# My new business:  "1101 Cigar Lounge"



## Melensdad

The guy who manages my real estate deals talked me out of semi-retirement almost-semi-retirement.  We've gone into partnership on a new cigar lounge.  This one is a pretty traditional lounge, unlike the small ones that I currently own which are very informal.

Its starting to take shape, here are some photos of what has been keeping busy when I'm not at the fencing club, a fencing tournament, or at the school helping the fencing team.

OBVIOUSLY ITS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION 

Inside the humidor:





View from the store area toward the humidor:





Across the store area from the humidor toward the lounge:





View of the smoking lounge area:





View of the store area:





View toward the front door (far left of photo) and front coffee/soda area of the lounge:


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## DaveNay

Location, location, location?


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## Rusty Shackleford

very nice!


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## snow dog

How does this compare to your snowcat business


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## Melensdad

DaveNay said:


> Location, location, location?


1101 W. Lincoln Hwy in Schererville, IN _ (a few miles east of the ILL state line on US 30)_




snow dog said:


> How does this compare to your snowcat business


This has the potential to make money   Oh, but snowcats are only a hobby for me.


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## DaveNay

Melensdad said:


> 1101 W. Lincoln Hwy in Schererville, IN



Hmmmm....I could probably make it there next time I am in Hammond.


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## Melensdad

DaveNay said:


> Hmmmm....I could probably make it there next time I am in Hammond.



South of Hammond via Indianapolis Blvd (_US 41 South_) down to US 30.  Turn left (_toward your home state_) and go 1 block past the first stoplight (_less than 1/2 mile from the US41/US30 intersection?_).  Its on the south side of the street.  Corner of Sunset and Lincoln Hwy (US30).

I expect it to be open mid-late January.


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## DaveNay

Melensdad said:


> Turn left (_toward your home state_)


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## snow dog

10 % off for ff members ?


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## Melensdad

DaveNay said:


>



Illinois is a liberal state


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## DaveNay

snow dog said:


> *100%* off for ff members ?



There...I fixed it for you.


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## Melensdad

It is a left turn for you to get to Illinois from every state except California 





snow dog said:


> 10 % off for ff members ?


Heck if you show up from Idaho I'll buy you a cigar.


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## DaveNay

Hope the apartment dwellers upstairs enjoy cigars!


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## Melensdad

DaveNay said:


> Hope the apartment dwellers upstairs enjoy cigars!


They pound on the floor whenever we run the power tools.  We just shut their heat off and pretend we know nothing


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## Cowboy

Very impresive craftsmanship in your new lounge MD . Thanks for sharing , looking forward to the progress pics


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## muleman RIP

Are you putting in a controlled humidity system for the whole place or just the humidor? Looks like a lot of work in the humidor room.


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## Melensdad

muleman said:


> Are you putting in a controlled humidity system for the whole place or just the humidor? Looks like a lot of work in the humidor room.


The humidor room has its own climate control with dual humidifiers controlled by a single humidistat controller located in the corner away from the humidor's door.  We are hoping to get the glass windows installed today or tomorrow in the humidor, as soon as those are installed I'll put in the humidors and we'll begin to raise the humidity in that room, I want that stable and up to humidity for 1 full week before we put cigars in there.


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## bczoom

Nice!

How do you handle the smoke?  Do you have filters, fans...?


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## DaveNay

Melensdad said:


> The humidor room has its own climate control with dual humidifiers controlled by a single humidistat controller located in the corner away from the humidor's door.



I would have gone with fully redundant systems...dual humidistat also.


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## Melensdad

DaveNay said:


> I would have gone with fully redundant systems...dual humidistat also.



The problem with that is they are not accurate enough to syncronize so you end up with one humidifier running far more often than the other, this way both turn on/off at the same time.  I looked at several systems and this appears to be the most trouble free and keeps the room's humidity stable.  Perhaps if I was doing a larger room it might make sense, but even then I'd power multiple humidifiers, spaced apart, off each humidistat.


