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City Section : Welcome to the Last Great American Cigar Town Even with the 2006 smoking restrictions, Las Vegas remains perhaps the last great outpost in America for lighting up. If Sin City understands one thing, it's how to keep men smiling. By: Aaron SigmondJune/July 2008 , Page 41 Cigars and gaming are iconic Americana. Whether it be the Earps and "Doc" Holliday smoking away while playing faro at the Oriental Saloon; C.M. Coolidge's famous Dogs Playing Poker paintings (commissioned by Brown & Bigelow for a cigar ad campaign); a Mob moll in a Richard Stark book chanting, "cigars [beat] cigarettes" as she cruises a Rat Pack–era casino; and then Hollywood's take on the subject -- cigars and gaming are unquestionably intertwined in our minds. Since Las Vegas is the undisputed crown city of gambling (with all due respect to Macau, Atlantic City and Monte Carlo), it seemed the perfect and logical choice for our third city guide. But where can you get a good cigar in Sin City? Not to mention actually light up? Finding a cigar store is a relatively easy task. Those on a three-day jaunt here will likely gravitate toward the stores found in the hotels, within convenient stumbling distance, but we have also included some spots off The Strip for those who get a little tired of the endless glitz. As to where you can smoke, well, that's a harder question. Thanks to a surprisingly draconian smoking ordinance from late 2006, many places are off-limits, but you can still light up at (or near) the tables and slots; at retail tobacconists, including the patio at Casa Fuente; standalone bars (i.e., ones that don't serve any food); and gentlemen's clubs. These exceptions make the ordinance less restrictive than the antismoking bans in certain other locales (New York cough-cough New York), and frankly, being able to light a Montecristo while laying yet another hundred-dollar chip on Red sounds pretty fair, all considered. Think of it this way: Frank Sinatra probably could have lived with it. Even with a somewhat diminished smoke-friendly status in hotels and casinos, Vegas and its libertarian bent towards civil freedoms (hence the exhausted tagline, "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas") leads me to believe it's still one hell of place to enjoy a martini and a cigar together. On the Strip
1. Casa Fuente
2. Colosseum Cigars
3. Cigars by Freyboy
4. Davidoff of Geneva
5. Davidoff of Geneva
6. Davidoff of Geneva
7. Empire Cigars
8. MarDi Gras Cigars
9. Partagas Cigar Factory Store
10. S.T. Dupont Boutique Off the Strip
CigarBox/Freyboy Tobacco
Pheasant Cigars
The Tobacco Leaf
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