When Fidel's Cigar Lounge in Melbourne was the place to be...

[JohnS]

Below is an article from Cigar Aficionado spruiking the glory days of Fidel's Cigar Lounge at the Crown Casino in Melbourne in 2001. Angelo Giannakopoulos managed the place, and a few of our Australian members are well acquainted with him as he moved on to work for Pacific Cigar Company (PCC) in Australia. I have had the pleasure of having a cigar a few times with Angelo in Sydney and I last caught up with him at our hosts' wedding in mid-2023. 

Fidel's, Australia

Smoking in Melbourne.

Apr 5, 2001 - By Alejandro Benes

Enter Fidel's and you go back to the 1997 days of cigar disco in the United States. You wouldn't have been surprised to walk into a cigar bar with this type of décor in New York during the heady days of the cigar boom, though you probably wouldn't have found a club named Fidel's in the continental 48. Of course, you certainly wouldn't have found a selection of some of Cuba's best-known cigar brands.

The cigar selection, especially for Americans, is the big draw at Fidel's. If you're spending a week or more in what is arguably Australia's culture capital, you might have the opportunity to sample the list in alphabetical order.

Start with Bolivar, either the Belicoso Fino or the robusto-sized Royal Corona. Move to many different Cohibas, then El Rey del Mundo Choix Supreme, Fonseca, H. Upmann -- either the No. 2 or the all-night sucker, the Sir Winston -- Hoyo de Monterrey and so on down to Vegas Robaina. The prices are not kind, though Americans will benefit from a declining Aussie dollar, recently pegged at about U.S.50 cents. That makes the price of a Partagas Serie D No. 4 Au$44, a mere $22 per stick. A Fuente Fuente OpusX Robusto, however, is no bargain at Au$130 ($65).

If the cigar you choose was made well, you're not going to be disappointed, because Fidel's manager, Angelo Giannakopoulos, takes great pride in proper maintenance and presentation and the club itself.

"Fidel's revived the cigar business in Melbourne," Giannakopoulos claims. "We get a lot of businessmen, hotel guests, gamblers and celebrities."

Those hotel guests and gamblers come down to Fidel's from the Crown Hotel and Casino, reputed to be the largest in the world outside the United States. It's a toned-down version of Vegas with no attempt made at re-creating the Great Barrier Reef or the Outback. "Survivor" here means you left the tables with enough to pay the airfare back home or for a couple of lovely Armagnacs, particularly the 1978 La Courtoisie Bas or even the 1983. Check to see if the bar is having a Calvados tasting while you're in town.

If you are with friends, try to get into one of three private rooms at the club. The only requirement is that the group have a minimum size of six that spends at least Au$600 (U.S.$300) during the evening. Even if you stay out in the lounge, you'll be treated well by the staff and will be comfortable in the large leather club chairs.

The crowd tends to be upscale and the dress is something called "smart casual," something short of a suit but more than a pair of khakis. Most folks are dressed as if they just came from the theater or any of a dozen high-end eateries around town. The place gets going after dinner and runs hot until late at night.

If there's one quibble with Fidel's, it's the ashtrays. They are not made for cigars, but if that's the biggest problem with the lounge, you've no reason not to drop in.

Alejandro Benes spends much of his time smoking cigars around the world while alleging to pursue business opportunities.

Fidel's
Lower Shopping Promenade,
Crown Entertainment Complex 8 Whitman Street Southbank
Melbourne 3006 Australia
(011) (61) (3) 9292-6885

Open seven days a week from 5 p.m. until 1 a.m. on weekdays and 3 a.m. on weekends. Serves a full bar with some outstanding Australian wines and international spirits, plus a snack menu.

(N.B. Please be mindful that this article from Fidel's is from 2001. The cigar lounge is no longer operational)

Source: https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/fidels-australia-1650

[JohnS]

In 2005 the Victorian State Government introduced legislation to close down indoor smoking at public venues. There was an effort to exempt Cigar Lounges but alas, it was not to be (at least in Australia)...

Fidel's fumes at cigar crackdown

May 7, 2005 — 1.41am

Its clientele may consider it a sophisticated haven in a barbaric world, but the Cuban and North African fires burning at the celebrated Fidel's Bar & Lounge will be extinguished by July 2007.

Fidel's, at Crown Casino, is among a handful of Melbourne cigar bars that face being legislated out of existence under laws banning smoking in public venues, introduced in State Parliament this week.

Wal Baranow, the Melbourne-based president of the Cigar Society of Australia and New Zealand, said he was prepared to fight the decision, accusing the Government of reneging on a pledge to talk with cigar smokers before announcing their plans.

No one who goes to a cigar bar is an innocent victim of passive smoke, he said.

"One hundred per cent of the people go there for one purpose," he told theage.com.au.

"You're not going to go there if you're a non-smoker, are you?" he said. "If you want to go for a drink you go to another bar.

"Customers are saying they'd like to be able to go somewhere, not be pushed around, not have loads of people, sit down and be civilised: enjoy a cigar, enjoy a coffee or a cognac and enjoy life. It's a lifestyle."

The timing of the legislation could hardly be worse for Mr Baranow, who said he had invested up to $800,000 in a yet-to-be completed cigar bar in Hawthorn. The 57-year-old, who has spent nearly half his life selling tobacco, said he feared he would have to sell his house, but held out hope that Victoria would see "a little common sense" and follow the lead of some US states that belatedly exempted cigar bars from anti-smoking laws.

"We'll keep fighting it. What else can you do? It's my future, my life, my family," he said.

The venue last year hosted short courses in cigar-appreciation, run by William Angliss TAFE.

A spokesman for Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said there would be no exemptions.

"We have gone for an approach which emphasises consistency across all licensed premises, and the more exemptions you put in, the more confusion it creates," he said. "We still think that if you love your cigars, then you're not going to mind smoking them in a non-enclosed outdoor area."

While bars such as Mr Bogart's in South Yarra, the Melbourne Supper Club Bar in Spring Street and Acqua e Vino in Yarraville are not exclusively cigar bars and may adapt, Crown spokesman Gary O'Neill confirmed Fidel's would close.

"From our understanding of the situation, Fidel's will not be able to continue when the new restrictions come in," he said. "It's very popular with those people ... it's a bit of a niche market but a lot of people do like to smoke cigars."

QUIT Victoria executive director Todd Harper said any exceptions would open a loophole for people to exploit.

"As soon as you start allowing exemptions for things like cigar bars, it weakens the legislation because you'll have a lot of other organisations seeking to circumvent the laws by having cigar bars," he said.

He said the laws would bring Victoria into line with other states, following a lead set by Tasmania and Queensland, which introduced legislation including a ban on smoking on patrolled beaches last September.

"The likelihood is that Victoria and NSW will probably be two of the last states in Australia to go smoke-free," Mr Harper said. "But at least we got there in the end."

Source: https://www.theage.com.au/national/fidels-fumes-at-cigar-crackdown-20050507-ge0444.html

[wemann]

Very interesting trip down memory lane, thanks for sharing. As a Melbournian I wish venues like this were still around. 

I spent so many nights early on in my cigar journey hanging around at Baranows in Hawthorn in my 20s and soaking it all in. 

RIP