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## Melensdad

bczoom said:


> Nice!
> 
> How do you handle the smoke?  Do you have filters, fans...?


We are blowing it right outside the building and not filtering.  There are 4 exhaust fans cut into the exterior wall of the lounge that will simply blow the smoke right out of the building.  It will increase our heating/AC bills but its the best solution for getting rid of smoke that we could come up with.  Depending on the level of smoke we can turn on 0, 2 or 4 exhaust fans.


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## Cowboy

Melensdad said:


> We are blowing it right outside the building and not filtering. There are 4 exhaust fans cut into the exterior wall of the lounge that will simply blow the smoke right out of the building. It will increase our heating/AC bills but its the best solution for getting rid of smoke that we could come up with. Depending on the level of smoke we can turn on 0, 2 or 4 exhaust fans.


 Will you be frying any bacon from time to time for snacky's ? Sure wouldn't want to offend any folks that might be passing by .


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## SShepherd

where do you get these uber humidifyers? Is you place anywhere near the toll road ( we go to chicago alot)


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## DaveNay

SShepherd said:


> where do you get these uber humidifyers? Is you place anywhere near the toll road ( we go to chicago alot)



You would exit Indianapolis Blvd from I80/94 and head south.


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## Melensdad

SShepherd said:


> where do you get these uber humidifyers? Is you place anywhere near the toll road ( we go to chicago alot)



The humidifiers are simple VICKS brand room humidifies, they are connected to dedicated/switched outlets that are controlled by a special humidistat.

As for being near the tollroad, we are closer to 80/94, as DaveNay said, exit south on US41 (Indianapolis Blvd).  This lounge is about 15 minutes south of the 80/94 exit for US41, and then roughly 1/4th mile west of US41 right on US30 (W. Lincoln Hwy).


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## DaveNay

Bob, how do you like ACID cigars?  I had an "Extra Ordinary Larry" last month and thought it was pretty darn good.


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## SShepherd

Melensdad said:


> The humidifiers are simple VICKS brand room humidifies, they are connected to dedicated/switched outlets that are controlled by a special humidistat.
> 
> As for being near the tollroad, we are closer to 80/94, as DaveNay said, exit south on US41 (Indianapolis Blvd). This lounge is about 15 minutes south of the 80/94 exit for US41, and then roughly 1/4th mile west of US41 right on US30 (W. Lincoln Hwy).


 

thats the secret humidifyers?????

I went to a place in vegas, they had an atomizer in a cigar shop that would boost the humidity in a room by 25% in 3min, it looked like fog coming out. I need something like that for my house.


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## Melensdad

DaveNay said:


> Bob, how do you like ACID cigars?  I had an "Extra Ordinary Larry" last month and thought it was pretty darn good.



For the most part I hate the ACID cigars, the Blondie, Nasty, KubaKuba and Wafe are, in my mind HORRID pieces of crap that look sort of like cigars?!?  But I have smoked a couple of the Larrys and that is one that I actually like.  Well I like it except for the price.  Darn things are way too expensive, even at my wholesale cost I don't like smoking those.

By the way, this is my real estate parter Juan, the one who convinced me to open the new 1101 cigar lounge.  He's paid for most of the interior remodeling of the lounge, I'm paying for the remainder plus the inventory.  He runs Villar Real Estate Advisors and I have partnered in his web operation.  Young guy, very aggressive, and has made me quite a bit of money this year despite the economy.  We are working on purchasing several multi-unit commercial and residential properties now, and he's starting up real estate syndications here in NW Indiana.


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## DaveNay

Melensdad said:


> For the most part I hate the ACID cigars, the Blondie, Nasty, KubaKuba and Wafe are, in my mind HORRID pieces of crap that look sort of like cigars?!?  But I have smoked a couple of the Larrys and that is one that I actually like.  Well I like it except for the price.  Darn things are way too expensive, even at my wholesale cost I don't like smoking those.



I guess I got lucky picking that one first then, huh?


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## Melensdad

DaveNay said:


> I guess I got lucky picking that one first then, huh?



