This year brought some good new entries onto the cigar-smoking scene in a region that already had a rich heritage of burning one (legally) down. Especially promising is the Cigar Loft on Central Avenue in St. Pete, with its good selection, free wi-fi and sidewalk tables where you can get food from the coffee shop next door. But the Best of the Bay nod has to go to Gaspar’s Cigar Shoppe on Westshore Boulevard in Tampa, the dreamchild of former banker and politico Davelis Goutoufas. The shop is the adult version of a treehouse, where “the boys” can hide out from wives who would have them do housework or clients who would demand work-work, and instead luxuriate in a rich leather chair and smoke a stogie. The selection is impressive for such a small shop, and members who have lockers are granted 24-hour access to the smoking salon. On any given day, you’ll find connected lawyers and entrepreneurs smoking, drinking, playing dominos and eating a take-out meal from the Italian joint next door. Gaspar’s Cigar Shoppe, 3675 S. West Shore Blvd., Tampa, 813-831-0100, gasparscigar.com
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2008.