Where It's Still Legal to Exhale

[El Presidente]

Where It's Still Legal to Exhale

<H6 class=byline>By Alan Feuer

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/nyregion...rss&emc=rss

</H6>AN afición for cigars — "penchant" lacks the necessary passion, while "fondness" is at least three shades too tame — is a difficult itch to scratch in Bloombergian New York, which, aside from its high property taxes and low trans fats, is almost entirely smoke-free. There aren't many Cubans to be found, even at the high-end joints in Midtown, which leaves the connoisseur with the alternative of second-fiddle Dominicans. If you are going to buy such things, you might as well go to the source.

Rosa and Rafael Portes, the married owners of the Q Cigar by Portes shop, at Broadway and 214th Street, own 75 acres in Tamboril, Santiago, a tobacco-growing district of the Dominican Republic. There, they plant, cut, dry and age their own tobacco leaves, which are then exported — much as they were decades ago — to the Inwood section of Manhattan. Here, the leaves are rolled by hand into the Jacos, Don Luises and Torpedo Corojos they have been selling in the neighborhood for nearly 20 years.

"There's a public for each of them," Ms. Portes, a small Spanish-speaking woman, said through an interpreter the other day. Jacos ($12 each) are muscular and spicy. Torpedos ($7) are for casual weekend smokers. For those with a more debauched palate, there are cognac-soaked cigars ($20). Women, it is said, will often tend toward the "flavoreds" ($4), cherry, vanilla, rum or amaretto.

The Porteses employ a full-time professional cigar roller, José Germosen, an alumnus of the Leon Jimenes Cigar Company, one of the oldest and most popular Dominican brands. Mr. Germosen, who plies his trade from his portable stool and bench in the corner of the shop, splits his time among the three Portes locations: one that caters to the Wall Street crowd on Church Street in the financial district, one in Newark and the flagship business here in Inwood.

That last location was serenely quiet on a recent afternoon: Mr. Germosen was in New Jersey, and Mr. Portes was tending his fields in "the D.R." Ms. Portes sat beside her register and kept close watch on the Churchills and Robustos in their case across the room. In the tiny, spartan space, the only decorations were a wall-size photo of the boss, a painted wooden rooster and a TV set, endlessly playing telenovelas. There was a steady stream of customers: cabbies, deliverymen, sanitation workers and police officers.

Fernando Peña was among them. Mr. Peña, a chauffeur, seemed to know so much about the Porteses and their business that he was mistaken for an employee. "Baseball and politics," he said, "those are the two main topics of conversation here. People come in, smoke their cigars and just hang out."

The clientele is unusually diverse, Mr. Peña said, and might, on any given day, include Jews, Dominicans and "the Irish guy with the laptop" who frequently walks in, takes a seat, boots up his computer, lights a Presidente, checks his e-mail and then returns to work.

"We get women — not just their husbands," Mr. Peña boasted, adding with a hint of incredulity that Cubans dropped in, too.

Wasn't that a scandal? Cubans smoking Dominican cigars?

"Well, Cubans are illegal," he said. "Dominicans are the next-best thing."

[Fuzz AI]

There aren't many Cubans to be found, even at the high-end joints in Midtown, which leaves the connoisseur with the alternative of second-fiddle Dominicans.

Huh?! Why did the reporter write that? Are Cubans being sold in high-end joints? So it's true that with enough money, you really can buy anything?

[MrGlass]

Huh?! Why did the reporter write that? Are Cubans being sold in high-end joints? So it's true that with enough money, you really can buy anything?

You can legally buy pre-embargo Cuban's, if you can manage to find any and afford them.

[reg]

Huh?! Why did the reporter write that? Are Cubans being sold in high-end joints? So it's true that with enough money, you really can buy anything?

that line was very confusing the first time I read it yesterday. I think it may mean the people rolling the cigars.

[PigFish]

While I don't want this to stray into another thread with the "who did it to us" political irony, I found this story touching in many ways. Granted I would likely get ill at an attempt to smoke one of these cigars, but somehow I see trying my first Italian dinner, or Thai dish in this story.

Americans have lost so much in the past 40 years. For me, tossing firecrackers in my back yard, or hunting in the local hills. Riding my dirtbike across town, or even taking a quick ride to a friends without my helmet. Riding in the back of a pickup truck to the beach and having a bonfire.

I read in the local paper yesterday and there was a story of a woman who was ticketed for honking her horn. Apparently there were some folks with signs on an intersection, I don't know if they read honk for women's' rights, or to support our troops but she got a ticket anyway for a quick honk in agreement!

Have you ever wondered what has really happened? Society is now more important than the individual in it... not on occasion, but by a large margin. It is not the exception but the rule now. Society has no natural rights so it is given rights or we have been give laws to protect it, at the cost of the individual who ostensibly has them. Somewhere along the line, people have become the cancer and society is the being!

Just some random thoughts for your weekend cigars, deliberately ambiguous and not intended as a left or right argument! -Piggy

[ARRV]

While I don't want this to stray into another thread with the "who did it to us" political irony, I found this story touching in many ways. Granted I would likely get ill at an attempt to smoke one of these cigars, but somehow I see trying my first Italian dinner, or Thai dish in this story.

Americans have lost so much in the past 40 years. For me, tossing firecrackers in my back yard, or hunting in the local hills. Riding my dirtbike across town, or even taking a quick ride to a friends without my helmet. Riding in the back of a pickup truck to the beach and having a bonfire.

I read in the local paper yesterday and there was a story of a woman who was ticketed for honking her horn. Apparently there were some folks with signs on an intersection, I don't know if they read honk for women's' rights, or to support our troops but she got a ticket anyway for a quick honk in agreement!

Have you ever wondered what has really happened? Society is now more important than the individual in it... not on occasion, but by a large margin. It is not the exception but the rule now. Society has no natural rights so it is given rights or we have been give laws to protect it, at the cost of the individual who ostensibly has them. Somewhere along the line, people have become the cancer and society is the being!

Just some random thoughts for your weekend cigars, deliberately ambiguous and not intended as a left or right argument! -Piggy

It's lowest common denominator democracy. Law makers need to be seen to be active to increase their vote so they 'take action' and 'get tough' on matters - code for more laws. Individual responsibility is left at the door and the majority stays silent because they can live with iit but it's a bit of a pain.

Soon enough the silent majority simply disobey the laws because they are no longer are relevant. Humans have never obeyed laws which restrict their choice or freedoms. Eventually the laws change again. Full circle but a few get trapped along the way