Just curious, any idea what you paid for it?

As for cigars, I like tobacco in my cigars and most of the ACID cigars seem to have spices, cloves, spices, etc in them.  The Larry is no exception to that, but it also seems that those flavors don't overwhelm the Larry's tobacco.  I've had several people ask me to describe the flavor of the Larry and I can't do it other than to say its good.

OTOH we have lots of loyal customers who smoke the other ACID cigars, (_they have 20+ varieties, I carry about a half dozen?_) but none will go in my mouth!


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## DaveNay

Melensdad said:


> Just curious, any idea what you paid for it



I think it was in the $10 range? Perhaps $11?  It was actually mid October, so I don't really recall.

What I liked about the Larry is that it had those unique/unusual/interesting flavors for the first 10 minutes, but then became a nice long burning cigar afterwards.  I really liked that it stayed very cool and smooth right up to the end.


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## Melensdad

We charge over $12 for them, but Indiana has a higher tobacco/cigar tax than Illinois _(one of the very few taxes where we are too expensive)._

As for staying cool to the end, any of the large ring gauge cigars will stay cool when compared to any of the narrow ring gauge cigars.  One of my favorite cigars is a TeAmo World Series Dominicana and its only 3.5" long but its a 62 ring gauge and never feels hot.


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## Melensdad

We are still not ready, but the humidor is about 1/2 full and has been seasoned for the past 8 or 9 days to get the humidity up to where it is stable.  Photo below is one of my shooting buddies who is teaching me to shoot competitive IDPA.  

No TV's installed yet.  Hopefully those will be in here early next week.  Then we may actually open up 1 week from today . . . or maybe Saturday?  But its getting close.


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## Melensdad

Inside the humidor, still waiting for 3 more cigar deliveries.








The main lounge area, there is another small seating area in another part of the store where we may do hookah?


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## EastTexFrank

Melensdad said:


> we may do hookah?



Now that would be cool.  I've never tried one.  

On our trip the UK this spring, we took a walk up Edgeware Road.  The area is now totally over run with Arabs and stores catering to them.  I was amazed that every café that we passed there were Arabs men sitting outside, in freezing cold weather, smoking hookahs.


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## joec

You know Mel I've never been in one of these places in my life which I find strange. I do smoke and though it is mostly cigarettes I do like a good cigar from time to time. Pretty comfortable looking place though I must say. Good luck with it.


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## Melensdad

joec said:


> You know Mel I've never been in one of these places in my life which I find strange. I do smoke and though it is mostly cigarettes I do like a good cigar from time to time. Pretty comfortable looking place though I must say. Good luck with it.


With so many jurisdictions outlawing smoking there is a niche market waiting to be filled. We provide a nice space for people to smoke without feeling like they are second class citizens. 



EastTexFrank said:


> Now that would be cool.  I've never tried one.
> 
> On our trip the UK this spring, we took a walk up Edgeware Road.  The area is now totally over run with Arabs and stores catering to them.  I was amazed that every café that we passed there were Arabs men sitting outside, in freezing cold weather, smoking hookahs.


I tried hookah a couple times. I don't get it. It's tobacco saturated in a substance like honey?  And the flavors are odd like apple-mint or orange-berry-mocha?  Huh?!?


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## thcri RIP

Melensdad said:


> With so many jurisdictions outlawing smoking there is a niche market waiting to be filled. We provide a nice space for people to smoke without feeling like they are second class citizens.




The International Mechanical Code Book now allows for Smoking Rooms.  One of my customers was looking at doing one down in the Des Moines, Ia area and the city was allowing it.


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## joec

Melensdad said:


> With so many jurisdictions outlawing smoking there is a niche market waiting to be filled. We provide a nice space for people to smoke without feeling like they are second class citizens.



Yes they started the school smoking ban even for teachers and administrators the last year I worked for Dade County Public Schools, hence we had to go off of school grounds and down the street to have a cigarette. Here in Kentucky of all places they are even harder on it. You can't smoke on hospital grounds even the sidewalks are marked with no smoking signs in the pavement. Never mind in your own car with a kid under 18 years old. Oh well I won't be around to see it completely made illegal.


