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The lizards pair a Diplomáticos No. 2 with Fortaleza Tequila Reposado. The guys discuss Diplomáticos' interesting history, they share thoughts on cigar lounges in NYC & DC and they wrap up the 2022 Battle of the Cuban Piramides.
Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes are normally around 90 minutes long and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features eight members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Chef Ricky, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Liz's podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo, and tonight I'm joined by Rooster Senator Pagoda and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar, drinks of tequila, talk about life, and of course, have some laughs. So take this as your 44th official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge lizard. Plan to meet us here once a week. We're gonna smoke Cupitt cigar tonight, share our thoughts on it, and give you our formal lizard rating.
We discuss the interesting history of this market. We answer a listener's email about New York City cigar lounges, and we wrap up the 2022 Battle of the Cuban Pyramids, all among a variety of other things for the next hour. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair Fortza tequila Rapsodo with the diplomatico.
Number two, our first diplomatico. [00:01:00] On the pod tonight, the Diplomatico number two, the final entrant into the Battle of the pyramids. We've done five other Cuban pyramids so far on the pod, and this is number six and the final one. So really interesting that, that, uh, Diplomatico closing that out because I think out of all of them, this is probably the one that
**Bam Bam:** the most obscure
**Gizmo:** for us.
Yeah. The, the, we don't have much experience with the cigar. Yeah. Very curious about it though. Yeah, I know Rooster, you and I, I think maybe Senator had some aged ones in your garage that time. Yeah. Was it the
**Rooster:** number two? So this Yeah. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** it was this. So it was this. I thought that was
**Senator:** a
**Gizmo:** Unico. No, it was. No, we had, no, we had one of these.
Yeah. So anyway, I'm really looking forward to, uh, trying this thing. What were we gonna say? No, no,
**Senator:** I don't think I was there for
**Gizmo:** this. Oh, okay.
**Bam Bam:** So what other torpedoes, just
**Gizmo:** remind us all. All right, so the other ones that we've done so far. Yep. We did the sun Crisal. [00:02:00] that you all loved , we we'll discuss that.
We did the Vegas remaining Uni unicos, the Montecristo number two, the Parus series P number two, and the 2014 H up. And number two. So I have all the ratings and stuff. We can go through that in a little bit, see how this compares. But first things first boys, let's cut this thing. So there is a Cohiba pyramid.
There is, it's
**Bam Bam:** about $800 though for the box .
**Gizmo:** For a single. For for single. That's true.
But I'm not buying a box of co uh, Cohiba pyramids. Boys. Not too much on
**Bam Bam:** a cold draw. It's pleasant, but very light.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, very pleasant. So this box is, uh, two and a half years old now. It's from the La Corona factory in early 2020, right before Covid. The
**Rooster:** draw is nice and open.
**Gizmo:** Mm-hmm. . Yeah, my draw's
**Senator:** great.
[00:03:00] Mine's got a bit of resistance. Not bad, but maybe a little snugger than I'd like. Hopefully it
**Pagoda:** Same here. I,
**Gizmo:** I thought it was a bit tight. Is it impossibly tight? Because I do have more No, no, it's good. It's good. Okay. All right. Maybe I'll just got a little more. All right, boys, let's light this thing. It's got a little give to the cigar.
Yeah. Yeah. The diplomatico is number 2 52 ring gauge by six and an eighth inches long. Again, it's a pyramid in Cuba,
**Bam Bam:** there's another line of Cubans that I find obscure, only obscure, because I haven't tried them, is the, is this an essential pza line? I've never had one of
**Gizmo:** those.
**Rooster:** Sancho Panza makes a, well, that's a beso,
**Gizmo:** I guess.
Yeah, and that's why I didn't list the, uh, the Besos phs from Boulevard in our list. You know? Um, it's not a true pyramid. It's not a true pyramid.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, I haven't. Taking a puff yet, but the smoke smells
**Gizmo:** delicious. It's, it's almost smells like, um, it's [00:04:00] coco wheat. You mean like toast or something? Hmm.
Kind of bready. I would honestly compare this to like a mild mon two with not much twang. Um, this, this is closest to a Monte two on the white. You know, I, I think I'm there with you. I don't, I don't get the saltiness that you do on the mon, but the rest of the profile I think is very similar. A little earthy.
Yes.
**Senator:** Just touch the tip of your tongue on the cigar. When you take a draw, it's salty yet. Is it salty? Yeah,
**Gizmo:** on the lit end.
**Senator:** Okay.
**Rooster:** You're getting more than salt .
**Pagoda:** Aashe as
**Bam Bam:** well. You get a rush Senator's right, though? Yeah. Salty. It's nice. It's
**Gizmo:** funny that I'm not getting that in the smoke though. I'm getting it on the tongue, like you said, but [00:05:00] see if it picks up and develops a little bit. So what are you guys getting so far? Just
**Rooster:** very, very pleasant Smoke.
Kind of like it. The beginning is very nice, you know, it's a little creamy. Got a little leather,
**Bam Bam:** maybe a touch floor. Touch. Yeah, a touch. Um, graham cracker. Maybe a touch. Yeah, he said bread. So see that? Yeah, just a touch. It's nice.
**Senator:** It's very refined on the light for some reason. I don't know why. I always expected this to be a very flavorful, even robust cigar.
That's just my impression. Never having had anything in the diplomatic ghosts line, and it's just very smooth and elegant. Mild, medium and just very easygoing.
