First of Three Parts
Imagine making a business deal or connection. Most would picture a boardroom or maybe a golf course. Most wouldn’t see a smoky lounge filled with men and women taking their time and taking a load off with their favorite cigar. That’s exactly where businesses are built, friendships are formed and people gather to give back in Birmingham.
“I think, more so, it’s become the country club of the indoors,” Cigar Men of Distinction Co-founder and President Kevin Johnson said. “You can find yourself in a place where you can have a wonderful conversation in a safe place with like-minded people. It’s become more accessible, and people started realizing that this is a great place for me to network, synergize and strategize. I can’t count how many business contacts I’ve made in the cigar lounge. We call it the power of the leaf. Sometimes, it’s meeting the kid that you’re giving a job or an internship to or hiring somebody to do drywall in your house. There are all types of opportunities there.”
Cigars, often seen as a sign of wealth, have a place in Black culture. From the enslaved people who toiled in backbreaking conditions to harvest tobacco on plantations to hip hop artists such as Jay-Z, who’s rapped about good sticks several times, including lyrics such as, “Welcome to Havana, smoking cubanos with Castro in cabanas” or “Carter, rap harder like I’m part of a cult like Cuban cigar maker ‘cept I’m harder to smoke.” Even southern rapper Rick Ross named one of his songs “Cigar Music.”…