Licensed Cigar Lounge sues the City

[El Presidente]

 

https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-last-licensed-cigar-lounge-sues-the-city/601316432

Minneapolis’ last licensed cigar lounge sues the city

Anthony’s Pipe and Cigar Lounge is challenging a city ordinance meant to shut down its lounge.

By Susan Du

The Minnesota Star Tribune

April 3, 2025 at 3:40AM

Friends Joe Blauert, left, of St. Paul and Scott Johnson of Carver enjoy cigars at Anthony's Pipe and Cigar Lounge in south Minneapolis in 2023. (Anthony Souffle, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Minneapolis passed an ordinance last year aimed to close a “loophole” in the state’s prohibition on indoor smoking that allowed for licensed tobacconists to run cigar lounges. It appeared to affect only one business: Anthony’s Pipe and Cigar Lounge in Uptown.

Anthony’s has a sprawling leather seating room where customers — typically older men — work and hang out while smoking cigars. The business sued the city, arguing in a filing last week that the ordinance threatens its continued existence and should be superseded by state law. The suit seeks to permanently enjoin the city from enforcing its ordinance.

The city hasn’t yet filed an answer to the lawsuit, but last year during City Council deliberations, Assistant City Attorney Joel Fussy acknowledged the ever-present risk of ordinances being overridden by the state. At the same time, he said state law granted cities the power to enact more stringent regulations than the state.

A holding pattern

Although the ordinance went into effect at the end of last year, not much has actually changed at Anthony’s Pipe and Cigar Lounge. On Tuesday morning, a handful of men quietly read under small clouds of their personal cigar smoke.

Longtime customer Jeff Carolus has seen no practical change with Anthony’s hangout culture. But he is aware of the ordinance hanging ominously over the shop, and questions why the city would want to truncate a healthy business in an area struggling to keep storefronts filled.

“It seems like the issues that the city is facing are much larger than this,” Carolus said. “And to take time and resources to dictate behavior on a bunch of [people] — the average person is 45 to 65 — to impose behavioral restrictions on those individuals ... I’m surprised."

The city hasn’t gotten any complaints about Anthony’s and thus hasn’t inspected the shop or taken any enforcement action against it, city spokesperson Allen Henry said. Anthony’s passed its last annual underage sales check.

Nevertheless, the fear remains that anyone — a disgruntled member of the public, someone with personal beef — could complain to the city at any time and get the lounge shut down, owner Hadi Abou Mourad said.

15-minute rule

Last year Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw, who represents parts of north Minneapolis, championed a series of policy changes to further restrict smoking. These included imposing what was then the nation’s highest price floor of $15 for a pack of cigarettes, and ending indefinite “sampling” of tobacco products inside licensed tobacco shops — a practice that only occurred at Anthony’s Pipe and Cigar Lounge, said Amy Lingo, the city’s manager of business licenses.

Vetaw is a longtime smoking cessation advocate.

Aisha Chughtai, the council member representing south Uptown, tried to carve out an exception in the ordinance to grandfather in Anthony’s, in an attempt to save the business. Vetaw pushed back.

Following a lengthy debate in council chambers, in which multiple council members said they were confused about the effect of several changes to the ordinance under consideration, the final ordinance restricted “sampling” to 15 minutes.

That’s essentially the same as ending Anthony’s lounge, Abou Mourad said.

“This is what we have a problem with: is somebody spending $20 on a cigar, and they smoke probably half an inch at 15 minutes before they have to kill it and walk away,” he said. “It’s like going to a restaurant, and they tell you, you have five minutes to eat your burger.”

 

[JohnS]

Minneapolis Cigar Lounge Sues City Over 15-Minute Smoking Limitation

It doesn’t take an aficionado to know that you can’t smoke a cigar in 15 minutes, not even a short one.

 May 9, 2025 - By Garrett Rutledge

Photos/Eric Ruby

The Minneapolis City Council passed a law last year that prohibited cigar smokers from smoking for more than 15 minutes inside tobacco shops. To add insult to injury, there’s only one cigar shop in Minneapolis where smoking indoors is allowed. The ordinance felt targeted and unnecessary to cigar smokers locally and beyond, and now the shop, Anthony’s Pipe & Cigar Lounge, is fighting back. In late March, owner Hadi Aboumourad and his lawyer, John Sperry, filed a lawsuit against the city with hopes that the court will repeal the ordinance.

