FINDING THE STATE’S OLDEST CIGAR SHOP.
Monterey enjoys as much history as any city in California. It can claim the state’s first newspaper, first public school, first library and first brick house. It was the capital of both the Spanish and Mexican territories of Alta California and has the only historic whalebone sidewalk on the West Coast.
So when a historic society like the Native Sons of the Golden West commemorates a place as the oldest business in Monterey, you know there’s a good reason.
The Native Sons placed that designation on Hellam’s Tobacco Shop on a recent Saturday with a brief public presentation and a bronze plaque, while also recognizing it as California’s oldest tobacco shop. It was founded in 1893, when Alvarado Street was dirt and the preferred mode of transportation was horse and buggy.
More than 130 people packed the small shop and spilled from the sidewalk into the street out front. Owner-operator Wyatt Miller smiled for the cameras as the local unofficial ambassador for cigars.
“Cigars are, in the first place, little treasures,” Miller says. “They’re an opportunity to take a pause in life to reflect on a day, an occasion — and they’re something to do with with your friends.”
Most days, Miller can be found behind the long vintage wood counter at the shop, flanked by an oversize antique ashtray, collectible lighters, a selection of cigarettes and bottles of liquor, often talking with friends new and old for hours.
Around those customers appear case after glass case of cigars — Rocky Patels varying in length and darkness, legacy Padrons that smell like Mother Earth and Arturo Fuente’s top-shelf Opus X’s. (“X’s are not for amateurs,” Miller says.)
Miller took ownership of the Alvarado Street shop from longtime friend Lee Hellam, a son of the store’s late founder, Frank Hellam. The silver-goateed shop owner with the easy smile is a downhome man who doesn’t enjoy pomp and ceremony, but admits he got a kick out of the Native Sons event.
“It was the biggest honor I’ve had — and it’s
wasn’t mine,” he says. “It was the family’s. It told me how important it was to keep the store going.”
He’s not resting on his historical laurels, though. Miller has gradually updated the back half of the store to include a smoking lounge with tables, wine racks, polished-wood cigar lockers and a wine bar. The wine-tasting bar is a historic piece itself — 175 years old, with painted glass on the cabinets, marble on the surface and a solid oak base, all complemented by the original plate mirror. Miller is currently stockpiling his favorite local labels in anticipation of city permits coming through.
Permits tend to take a while. Miller’s in no rush, though, content to pass the time smiling, smoking and talking with customers about cigars.
“They’re a joy in life,” he says.