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Perimeter Business A monthly section focusing on biuinejj in the Reporter News papers communities Cigar lounges offer relaxation and celebrity glamour ISADORA PENNINGTON Shafi Hai, owner of Churchill Fine Cigars in Sandy Springs, opened his store in 2013. The shop features a smoking lounge with leather couches, a cedar-paneled, walk-in humidor and private lockers. BY JOHN RUCH On a quiet, early afternoon at Churchill Fine Cigars in Sandy Springs, owner Shafi Hai showed off some of the shop’s luxurious features. The smoking lounge with plush dark-leather couches beneath a mural of Winston Churchill and Cuban scenes. The cedar-paneled, walk-in humidor stocked with hard-to-find premium cigars. He demonstrated the private lockers where regulars can store their smokes, and pointed out one with a brass name plate reading, “Dr. Jays.” “You know—Dr. J?” he asked. Yep, the Dr. J—pro basketball legend Julius Erving, a Sandy Springs resident who frequently visits Churchill and shares a smoke with fellow cigar connoisseurs. With this old-school social club atmosphere and occa sional celebrity glamour, the cigar lounge business is on the rise in the metro north area. Hai claims to have pioneered the shop-and-smoking- lounge concept in Georgia 20 years ago with his Scottish To bacco stores in Buckhead and Rockdale County. He opened Churchill in 2013 to pick up Sandy Springs customers. And Davidoff of Geneva—a Swiss luxury brand that recently marketed a $500 cigar—is about to open a store and lounge in the Buckhead Atlanta complex. Cigars had a renaissance as a luxury item in the economic boom of the early 1990s. The magazine “Cigar Aficionado” launched, highlighting such cigar-loving superstars as Sylves ter Stallone and Pierce Brosnan. At the same time, health laws banning public smok ing were on the rise, inspiring specialty cigar bars and cigar lounges that were exempt. (The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to warn that ci gar-smoking raises the risk of cancer, gum disease and other illnesses.) Such laws took a while to reach the Atlanta area, but have played a role in the cigar lounge trend. Dantanna’s, the upscale sports bar and restaurant in Buck- head, opened the adjacent Buckhead Cigar Lounge 10 years ago in response to the smoking restrictions. “We had many very good regulars who were cigar-smok ers, and we were a cigar-friendly bar back in the day,” said Dantanna’s partner David Clapp. The restaurant turned to a group of those custom ers, led by Mike Turrentine, to transform the former private dining room into a stand-alone cigar shop and lounge. It now carries a quarter-million-dollars worth of high-end cigars, and offers special dinners and scotch-tastings. The lounge also operates a mem bers’ club. CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 y > People Drive Us. Got Sprinter? Got Service? Did you know your first factory service is 100% COMPLIMENTARY when you purchase or lease a new Sprinter from us? Call now for details. SF*F*INT^FR of Buckhead It’s Spring! Time to get that workhorse of yours serviced and back on the road in top condition. Make an appointment now. Our factory trained Sprinter Service Technicians are the best in the business and we’re ready to serve you. mercedesofbuckhead.com | 404.846.3501 | 2799 Piedmont Rd | Atlanta, GA www.ReporterNewspapers.net | JULY24-AUG.6,2015 | 7