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## Av8r3400

What happens when they do a no smoking in all public places law in Indiana?  These are coming all over, being pushed here in Wisconsin now...


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## thcri RIP

thcri said:


> The International Mechanical Code Book now allows for Smoking Rooms.  One of my customers was looking at doing one down in the Des Moines, Ia area and the city was allowing it.





Av8r3400 said:


> What happens when they do a no smoking in all public places law in Indiana?  These are coming all over, being pushed here in Wisconsin now...




I should clarify what I said above.  The code does not allow for smoking rooms but a smoking establishment.  If I remember right when I was working on this two years ago if the building was specifically designated for smoking it is allowed.  The company I was working with had a tobacco shop and next to it with it's own building entrance was the smoking lounge.  The two spaces were not connected.  You would buy your cigar in one place take it over to the other and smoke it.  This is my memory of it.  The company I was working with backed out half way through the project.


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## DaveNay

Av8r3400 said:


> What happens when they do a no smoking in all public places law in Indiana?  These are coming all over, being pushed here in Wisconsin now...



Simple.  Bob converts to a private club and charges a $1 annual dues.  New members also get a coupon for a $1 discount on their first purchase.

That's how it was in Arkansas when I ordered a drink at a restaurant (Gaston's).  Arkansas has some weird blue law about drinks can only be served to private members, so your first drink costs more to cover the membership, but the second drink is discounted with a coupon.


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## Av8r3400

Yeah.  Good idea, but it won't fly.  

A restaurant in Wausau Wisconsin tried to do the same thing after the city imposed a draconian no smoking law.  No go.  They were heavily fined and eventually shut down after a financially ruinous legal battle.


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## Dargo

Av8r3400 said:


> What happens when they do a no smoking in all public places law in Indiana?  These are coming all over, being pushed here in Wisconsin now...



Hell, where Bob went to college half of the damn professors smoked during class!  If Bob ever took an English class with the head of the English department, I assure you that the professor smoked in Bob's class.  Since I don't smoke, I brought a small cooler with a 6 pack of Bud to class one day.  As he was lecturing, the professor strolled on back to where I was sitting, opened my cooler, grabbed a Bud, opened it, and kept on lecturing while drinking my Bud and puffing away.  I'll give Bob one guess which prof that was.

I know nothing about the smoking laws.  My employees know my rule; I don't care if you smoke or not, but you're not going to smoke on me.  If we have meetings in the office, they just step outside on breaks and smoke away using my cups half full of sand for an ashtray.

Oh, I do have to brag on one of my employees.  After smoking for over 25 years she was outside smoking the summer before last during one of our meetings and my (at the time) 8 year old asked her if she had any kids.  She said "sure" and showed him pictures of her kids.  To her surprise and mine, he then asked her why would she smoke and not be their mommy for as long as she could be.  That, along with other input, caused her to tell me that she was going to quit smoking.  I thought "sure you will", but offered her a nice little bonus if she did as my incentive for her health.  You guessed, she went to the Dr. and got some of those pills (can't recall the name) and she quit.  It's been about a year and a half and not only has she quit, but she's become one of "those" smoking Nazis.  I constantly have to remind her that I never nagged her about smoking; but am proud of her for quitting.


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## Melensdad

Brent, do you remember the professors who ate their cigars during class too?




Av8r3400 said:


> What happens when they do a no smoking in all public places law in Indiana?  These are coming all over, being pushed here in Wisconsin now...


Indiana is actually working on a statewide smoking ban, *it is written to exempt Casinos and Tobacco shops.*  There is every indication it will pass as written, or perhaps with an amendment to include private clubs.


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## AAUTOFAB1

Very nice smoke shop,looks like its going to be relaxing.I've been to a few here before i go golfing(hacking)and its nice to try different brands to know if their any good,hope it works out for you.


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