**Gizmo:** Yep. But the aroma smells amazing out us. She's fantastic smell,
**Senator:** honestly, I guess that, I'm glad you said that to me. The aroma smells better than sweet taste.
Yeah. Honestly, when I was lighting this, I mean, bam, I think was the first to point it out. I could, it smelled like you were in some kind of a bakery or so bakery or something, and then I took a few draws and I said, okay, this is pleasant. But it wasn't delivering as much flavor as just aroma on the light [00:06:00] was giving me mm-hmm.
and
**Bam Bam:** that
**Gizmo:** continues. I do think the flavor, though, it is, I would say mild to medium. Mm-hmm. , it's not, it's very pleasant. Yeah. You know, it's sophisticated, elegant, or the kind of words I'm drawn to. Definitely an indoor cigar. Absolutely. That's a great point. The, the aroma
**Rooster:** actually has some strength. Yeah. If,
**Gizmo:** if I could say that, you know, it's like what's
**Bam Bam:** unusual, there's simultaneously, it's, it, to me it's, it feels and smokes like a delicate cigar with that strength.
It's really
**Gizmo:** unusual. Like, I don't know if this would satisfy after like, a big, big meal. To me, this is like you're having a coffee in the afternoon or in the morning. In the morning, or you're having a lunch with someone and you guys want, you know, somebody wants, you wanna have a cigar with someone over a meeting or something.
That's where I think this would fit in. Well, that's, that's
**Rooster:** kind of like most Cuban ci garel like that, right? I mean, give a, yeah, like maybe there's a handful that you might want after dinner, but most of them are [00:07:00] like, you know, medium, medium bodied, medium strength. But what, what Cuban cigar would you say
**Gizmo:** is full?
See, I was hoping you were gonna ask that. It's not that it's full strength, it's how it fits in full flavor, right? Like, so, like even let's talk the pyramids, right? Yeah. That we, we just did the battle of the pyramids. Right. To me, the mon two, the up and two up and two big, the P two are all stunners for me.
Yeah. After a big hardy meal. Yeah. Like I crave. An UPMANU or a P two? Yeah. P two or,
**Rooster:** I don't know about Upmanu
**Gizmo:** two, I think
**Bam Bam:** at all. I'll bek to differ, but I do differ on the mon two. For me, I would slot that earlier in a day for me.
**Gizmo:** See, I
**Bam Bam:** just love that, that But the P two Upmanu, those are
**Senator:** great evening cigars.
Uh, I'm in lockstep with Gizz, I think all three after a meal. Fantastic. I I would never hesitate
**Gizmo:** to pull one of those. Right. Yeah. I, I really love them after a meal because, you know, you know how we smoke, we're, we're, wow. It's never just one. It's never just one. So I'm not gonna, I'm not thinking like, okay, I'm gonna sit down after a steak [00:08:00] and have a Pedro 90th.
I'm gonna work up to that. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Yeah. I mean, to me, to me, I would, I would go for a bowl
**Gizmo:** bar. Hmm. Oh gosh.
**Rooster:** Yeah. You know, like a B by Royal Corona, or a Beco pheno. Beautiful cigars. Um, something that has a little bit more spice to it. Mm. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Well, I'm finding this to be very pleasurable. Yep. Very nice. Um, very smooth.
And the smoke output's really nice. This is
**Bam Bam:** a. . It's tough question to answer these days. How
**Gizmo:** much are these? So I got this box. So this was, this is, it's, this one's tough to judge because it has a little bit of age on it. I did get it for a decent price. Um,
**Rooster:** probably about 15 bucks stick.
**Gizmo:** So actually they're a little closer to 20 now.
They were 15 prior to the, the price jump, but they're about 20, 21 now. It's ridiculous. So I mean, for a box of these, you're looking at probably 5 25, you know, maybe with a little, like a little fresher, you'll probably get them 4, 4 85 maybe.
**Bam Bam:** You [00:09:00] know, I'm shaking my head, but I just overpaid for a huge order that's coming soon.
And you kind of, you kind of have to do it cuz you need, I need, I need inventory. It's about, this is outrageously expensive for 21 bucks.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, but that's the price of CI scars now. Yeah, yeah. Right. So we just have to adjust our expectations and our spending accordingly. , I'm not happy. Or, or
**Senator:** no, no. Or better time.
Uh, our procurement of Tower Humanure. ?
**Gizmo:** Yes. How's that going? Bam. Not good. .
**Bam Bam:** Where's it at? It's downstairs. I haven't
**Gizmo:** touched it. Okay, so it's in the house. It's in the house. Is it still in the
**Bam Bam:** crate? No, it's out of the crate. Yeah. The crates bigger than the, than the tower. So, and I was able to get it down alone.
I got a little foldable hand truck.
**Senator:** That's too bad. So what, what are you waiting for to do something with it? Just time.
**Bam Bam:** I need, I want to, I want to spend a good hour or two working on it, but I just haven't been able to find the time, energy, and honestly right now, just the
**Gizmo:** interest. Do you
**Rooster:** need Pagodas wife to come over and
**Gizmo:** [00:10:00] readjust the hinges?
**Bam Bam:** Yes. She won't ever leave though, because I have a whole list of things for her to do. ,
**Gizmo:** pagoda. Your wife is very handy, apparently. Awesome. Very, um, so she just fixes
**Pagoda:** stuff. She's excellent. Yeah. Meaning, um, she's, um, Well, she's got a tool belt Ah, so that summarizes it all.
