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Boston down to just a single cigar bar
By adamg on Wed, 01/08/2014 - 11:38am
Adam Castiglioni relays the news that Cigar Masters on Boylston Street has shut down, leaving Stanza dei Sigari on Hanover Street as the city's only legal cigar bar.
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Comments
What a shame. Did MA pass a
What a shame. Did MA pass a law a few years ago which banned new cigar bars and required all existing bars to shut down within a few year?
This is a sad trend. Fun
This is a sad trend. Fun establishments like this close and generic modern crap opens up. I bet soon you wouldn't even be able to smoke a cigar or pipe outside.
Yes they did.
Is there any reason why people can't be allowed to make decisions for themselves. I am not a smoker. Never was.
Health of the staff I think.
Health of the staff I think.
Foolishness
That may the stated justification, but it's garbage. Don't take a job at a cigar bar if you don't want to ingest smoke. I don't think there's a lack of food and beverage jobs in this city.
jobbies
Oh, get a job? Just get a job? Why don’t I strap on my job helmet and squeeze down into a job cannon and fire off into job land, where jobs grow on little jobbies?!
guess you missed....
the article on the shortage of line cooks in boston. Check out craigslist, tons of postings for places looking for servers/busboys, etc.
Agreed
I am not a smoker, either, though I did go to Stanza dei Sigari a couple months ago. It was a weird, gritty place, with lots of character to it. I probably couldn't stand to stay any longer than I did, but everyone was having a good time, relaxing, etc. And best of all.... nobody was being harmed against their own will.
It's all about CONTROL
controlling people is the name of the game, much like the way cults use psychologically manipulative techniques to control. It isn't about 'the children', or about public health, it's about CONTROL. The more laws a regulations they pass, the more they control.
I will occasionally smoke outside,not near anyone, usually in Boston or Cambridge near my work, and I'll get stares and dirty looks from many people passing by at least 50 feet away, like I was smoking a crack pipe or injecting heroin. Many people are brainwashed and clueless. I've stopped counting the number of arguments I've had with some people about nicotine having many beneficial attributes, they're convinced it's this evil toxic substance from hell that will kill you if you just look sideways at it.
Can't help but notice that
Can't help but notice that there's a ton of documented research published in peer reviewed journals about the horrible effects of smoking, and that there's not any documented research published in peer reviewed journals about banning smoking being solely about control.
Matt
IT'S ABOUT CONTROL, PERIOD. FULL STOP.
As for smoking being unhealthy, SO ISN'T A MYRIAD of other things humans like to do. Are you going to ban them,also? Cotton Mather would have loved you 350 years ago when he preached in the North End.
Since you resist control, consider
resisting the urge to speak in ALL-CAPS. It's so SHOUTY. Are you AFRAID PEOPLE WON'T BE ABLE TO HEAR YOU in normal mixed case?
The caps is a sign of my irritation/anger
so they are appropriate. Can you resist the urge to passive aggressively attempt to control others by making a passive aggressive post in response to my perfectly legitimate angry post?
Abd if it's all about tobacco why rge current craze to demonize and ban ecigarettes and vapes? Or Swedish snus?
What part did you think was passive?
I thought I was being pretty direct: using upper case is annoying and rude. IT READS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING. Use your indoor voice, like the grownups. Further, it undercuts your argument by making you look like a crank, or an elderly person baffled by them fancy newfangled keyboards.
The crank aspect isn't helped by your confusing public health policies aimed at saving lives with the some imagined desire to push you around. When a doctor urges you to quit smoking, he's not thinking, "Man, I love bending people to my will." He's trying to save you from easily avoidable misery, pain, and an early grave. Despite the paranoid fantasies of the "Government baaaad!" crowd, public health policy makers are working from the same Hippocratic motives. Control has exactly zero to do with it.
So still no research to back
So still no research to back up your ridiculous claims, huh?
Your lack of smell..
I understand, since smoking has dulled your sense of smell, you don't appreciate this, but let me assure you; your cigarette smoke travels 50 feet and can be quite irritating to us non-smokers.
And you're absolutely correct; it is about controlling your ability to endanger the health and well-being of those around you.
