Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
BUSINESS IS BOOMING FOR LAS VEGAS CIGAR KING MICHAEL FREY
Q+A: Successful local entrepreneur talks Casa Fuente, Montecristo and Cigarbox then and now
Perhaps the most famous cigar smoker of them all was my hero, Sir Winston Churchill, or the enemy, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Groucho Marx and George Burns used them as trademarks. Today the kings of smoking celebrities are everybody from actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Selleck, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone to director Francis Ford Coppola.
Billionaire philanthropist Ron Perelman, who will be honored at our Keep Memory Alive “Power of Love Gala” on April 27, is such an aficionado that he bought Consolidated Cigar Corp. Cigars go with the finer things in life: cognac, champagne and expensive cars.
The title of Las Vegas cigar king has to go to Michael Frey, who owns Casa Fuente at The Forum Shops of Caesars Palace; is partnered with Caesars in Montecristo Cigar Bar; and has a kiosk store at New YorkNew York and cigarette girls in both casino resorts selling cigars.
But his main store has always been Cigarbox. Five months ago, he moved it to an office building on Dean Martin Drive, and business is booming: “It’s definitely growing. When we first got in the business 20 years ago, nobody was doing cigars until my brother, Robert, and I got into it.
“At one time, we had eight to 10 stores up and down the Strip because the boom fueled by Cigar Aficionado Magazine made everybody want cigars. The business, when we got into it, went to an all-time high, then it tapered off between 1997 and 2005. But it’s still been great. The import of premium cigars is huge,” Michael told me.
“In Las Vegas, even with the antismoking stuff, there are three really good cigar bars on the Strip now: Casa, Montecristo and Davidoff. I talked to hotel presidents, and there’s renewed interest in cigar bars because President Obama opened up Cuba, and there’s a lot of interest in Cuba now.
“It’s driving a renewed interest in cigars. For people our age and between 35 and 65 who don’t want to go to a nightclub, you really don’t have a lot of choices. The lounges went away, except for two or three, so I think the cigar bar in a hotel provides entertainment for that demographic.”
The privacy of a cigar bar becomes more important as nightclubs lose their appeal because of what I call subway congestion.
Certainly, our cigar bars at Caesars Palace and Montecristo have borne that out. When conventions are here, they’re packed until two in the morning with that age group who don’t want to go to nightclubs or strip clubs.
What does one look for in a good cigar, a great cigar, the best cigar?
Everyone has different tastes. It’s like picking a wine. To me, it’s about flavor and aroma. I think the more you smoke and try, that’s what you look for besides great construction and spectacular tobacco. The nonCuban cigars are so good now. Cigar Aficionado just did a retailer survey, and they rate the Top 25 cigars of the year. It was shocking to see that of the Top 25 cigars of the year rated, or Top 25 to 40, 90 percent came from Nicaragua.
In the last three to five years, Nicaragua has been turning out some of the best cigars because of the maturation of the industry there as people from the Dominican started going to Nicaragua. The quality of Nicaraguan cigars is so good that they’re some of the bestselling cigars in the country.
You’re not saying Cuban cigars are over, but they’re getting a good run for their money?
Cuban cigars are still good, but not to the level they were in 1995, the last great year of Cuban cigars. When Russia pulled out of Cuba and stopped subsidizing its sugar business, which they exported all over the world, cigars became the biggest cash crop besides tourism, their biggest export. They were pumping them out as fast as possible, and that took a toll on the soil. You’re supposed to let the earth rest, but they were just rushing, rushing, rushing.
It sucked down the quality of the product. I think they’re just as good as … I always say, it’s like people 40 years ago say, “Oh, I only drink ... Read the rest of this story at robinleach.reviewjournal.com.