Around this time last year, the City Council passed a series of tobacco-control measures, but none was more shocking than the 15-minute time limit on cigar smoking. The ordinance was the City Council’s way of expanding, or changing, the definition of what the state refers to as “sampling.” According to the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act (MCIAA), passed by the state in 2007, customers are permitted to smoke cigars in licensed indoor areas “for the specific purpose of sampling tobacco products.” Anthony’s Pipe & Cigar Lounge, using the state’s classification, has offered a lounge area for sampling (i.e. smoking) cigars for several years. As far as the state is concerned, the line with sampling ends there. There are no restrictions on time, the number of tobacco products one can sample or other limitations of any kind. The city, however, introduced a more strict definition for sampling last year, limiting sampling to a mere 15 minutes. But, it doesn’t take an aficionado to know that you can’t smoke a cigar in 15 minutes, not even a short one.

The city believes it is operating within its legal rights, despite changing the way sampling is defined. Minnesota is a local authority state in regards to tobacco control, meaning local municipalities are granted the authority, via the state, “to adopt and enforce more stringent measures to protect individuals from secondhand smoke.” The city holds the position that it has the right to create a stricter definition of sampling. John Sperry, Anthony’s attorney, disagreed then and disagrees now. “It’s without any demonstrative health benefit that avoids secondhand smoke exposure to non-smokers, which is a fundamental purpose of the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act,” Sperry told Cigar Aficionado in 2024. “We see that [the 15-minute sampling window] as a death by a thousand cuts.”

Anthony’s filed its lawsuit against the city on March 27. In Sperry’s view, the City has a wholly different interpretation of the MCIAA definition of sampling and the authority granted to local municipalities. Sperry believes when the state created its sampling exemption, it wanted to protect the non-smoking public while still reaffirming the legitimacy of tobacco shops and the rights of smokers. He says the state made a “thoughtful, deliberate decision” when creating its sampling definition, purposely not specifying a time limit or the number of the samples allowed, while also making a clear exemption for cigar smokers to enjoy a smoke in licensed tobacco product shops. “They can’t outright ban something that the state statute clearly permits and expresses as an exemption," says Sperry. “Fifteen minutes of sampling and then prohibiting it after 15 minutes is still a prohibition of sampling, right?” The question of enforceability regarding the 15-minute time limit also still remains unanswered.

Hadi Aboumourad (left), the owner of Anthony's, pictured with his attorney John Sperry.

Sperry argues that the city’s ordinance “irreconcilably conflicts” with the state’s definition of sampling. In his view, the city has exceeded the authority granted by the state. “We agree that they have the right to enact more restrictive measures, but that right is not plenary,” says Sperry. “In other words, there’s nothing in the statute that supports the vilification of smokers.” The city hasn’t been clear on how the smoking time limit within licensed cigar shops protects non-smokers from secondhand smoke exposure, which, based on the state’s language, is the only purpose for local municipalities to enact stricter measures than the state.

The city’s rebuttal in this case essentially amounts to a full denial of the complaints. On the positive side of things, Sperry tells Cigar Aficionado that the city ordinance has not actually been enforced yet, despite going into effect last December 1. Sperry says the city assured him they would not enforce the ordinance unless a complaint is made. While Anthony’s appreciates the gesture, it still feels the legislation was targeted and that it leaves the cigar shop standing on uneasy ground. “The problem for Anthony’s is you can’t operate a retail business under the uncertainty that someone is going to make a complaint,” says Sperry.

Anthony’s is not seeking monetary damages through the lawsuit. “We are asking for abrogation of the 15-minute sampling definition and limitation,” says Sperry. The lawsuit in this case is seeking a declaratory judgement, meaning Anthony’s is asking for the courts to make a ruling on the ordinance enacted by the Minneapolis City Council. Sperry is hoping the court will declare the ordinance void and permanently prohibit the city from enforcing it. There are several possible outcomes that could emerge from this process, but the two most likely options are the courts disagree and the city’s sampling definition remains, or they agree with Anthony’s and repeal the 15-minute time limit.

In the meantime, Sperry has requested a temporary injunction on the ordinance while the lawsuit plays out. This would make the ordinance unenforceable while the lawsuit works its way through the court. A hearing is set to decide on the temporary injunction on May 29, at 11 am. The city, as expected, is opposed to any injunctive relief.

“We’re very confident on the basis of our challenge,” says Sperry. After the hearing, Sperry says the courts will eventually issue a “scheduling order,” which essentially lays out a timeline for the various steps and processes ahead. Despite Sperry’s confidence, a long legal battle likely lies ahead for Anthony’s.

An official GoFundMe has been set-up to support Anthony’s legal fight, which you find here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-anthonys-fight-for-small-business-rights

Source: https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/minneapolis-cigar-lounge-sues-city-over-15-minute-smoking-limitation