**Bam Bam:** a tool belt,
**Pagoda:** and, and, and I'm completely opposite. Yeah, that's, that's impressive. I like to hire people to do things.
**Bam Bam:** How many, uh, the tall is in this line,
**Gizmo:** Soo? Yeah, I think there's only one now. I think this is the only one. They did have others. They had the number four, which was a petite Corona. And then number five, which was a little bit smaller of a petite Corona.
But I believe that it's just the number two lasting now. Right? That's it, yeah. Is that correct? So Diplomatico is a line that they, [00:11:00] that ha Bonos uses similar to, you know, El Ray del Muno and, and some of the other provincial brands to release regionals like Lgc. Yeah. Gloria Koana.
**Rooster:** Yeah. They only make the number four.
and the rest is all, it's all regional stuff. Same thing with the diplomats about Okay. Bunch of regionals. I have not seen a limited edition of this. No.
**Gizmo:** Right. The Ellie, I think that I can recall. I think Ellie is reserved for the global brands only. Right. So co cohiba, Pagus, UPK, Montecristo. I don't think you'll ever see an le of, uh, you know, that's true of Vegas.
Romania.
**Rooster:** Well, the Trinidad there is what's Le? Limited edition. Limited
**Gizmo:** edition. El technically El edition
**Rooster:** Liata.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. But I think Trinidad, I think they classify differently now, obviously, you know, or maybe they have been for some time. But Diplomatico has a, an interesting [00:12:00] history guys. Um, so it was the first, uh, brand of Cuban cigars that was created after the Cuban rev revolution.
And sold to the public. So that's the reason why I say sold to the public is That's cool. Cohiba, we talked about when we did the SIG two was obviously created, but it was a private label for Castro, as you know, for his personal smoking and as gifts. Uh, Diplomatico was the first one that was created after revolution by the Cuban government, uh, that that solds cigar to the public.
Cool.
**Senator:** And, and now Cohiba is a private label for another communist nation in China, . It's exactly right. Funny how history works
**Gizmo:** that way. , unbelievable. History does repeat itself. So this was made like
**Rooster:** moral for the masses?
**Gizmo:** Well, this was, this, the idea of Diplomatico and the way that they view this specific cigar is it's the, the younger sibling of the Monte two.
It's [00:13:00] a similar blend, but lighter.
**Rooster:** So the name diplomats is kind of confusing, right? Yeah. I mean it is. You think that the diplomatico would be for the diplomats or like given us gifts? Yeah,
**Gizmo:** but it was actually made for
**Rooster:** the common people or the masses of uh, I love the band on this. Yeah, it's a, I
**Gizmo:** like the colors, I like the, uh,
**Rooster:** combination.
**Senator:** This is interesting. You said it so I feel the exact opposite. I really hate the bands on . Why is that you do? I think it looks extremely cheap. Cheap . I think it looks really shitty. I, I feel like I could print this on my computer and I know nothing about graphic design .
**Gizmo:** So it has a, uh, I guess a stage coach.
Hmm. Right? Is that a stage coach on there? Kind can, looks as welds. It looks like that, yeah. I mean this is the, the fact that we're even not sure , right? I mean, who, who made this? Here's a bigger version. It's definitely a, and what is this
**Senator:** piece of paper in front of the stage coach? [00:14:00] Looks like a diploma. .
**Rooster:** I think it's a tractor.
**Gizmo:** No, it's a stage coach. Look, it's pretty big. Oh, it's, yeah. So the box is very similar. They, these come in dress boxes at 25. I mean, it's simple. Yeah. I mean they only make one cigar, so they're not gonna put too much effort into it. I think they need to
**Senator:** hire pba. They need a
**Gizmo:** market marketing person. They do need a marketing person.
I would love Refresh the brand. I would love to see him working for Ho Bono's essay . Oh, he'd
**Bam Bam:** have a cigar hanging out of his mouth all day long. He would be in heaven. Flip flops, , post-it notes all over the wall. Yeah. . Yeah, that's an interesting technique of managing your info .
**Gizmo:** So what's interesting as well is, uh, going back to the parallels to Monte Christo, this brand, when it came out, they literally mimicked everything that Monte Christo released.
Like every size, every regular production cigar. They did a full mimic. Um, and this was just a lighter version of it. Nice. So they used to have a shit ton of vitos. Yeah. They used to have a lot. And, and that's like a lot of the other [00:15:00] markers that, you know, kind of were canceled in the two thousands, 2000 tens, kind of like Robinia and some of the others.
So why
**Senator:** were these canceled? Just a pure lack of demand. And they
**Gizmo:** just, I did cabanas when they came in, I guess it was in the early two thousands ish, 2000, 2010. They canceled, you know, 70% of the cigars that were in regular production, they canceled all machine made cigars. So that book that we, that, uh, rooster and I were talking about before we went on, um, the, uh, encyclopedia of post, uh, revolution, Havana Cuban Cigars by Miran ne effectively, it, it came out in what, 2003, maybe 2000.
I don't know when that book came out. But it's kind of useless now for people who are buying cigars today because most of the stuff that's in there, it's. , it's gone. Yeah. It's only useful. That's why Roosters have it. . It's a paperweight. That's why that's, that's why he's going through it. That's why I have it and I'm not giving it back.[00:16:00]
he borrowed it. He borrowed it. Are you sitting reading it?
