They also have a center island with higher end, and limited edition cigars in a case. They have 30+ humidors for sale ranging in price and quality as well as ash trays, travel accessories, lighters, and empty boxes. The shop also sells a slew of pipe tobacco and tobacco pipes and a limited selection of cigarettes. There is no grey area paraphernalia, which we thought was a very good thing.
The front room has two chairs available, nice plush leather chairs that you can people watch while you smoke. The back room, or lounge, has several chairs available as well as a TV that seems to always have a game on. I am unsure if there is a restroom as we have never needed to ask, but there have always been some sort of snack available (cookies and such) and a sink to wash your hands, and or get a glass of water. The ventilation system is older but does the job quite well.
After doing literally hours of searching on the internet, I do not believe they price gouge at all. Some of their sticks are a buck more than you are going to get online, but that is to be expected; we live in California and having a place to smoke without the glairs of the anti tobacco crowd is worth paying a buck more for a $14 stick in my opinion. Furthermore, this is more than made up for with deals that they offer to regular customers. If you have not read my introduction post, today I am picking up the following for $693 out the door:
1 box Diamond Crown Maximus
1 box Diamond Crown Julius Cesar
1 box Diamond Crown Robusto #4
8x Fuente sample cigars
1x Diamond Crown St. James Alexander 90 Count Humidor
1x Diamond Crown ashtray (not the matching)
I have priced this out on several online vendors and I believe this to be a great deal. On top of that it helps keep a local establishment's doors open; a place that we thoroughly enjoy visiting.
The only negatives I would say, would be there is no filtered water dispensary like Arrowhead or the likes (this I do not mind as I drink tap water), and there does not appear to be any public wifi (I need to check this tonight to verify).
I hope you enjoyed my review and hope it was not too long to read. Again, a big shout out to Todd and Greg at Mission Pipe Cigar Shop in Pleasanton.
-Ray