Double Standards
Even IF second hand smoke exposure is a significant health risk, which has in fact never been proven, the general consensus should be "Who cares". That is what we apply to car exhaust, eating red meat, jay walking, sun tans, high fructose corn syrup, pesticides, sex, Chinese beer, french fries, Ben Stiller movies, and utility oversight. Are you going to be a Bloomberg and try to ban everything? Or just relax and have fun?
Smells bad means nothing. It's a subjective measurement. A lot of people smell bad to me, whether from cologne, BO, or lack of hygiene. That doesn't mean I can ban them from my presence.
To anyone who brings up asthma? In ancient Sparta you would have been placed on a mountaintop for the wolves in order to cull you from weakening their gene pool. Consider yourself lucky.
It sounds like you and ...
> To anyone who brings up asthma? In ancient Sparta you would have been placed on a mountaintop for the wolves
> in order to cull you from weakening their gene pool. Consider yourself lucky.
... Will LaTulippe might be soul mates.
Science!
You realize that just because you say things doesn't make them true, right?
http://www.epa.gov/smokefree/pubs/strsfs.html
FailReport
That EPA report on second hand smoke was discredited and even tossed by a judge. It is the worst source to use.
Study was of people who lived with someone who smoked.
Counted all deaths, regardless of cause, as due to second hand smoke exposure.
Like if you got run over by a bus, but lived with a smoker, you died as a result of second hand smoke exposure.
But its all irrelevant anyhow because any issues, real or imagined, with second hand smoke - they don't matter.
One NC judge can't slow the implacable glacier of real science
Prevailing scientific theory, people: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/tobacco/stories/s... It's how real science works. One judge can't change that.
You are so smart!
You don't even need to read what is linked to know what it is and what it says!
The link I provided is the EPA response to all of the bullshit you just spouted that you were told by some mouthpiece for the tobacco industry. It wasn't the study but a discussion on how they have to defend the study by showing all of the studies ever since that have come to the same conclusion from various other means as well as removing tons of the criticized methods from the equation and STILL finding the causation you claim isn't there.
So, again, just because you say something doesn't make you right. This is solved. You are wrong. However, I get the feeling it doesn't matter how much evidence is provided, you don't have any interest in being shown reality. Hell, you couldn't even be bothered to read the title of the page I linked to.
I Love Smoking
I read the page you linked. Regardless of their defensiveness that particular EPA study was incorrect. Other studies with better accounting might in fact show what the EPA study intended to, but there are also competing studies that have shown there not to be any significant correlation.
But like I said, it's irrelevant if second hand smoke causes cancer.
I know first hand smoke causes cancer. I think everyone over the age of 12 should be required by law to smoke. Thus everyone would be exposed to first hand smoke.
This isn't about logic. It's about me wanting everyone else to be like me so that I can smoke wherever I want to, like one could as recently as the 1980s. I have never been one of those apologetic smokers who is always talking about quitting. I want to continue to smoke and I want it to be convenient to do so. You can actually see that it is now easier [in Colorado at least] to smoke pot than cigarettes. That is silly.
Continued stupidity
You can't always get what you want. Whether you get what you need or not is between you and your cigarettes.
In fact, it's so silly...you probably shouldn't have tried to state it as fact. You can't smoke pot while driving, but you can have a cigarette. Thus even by that one example alone, if all other places are equal, it is still easier to smoke cigarettes than to smoke pot even in Colorado. There are many other examples, but that one seemed enough to prove you wrong again.
Like if you got run over by a
Duh. Everyone knows it's your fault for not wearing bright-colored clothing.
Exactly
Your clothes would be cleaner and brighter if you didn't live in a house full of second-hand smoke.
QED.
Ohmigosh!
Life in the big city must be sheer hell for you, what with all those quite irritating fumes wafting your way from (egads!) 50 feet away! I completely empathize. I'm a non-driver, and I find those exhaust fumes quite irritating. Can we ban those, too? And, hey, I like peace and quiet, and find all that loud music bleeding out of headphones into the air quite irritating. Come to think of it, those musicians on the T platforms and random street corners are also quite irritating. No more public music, with or without headphones! What a great city -- what a great WORLD -- this would be if nobody did anything that anybody else found quite irritating!