**Rooster:** Pagoda? I am looking at this massive box next to your chair and I'm like, what is going on? Every time I look at a 50 cab of anything, I'm like, ,
**Gizmo:** the, the rooster eyebrow
**Senator:** raise happens. .
**Rooster:** What is that? Ramone? Mm-hmm. .
**Gizmo:** Oh, nice. Especially selected. Very nice.
So yeah. Um, I can,
**Pagoda:** I can give it to you for a premium. By the way, ,
**Rooster:** I've spoken like a true Indian .
**Bam Bam:** Well, you know, it's funny you say that. Not to diverge from what you're saying, gizmo, a lot of listener friends that I have, they ask me who's who and what is this guy's nationality? What's this guy's name? It's interesting.
No. You know, don't tell 'em. No, no. I try to keep the anonymity as the high as possible. .
**Gizmo:** I like when I, like when people, uh, meet us and they try to guess who we are. You know who the, what names are who? Yeah. It's funny. I don't know [00:17:00] why they always confuse. They always, obviously they confuse, uh, Puba with you.
Puba with me and Rooster with Senator.
**Bam Bam:** Well, you're the Mc, so Puba, pu, grand Puba, you know, kind of,
**Gizmo:** I don't know if I'm the
**Rooster:** mc, so I just, I just saw this movie,
**Gizmo:** top Gun. Never heard of it. .
**Rooster:** So remember the character Goose?
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. Right. He died. He was Tom
**Rooster:** Cruise's wing man. So his son, you know, he's a, he's a pilot in this and his
**Gizmo:** name is Rooster Get.
Yeah, his name is
**Senator:** Rooster. Rooster. What he sent That's right. He sent a photo. It has Rooster on the helmet. Yes. That's
**Gizmo:** awesome. Wow. , that's funny.
**Rooster:** You know, every five minutes
**Gizmo:** I'm like, rooster. And I turned my head, head swivels, and then he puts a cigar out. What?
**Rooster:** Theater. The theater was
**Gizmo:** packed. Was it nice? It was packed.
Really? The whole
**Rooster:** back section. Completely. Every single seat was full.
**Gizmo:** That movie's [00:18:00] been out for a while, so, so guess where I sat, right? Whatever. You
**Rooster:** know that, that
**Gizmo:** handicaps. Oh, chair. Oh boy. . It's the
**Rooster:** best. Oh boy. It's the best. So, boy, I was, I was, so what if you're a handicapped person and you bring in a wh.
So you obviously you sit on the chair, but there's a chair next to it that's supposed to be a companion for mm-hmm. , a wheelchair person, but it's open to the public because if there's no handicap person there, they don't need those chairs. No.
**Senator:** You're supposed to find a handicap person and take them to the movies with you.
**Gizmo:** I couldn't find opinion.
**Rooster:** I was too busy making returns at Costco. .
**Pagoda:** That's Sack. It's like parking in a
**Rooster:** handicap spot. No, no, you're not. You're in a companion, uh, companion chair. So if they, if they comment an, the chair, so you have to vacate it. That's the policy.
**Senator:** There are several Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes that like every area element of what
**Gizmo:** you're talking about.
Right now, Brewster is turning in the Larry David, there's,
**Senator:** there's Denise Handicapped. Yep. I'm talking, there's the HOV lane.
**Gizmo:** All right. So, you
**Rooster:** know, there's a bit of covid and stuff going on. So this [00:19:00] movie theater, there's literally just six chairs in that whole aisle and you have extra leg room. And it's like, you know, like, like a pair of two chairs and just six chairs.
Nice. And, uh, I think it's great.
**Senator:** Hmm. You also get priority being a lizard when we That's right. Go to the movies.
**Gizmo:** Absolutely. . Light up free popcorn. It's part
**Bam Bam:** of the card. Carrying, uh, prestige. of being a lizard. ,
**Pagoda:** were you smoking the cigar in the theater? Be honest.
**Bam Bam:** again, part of the
**Pagoda:** prestige. It's like, I'm sure everyone was thinking the smoke's coming out of those planes Crashing left and right. .
**Rooster:** Great movie by the way. Highly recommend. Give it a 10.
**Gizmo:** A 10 or nine? Five. Okay. Pretty good segue. So
**Senator:** on the Gizmo, pretty the scale, is that like a seven?
**Gizmo:** I I, yeah. I have to see it.
I don't have to, we'll have to see how it goes. Uh, I I, I'm not like a big, you will not
**Rooster:** walk out of
**Gizmo:** this one. I, I only walked out. I've only walked out of three [00:20:00] movies in my life. Ever. Holy. I've only walked out two. I know of one. You know of one, you know of the Batman, right? The Batman, yeah. Yep. I walked out of, uh, Le Mis.
Did you walk outta Shindler List? No. Uh, that's an amazing movie. Yes. I would walk outta most musicals. Yes. Uh, LA Le Mez was horrendous. And then I walked out of a movie with Angelina Jolie was playing a, uh, why would you ever walk
**Senator:** out? Yeah. Why would you
**Gizmo:** have walk? Because it was like this CGI I mutation thing.
Oh yeah, yeah. Cruel Cruella. No, no, no. It's not Disney. It was a long time ago. Be Wolf. It was called Beo
**Rooster:** Wolf.
**Gizmo:** Why would you even go see that movie? I don't know. . I don't, I never, I never heard of it. I think I was dating a girl at the time. It was just the whole thing. Anyway, I walked outta, that was horrible.
But, um, I've only walked outta three. Hmm, only three.
