One of the reasons I go to Indy is to smoke cigars before, during and after the races. So here's a breakdown on what I smoked and where.
The night before the race after dining at Bonefish Grill, we went to a new cigar lounge called "Blend". As my friend Simon explains it (he owns Nicky Blaine's cigar lounge) this is how a cigar lounge is made if you have unlimited budget. And it mostly delivers. The lounge is incredibly appointed. All materials are top notch. The air exhange/filtration system is the best I've ever seen. Zero smoke in the lounge. It was incredible. The fresh air comes up through the floor which pushed the smoke up and then it's exhausted. The entire air of this huge lounge is exchanged every 10 minutes. Crazy. It feels rich. And it is. There was a Bentley Continental GT, another older Bentley, some Porsches, a Maserati, etc in the parking lot. It was a bit too snobby for my tastes and I was really let down by the somewhat limited humidor selection. Average price per stick was $15+ or so. I settled on a Diamond Crown #7 Pyramid. IQ chose the incredible Arturo Fuente Hemmingway Short Story to go along with her $15 martini. Both are pictured below. Do yourself a favor and check out the lounge's website and photos.
http://www.blendbarcigar.com/
At the track in the above post is the Sancho Panza Double Maduro I smoked at the track in front of the Porsche suite. You can see the famous Indy tower. Incredible. Cigar is awesome too!
After the race, we ate at the excellent Oceanaires Room. Just down the road is Nicky Blaine's cigar bar.
http://nickyblaines.com/ The owner, Simon is also a huge car nut. He has a Radical, a 2014 Carerra S, 1974 BMW 2002, a mid 70s 911, etc. Inside his bar he has a dedicated room for car nuts called the Martini Racing Porsche Room. What's new this year is they have a patio. And it is INCREDIBLE. Because it's step away from the center piece of Indianapolis downtown; Monument Circle. And since it's a roundabout directly in the center of downtown, everyone is cruising in the cars, bikes, etc. Just amazing. I couldn't get enough of smoking there. Just the best place ever to smoke in a city. I had a La Gloria Cubana Series "R" Maduro, which is just fantastic. IQ again had a Short Story and a martini. Before we left, Simon said he had a gift for me..a cigar he guaranteed I hadn't smoked before. It was a Valedor by Rocky Patel. Only 100 boxes made. He gifted us 2 of them!
The next day, we travelled to the largest humidor in the state of Indiana at Smoker's Choice. It was indeed huge as you can see from the photos. I picked up a NUB 460, a few Oliva Gs of various sizes. IQ picked up a handful of NUB 358s. She also has a box of Olivas new Viejo Mundo cigarillos.
IQ hamming it up with a cutout:
Yes, it took 3+ pictures to get the entire humidor. H U G E !!
Just a fantastic Cars and Cigars weekend!