Not sure who you're
Not sure who you're responding to, but I don't agree with the ban. My reply was to the guy with the broken caps lock claiming there's no evidence smoking is harmful. Which is ridiculous.
I was responding to...
..."Your lack of smell..." by Lecil on Wed, 01/08/2014 - 8:38pm
No bone to pick with you, Matt :-)
Tangeirino?
Tangeirino in Charlestown permits smoking indoors. While it's not specifically a cigar bar they provide hookahs and I've seen people smoking cigars and cigarettes in there. Does that one not count? It was really nice in there when I visited
The law is not what closed Cigar Masters down
Boston's public health commission's ban on new cigar and hookah bars started in late 2008 -- along with a ban of tobacco sales on college campuses and in pharmacies -- but existing cigar and hookah bars had a ten-year grace period, with the possibility of getting one further ten-year extension. I'd guess that if demand for this place existed, it would still be in business.
Went there once
The one time I went there, it was for one leg of a bachelor party. They didn't have hard liquor, only beer and wine, so no whiskey with my cigar. They did have an interesting range of smokes available, but I felt like the prices were a bit gougey. The seat I was in was just okay, but it had seen better days. I don't recall any problems with the staff and they seemed to know what they were talking about when it came to cigars.
I don't know, I just never saw a need to rush right back there for anything. I'm a non-smoker and my one time there was just okay. I could see how it could work its way into being unprofitable given the assumed cost of the location, the pricing that had to account for that, and the lack of booze.
As far as I know, the lack of
As far as I know, the lack of booze was a result of the law demanding some minimum percentage (51% I think) of income to be from selling tobacco products. Perhaps they couldn't justify selling whiskey because of that.
The lack of booze
In Boston establishments often has something to do with the typical price tag of $300K for a full license, when one is available for sale. Notice old neighborhood bars like The Quencher disappearing? That's a big pile of cash to refuse.
It's my understanding that
It's my understanding that the building came under new ownership. If that's the case, it's possible they just didn't want them there anymore. It certainly had nothing to do with business. Everytime I was there it was busy and people were dropping plenty of money.
I'm thinking it went out of
I'm thinking it went out of business because cigar bars seem so 1997 to me.
Also, finding a parking space in the Back Bay
for your Hummer can be tough.
Looks like you picked up on
Looks like you picked up on the story mere before I noticed it was closed. The sign on the front says this doesn't effect their Providence location, so I'm thinking it closed because of a rent hike.
Sad to see it go, my boss and I used to go there every Friday to unwind.
Cigars are disgusting
Cigars are disgusting. How on Earth do people think that such a vile thing is pleasurable? When the door to one of those cigar bars would open you could smell the nauseous-making smell all the way down the street. Sometimes the door didn't even have to be open to smell it. Just my opinion, but yuck.
Cigars: they're not for everyone
I still enjoy one once in a while. I imagine there are a number of things I like that not everybody likes.
Durian stinks too
Indonesians and Malaysians love it. Anyone not from Southeast Asia thinks it smells like sewage or rotting gym socks. C'est la vie.
Yes!
I think salmon is disgusting. Hate looking at it, hate smelling it. I think it should be BANNED! Anything I don't like should be BANNED!
Salad bars
Are disgusting and are more of a public health threat than cigar bars. Patrons picking their nose, scratching their asses then pick up the utensils, putting them back down on the vegetables. Gross!
A friend worked at one of the national muffler shop chains during the day and at night worked in a restaurant with a large salad bar. He did all the food prep for the salad bar. He says nothing was better for cleaning the dirt and grease from under his fingernails than handling all the vegetables. The enzymes broke down the dirt so his hands were incredibly clean and soft.
Salad bars should be banned.
Cigar and bar rolled into one
Cigar and bar rolled into one...........
Avanti Anisette
Product Description
The richness of America’s finest cigar tobacco. The sweetness of Italian liqueur flavoring. All rolled into one. Relax and smoke a cordial.
I Miss Cigar Masters
No shortage of money being spent. Including and especially my own. No shortage of exciting *views* either. Great shoeshine stand, to boot. Gimme a cigar and a glass of port or beer. It was a great spot. Great location on Boylston. Sadly missed now.