**Rooster:** You don't look at reviews before you go
**Gizmo:** see movies. I do. I d way mis is highly reviewed. Oh, yeah. You know, so was the Batman. What about Chicago? Did you see that? No, I've never saw that. You know, I think
**Bam Bam:** this, uh, booze we're [00:21:00] drinking is gonna be
**Gizmo:** highly rated tonight.
So, uh, Ricky is gonna be very proud of us tonight, boys. Yes he is. Because we are drinking. ,
**Senator:** this, this is quickly the, let's go ahead.
**Gizmo:** No, it's, I mean, the fact that we have fortza in our hand, the Rapsodo Ricky is really gonna be happy with us because I love blowing him up on texts, sending him pictures of my Don Julios with a pound of ice in it.
he drives him insane. So he'll be very proud of us tonight that we've continued the, uh, tradit trend of really good tequila. So we we're gonna have this neat. Yes. We're gonna have it neat and
**Rooster:** he'll be proud that there's no ice on the glass. Yeah. Yeah. So the funny thing,
**Senator:** before, before you guys met Ricky and we had the whole tequila, uh, indoctrination, , I was with Ricky's business partner and we were at, at our clubhouse, and he was drinking this, and he's like, oh, you've really gotta try this.
Obviously we were drinking Don Julio then. And he insisted I try it. Neat. And this was like [00:22:00] the first artisanal tequila that I had. Neat. That I thought was awesome. And then obviously shortly after that, met Ricky and we all got the full, kind of tasty experience. But this to me is a gateway into, um, artisanal
**Gizmo:** tequila.
Agreed. Yeah. It, it's so fantastic and smooth.
**Bam Bam:** You know, I find it a little buttery at the, on the finish. Right. That's a nice
**Gizmo:** way to put it.
**Senator:** I agree. And you get that on the Rapsodo much more than you do there in Ajo. I really
**Gizmo:** like the RESO in this. Agree. And I think this pairing with the cigar is that's, it's a, it's perfect.
It's preparing because I do think that an anejo or an extra anejo here would be, would maybe push a little too much against. What's the cigars
**Senator:** doing? Sure. I think it would overpower this stick. Yeah, sure. I mean, this is not a full-bodied stick.
**Bam Bam:** No. And the butter airiness of this tequila, you don't get with ice.
It's only when you drink it neat. You get that buttery finish. It
**Gizmo:** is, it is odd how the ice cuts that. Yeah, it's a, it's, and it's a shame because I was having this the other night, um, on my [00:23:00] deck with a couple cigars and I had some ice in it just cuz it was warm out, you know, it summer and, uh, it, it was not buttery like this at all.
Right, at all.
**Pagoda:** It's so funny because I had a sip and I was expecting the taste like whiskey and it tastes like tequila.
**Bam Bam:** like, alright, pay attention togar.
**Gizmo:** So, uh, for the listener, by the way, uh, back in June we're referencing, uh, we did a two. Tequila Deep dive with, uh, chef partner Ricky Camacho from the Anejo, uh, restaurant group. We did that June 14th, June 28th. Episodes 32 and 34. So if you're interested in tequila and you're just tuning in now, go back and check out those episodes.
Um, couple months back. Uh, two part deep dive on, on artisan tequila with a guy who knows way more about tequila than I probably know about anything in my life. . I mean, it's very impressive. [00:24:00] Very
**Senator:** impressive. I also really love this brand. Obviously we did the Anejo with Ricky when he was on the podcast. And th this is the Rapsodo.
I just think you look at the bottle. I, I love, uh, I mean the, the topper is a, a Pina mm-hmm. that Ricky explained right in the agave, the bottle itself. It, it almost looks. Handmade glass E everything is uneven on it. It's it
**Bam Bam:** perfectly, it's a, it's a burled finish on a
**Senator:** glass. Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it's like you're truly seeing how artisanal this product is when you even just look at the bottle, let alone once you taste the liquid inside.
And, um, I just think their whole line is so interesting and accessible that this brand, I will be stunned if his, that if they're not acquired by, you know, one of the big, like a Diageo or something in a few years time. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** It seems it should be a, a more expensive
**Senator:** tequila. Yeah, it's actually what it is.
Me price. I picked this up at our, uh, local liquor store here. I think it was 65 a bottle. Well, I think that's, I think that's
**Gizmo:** fair. I do too. Ricky was pretty convinced that [00:25:00] this brand is going to be very, very popular in a few years available everywhere. And hopefully it doesn't get tainted by its popularity and its demand and hopeful, hopefully, and, and an acquisition potentially, but Right.
**Bam Bam:** Which means usually a price
**Gizmo:** increase and a price increase, or a quality decrease or both. Right, right.
**Senator:** I also very encouraging. So I was in the city the other week, um, for an event and I wanted to just find a place right nearby where I needed to be to grab a drink before. And I, the only place nearby was this supper club.
I'm forgetting the name of it. Very nice school place. They have a little stage, they do live music, very nicely decorated. And there's a bar in the back and I'm sitting at the bar. Now, mind you, this is not a Mexican restaurant. It's all new American food, steak, seafood, all that. And uh, I look at the tequila section on there.
I was floored that this restaurant that is not a tequila bar, not a Mexican restaurant, had tons of bottles of tequila and stuff that Ricky has given us and recommended [00:26:00] Don Fallo Oh wow. For Deza El Tesoro. And I think I had sent you guys a screenshot of some Oh, that's
**Gizmo:** right. And he and wow. Uh, Ricky's like, man, you probably were the, the bartender's best customer all day.
Yeah.
**Senator:** I went a little aggressive. I tried something special , it was like 50 bucks. Oh my gosh. What'd you get? I got the, um, , uh, Don Julio. Don, I think it was the Don Philo Extra Anejo. Okay, cool. I think we've had the Anejo. Yep. And oh my gosh. Wow. Awesome. That, that's it. Drinks like a, like a whiskey. Nice. I mean, really Flavorful was so delicious, but I just, Amber colored.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. But just so encouraging. I mean, it's just crazy how much tequila's exploded now that you just walk in a random restaurant. They have a tequila list that's longer than the tequila sold in some liquor stores.
**Bam Bam:** Wow. That's probably indicative of the owner loving
**Gizmo:** tequila. I was just gonna say the same thing.
That's probably the why, because I've been to so many big restaurants and they just, they're the, the tequila, we talked about it on an earlier episode. You know, they just, they don't even know what they [00:27:00] have. They don't know what they're serving. Yep. And, and the alcohol buyer, I don't think they're that educated anymore.
Right. It's
**Bam Bam:** gotta be the proprietor's passion
**Gizmo:** for it. Exactly. Yep. Yeah. So wherever you were, they must really love tequila. No doubt about that. So we're about, uh, an inch and a half in here on the Diplomatico. Number two. What do you guys
**Rooster:** think? I don't know. I'm getting some floral notes on
**Gizmo:** this. Yeah, I said that
**Bam Bam:** earlier.
Okay. Yeah. Faint floral, dried fruit a little bit. Now I
**Gizmo:** like it. It does really kind of remind me of a lighter money too. Yeah. Or you pull, you pull Amani two out of a box that's just not very strong or very fragrant. This kind of is, is what I get from that. You know, I, I had a box of Monte two s from 2018 or something and they were not, what the 20 ones and twenties that I have are, um, they're much more mild, much closer to this.
This is like a
**Rooster:** perfect Sunday post brunch
**Gizmo:** cigar. Yes. Right. I like that. [00:28:00]
**Senator:** Right
**Gizmo:** on the nail. You could even have this with like
**Rooster:** some nice champagne. Yeah, I agree. A brunch, bellinis, you know, that kind of
**Gizmo:** thing. Absolutely. , I do think this would work really well with champagne. A hundred percent and a, and a white, white wine.
Let's give
**Bam Bam:** it a try. ,
**Senator:** grab the champagne. Uh,
**Bam Bam:** Garan
**Gizmo:** Yeah, it's really nice. So you mentioned, uh, being in the city senator and we had a, uh, listener of ours message us on the Lounge Lizards Pod Instagram account. And I wanna read you what the listener said. So, uh, it was our friend Grizzly Adams. He said he's got a trip, uh, coming up to the city. He was looking, uh, for advice on cigar lounges and bars down by Union Square, Broadway, and East [00:29:00] eighth.
The only place he's been to, he said was Carnegie Club, and he was looking for some other options. So Puba responded to him kindly and gave him some other options. Um, But I'm curious, as we've talked many times about destination, cigar lounges, a lot of us travel quite a bit. We're always looking and talking about it.
Our friend, uh, Henry went out to Vegas. Mm-hmm. , I, I pointed him to a couple lounges out there, including a new one that just opened up. I saw pretty high-end place. What are some of your favorite spots? Let's start in New York City and then we can kind of work from there. But what are some of your favorite smoking spots in the city and what, what spots do you not
**Senator:** like?
I mean, I, I'm happy to start, cuz I have very strong feelings about this . Um, I'll start with the city and, and, uh, I mean, a spot that I really like is, uh, club Mac Audo. Mm-hmm. . And I say that because all the cigar lounges in Manhattan are expensive. Right. You're not going to any of these places and expecting you're gonna have a cheap night.
And so with that premium comes a really, you expect, and [00:30:00] it, and it is a New York standard, that there should be a really nice experience. And what I really love about Club Mac and Udo. Is sort of from start to finish. They take that very seriously. And I'll just never forget, I mean, the first time I went there, it must have been a holiday and I was going with my family.
They've got doormen outside. Yep. Like you would expect, you know, in a building in Manhattan, instantly two people open the doors for these giant double doors. You walk in, there's a coat check in there. Wow. Immediately it's like you're at a, you know, private members' club in the city. That's exactly what you'd expect when you walk in.
Someone obviously then, you know, you wanna sit at, at a table, you wanna sit at the bar. Where, where do you want to be? They get you seated. Service is great. I think the aesthetic is very nice. Mm-hmm. , um, I've never once had a bad experience there. Uh, so I am always perfectly happy to pay, you know, whatever the, the premium is to, to enjoy a cigar.
There. The only criticism of the. , I think especially the pandemic as I was there recently, they have taken out a lot of [00:31:00] lounge seating. Yep. And they have a lot of tables Now. Ironically, the chairs at their normal, like dining style tables are more comfortable than some lounges, actual lounge seating.
Mm-hmm. . Um, so I'm always comfortable when I'm there, but I do wish that they actually pulled out some of these tables and put more couches and lounge style seating. And I say that because the complete opposite contrast is to that you said, where don't you like Yeah. Um, and I love that listener's question because that person said that they've been to the Carnegie Club and they're looking for something different.
There's a reason for that. There's a reason for that. Yep. Which is they clearly have taste. And recognize his walls.
**Bam Bam:** Cute. That is a slap in the face.
**Gizmo:** What a dig. Holy moly.
**Senator:** They recognize the flaws with that place where you walk in there, there's a bunch of like 22 year old kids. It looks like waiting tables that have no interest or regard for what they're doing and how much customers are spending there.
They have seating in there that [00:32:00] literally looks like a decaying body that is so worn down over such a I What you're talking about . I mean, I took a photo. I was, gizmo was there once, I think he drove into the city to drop one of his kids at a concert and had a cigar. I, on a whim just said, screw it. I'm gonna come in.
I met him for a cigar there my first time being there, and we're sitting in these chairs in the corner. and it, I'm not exaggerating the arm of the chair. I have a photo. I sent this to several people. They could not believe this. It's the single most disgusting thing I've bet. it. It was as though like just human ski it.
It was disgusting beyond words. Anyone with an ounce of class or that cares about their business would see that and replace those seats immediately. Yeah. I don't think that that takes much. I go there a second time. I'm sitting at a completely different area and they have these little coffee tables. I hilariously put something down on the table and it is a piece of metal that is completely hollow.
totally slanted. So my drink glass is sliding , [00:33:00] no way. this piece of like, you're on a boat, , like, uh, I mean this must cost like $10. Uh, this is a nice place and you know, if this were a dive bar, by all means, if I'm eating off of a piece of metal, I could care less. This is supposed to be a high-end cigar lounge in Manhattan that charges 25, $30 for a Macallan 12, a crazy haki for crazy, you know, any of the stuff that we would drink in order.
Crazy. You can't operate like that. So from a staffing perspective, I think the people are entirely unprofessional there. They need to hire some people with experience. I think the, the chairs desperately are in need of being replaced. Um, the tables are a complete joke. I mean, the tables here and we're in the most casual of settings right now are true, are sturdier and more, and, and, and more presentable than the stuff they have in that place.
So I, I've su I really, really dislike, uh, Carnegie
**Bam Bam:** Club. Yeah, I do love Club Mac. I've been there four or five times and honestly, you can get a meal there for under 50 bucks. and a pretty good new world cigar for under $25. [00:34:00] That's a bargain to me and I think to a lot of people, especially if you're on vacation.
Great destination.
**Senator:** Fantastic. The, the last thing I'll say very quickly. So the one thing that Carnegie Club does that's very, um, it's almost legendary at this point cause they've been doing it for so long. Or Sinatra, Saturdays. Oh yeah. So for years
**Gizmo:** I've always wanted to go. I've never
**Senator:** gone, I mean, we've talked about it as a group doing it and for years I've wanted to do it.
And it was a big birthday for my dad. So I had, uh, we went to Sinatra Saturday there, um, for his 60th and I just could not believe, so they say when they had this, cuz the, the whole, uh, the guy's performing, they're in tuxes. It's a very, you know, formal thing. They've got like a, I don't know, 10, 14 piece band.
It's like a whole thing. And uh, they say there's a dress code. They say the dress code is business casual. Now I had even called in advance just to make sure you know, how rigid is this dress code? And they basically said if you're wearing, you know, nice jeans and a collared shirt, at a minimum, you're fine.
Okay. That's what you expect going out in most [00:35:00] places in New York City. I get there, , there are guys wearing shorts, uh, t-shirt that barely can fit their stomach and like flip flops standing at the bar during all of this and I'm just sitting in there. Club Macondo would never let someone in. Nope. This is a Saturday evening in Manhattan.
There are restaurants you wouldn't be able to go in and eat, let alone you pay a 30 or four, I think you pay a $40 cover per person just to walk in. There's a two drink minimum per person. So when you do the math, it's like a hundred dollars per person, just bare minimum to be able to go there and experience it.
And so again, you're paying for an experience and when you see that, uh, it, the whole place to me needs new ownership. Yeah. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Merchants is a, it's like the Nexts another nice
**Gizmo:** spot. . It's like the Kns . What? It's true. I will say though, here's what I will say, and, and this is not in defense of the Carnegie Club, but Pagoda and I and Senator when we were there, [00:36:00] we've had some good times at that place, really good times.
Like in spite of that place, in spite of that place, you're not wrong about the seating, but it does have a vibe and it has this, I don't wanna call it a charm, but it has this thing that it's like, it is one of the, the last standing places in that city where you can go and have a cigar at midnight, you know, or whatever it is.
So, very high ceilings. Very high ceilings. I don't disagree with that. So I, I, I don't want to, I don't want it to, I don't want us to completely eviscerate the place. You're not wrong in anything you said. However, I do think that there is something about the place that's redeeming and with. Let's say a $10,000 investment in new chairs.
In new chairs, in tables. The and tables. The place and the, and the And the staff. And the staff. Staff. The staff definitely problem the staff. If you, if you have
**Rooster:** a, if you have a dress code, You know, follow it. And I keep it, keep it sort of rigid. I mean, you know, have like, if you want like jeans and a button [00:37:00] down shirt, so yeah.
That, that should be it. You shouldn't be allowed with shorts, especially.
**Gizmo:** Listen, I I dress code on a Monday at 2:00 PM who cares? But to your point, Saturday night, when know it's a special night, you're spending a hundred bucks to even just walk in the place. Mm-hmm. a minimum commitment. You know that, that's, I totally agree on that.
And I'm not a dress code
**Senator:** guy. And to your point though, where I don't, like I say I don't disagree at all with what you're saying, that place has so much potential. It does. It could be a great place. Yes. It has this library like feel to it. If someone just knew how to run that business, wow. It could be an outstanding lounge.
And
**Gizmo:** where it is too is perfect. Also the location, the location's perfect. What is it? 55th, 56th. 56th, right. In midtown. Yeah, right in midtown.
**Rooster:** So, so seems like it's. It wouldn't take much to kind of change the place a little bit. I mean, just seems like furniture and some staff. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. But
**Pagoda:** it seems like it's been very difficult for people to, uh, you know, come and work over there.
But having said that, you're right [00:38:00] because Club Mac Uto
**Rooster:** can do it. Why
**Pagoda:** can't I? Like, I haven't been a, firstly, I haven't been a Club Mac Uto at all. Uh, so I've
**Gizmo:** never been there either. And,
**Pagoda:** um, but I go to Carnegie often, so much so that I'm there at least once or twice a week, weekly. It's so convenient for me.
Right. You know, I work right there, you know, it's, uh, you go to David off, you can buy cigars and you can take them there and, uh, they don't charge you a cutting fee, so it's very convenient, you know, uh, they serve beer, which you can get for seven, eight bucks and happy hour and around 10 bucks. Otherwise, and, you know, liquors around 20 bucks, plus or minus, which is reasonable for the kind of place it is.
Services, yeah. You knower service is definitely somewhat challenged. Yeah. But having said that, you know, the location's great. Um, the ceilings are very high, so it doesn't get overly smoky unless you're in certain pockets of the, of the whole place. So there, there, there's some really good positives, very casual, easy to [00:39:00] go in.
You can go in with, you know, a couple of people at any time. Not a, not a real big fuss about renovations and so on and so forth. Uh, you know, oftentimes you're not in a jacket and you can get, doesn't oo have a jacket at the dress code or No? No, no. They, oh, doesn't All right.
**Senator:** No, I've never wore a
**Pagoda:** jacket there.
Same. And considering that they only, like, I think nine places in the city now, you can smoke. Uh, it's, uh, definitely one of the, uh, bed ones, which, you know, definitely has a lot of room for improvement. Mm-hmm. . But like, if you go to a Soho cigar club, it's Byron Canal, you know, the ceilings are so low, it gets so smoky.
It does. You can't see each other. You go to a cigar in which has its advantage. that, uh, it's b y o b. There's a liquor store around the corner. It's on the east side. And um, what I find of there is it, you know, they don't have really good smoke heaters and that gets very smoky as well. Don't forget, um, bar and books.
Yeah. Oh, that's great. But I love that spot. That's a great spot. It appeals. The [00:40:00] um, um, you know, it's, it's very expensive. The drinks are very expensive.
**Bam Bam:** Everything there is
**Gizmo:** expensive. Expensive.
**Rooster:** Is there, is there a place that you could smoke outdoors that's like kind of open?
**Bam Bam:** So, barn books, they've got tables out front and I've sat there
**Rooster:** a lot.
Any, any like rooftop
**Gizmo:** type places that you could smoke?
**Bam Bam:** Apparently there's a place in the Bronx, it's a Latino Cuban restaurant and they've got a rooftop. I don't remember the name of it, but you can smoke on that. And I hear it's spectacular.
**Senator:** So there used to be a place, I'm not sure if they still allow it, but the Empire Hotel, which is near like Columbus Circle area, their rooftop.
They have two outdoor portions in the middles in, uh, enclosed. Mm. And in one of the outdoor portions you could smoke and it was great. Wow. You could sit out, you got a beautiful view of Manhattan Smoke cigars. They were a hundred percent fine with it. That sounds cool. Um, I'm not sure if it's still the case, you know, COVID is, it feels like changed so much, but it was a great spot to be able to
**Pagoda:** do that.
Yeah. Pre Covid you could smoke at the rare land, which was, it's around, uh, thirties in [00:41:00] Lexington, the rooftop you could smoke, uh, Ocker, uh, hotel, which is on 42nd, right. By Times Square you could smoke. So there were a lot of places which would allow, uh, smoking up in the rooftop, but I don't know. I haven't been a lot.
This is really the first summer after Covid when things are really opening up. Right. Uh, but um, you know,
**Rooster:** get to be found. Yeah. We, we were at Pier 17. Yeah. Uh, just this past weekend, which is by South Suite Seaport, kind of like way down, uh, by the financial district. Pier 17. Great spot. They have a massive rooftop.
Restaurant. Um, they do concerts. So it's, it's, it's big. It's huge. Uh, they have to, they have like at least six restaurants, like one on each floor. The restaurants like Malibu Farms, Momo Foco, uh, oh, that's great. Bunch of, bunch of other places. Some steak, steak place. Uh, John George has a place there, I think it's called the Fulton Fulton Market, overlooking the [00:42:00] Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge.
I mean, great spot, beautiful views, but the rooftop would be ideal for an outdoor smoke. I mean,
**Gizmo:** if the tables are like spread apart, but absolutely not. They don't,
**Rooster:** they don't allow that, you know, um,
**Pagoda:** yeah, tend have changed so much in
**Senator:** the. . Yeah. I think what's hard is, especially with smaller places, it becomes tough because if you try to kind of divide up a rooftop and say, well, here you can smoke and there you or is non-smoking, the smoke is gonna blow over.
So I get, you're gonna have the person who gets really pissed off and it becomes a headache for the business. The ideal setup, which is why I mentioned the Empire rooftop, to have two outdoor parts that are just at opposite ends and an enclosed indoor space in the middle, it's totally separated, right? So you have one area all by itself for people to smoke, and then you go on the complete opposite end, and if you don't wanna be around smoke, you're out on an equally great rooftop.
That's kind of the perfect set.
**Rooster:** Well, this, this PI 17, believe it or not, had like an. Like a covered indoor structure in the middle. [00:43:00] Hmm. Then they had the massive rooftop, uh, where, where they do the concerts, but then on the other side there were structures that just had a roof and they were open on all sides, like a lead to, and they were a little small?
No, not lead to like big Oh, okay. You know, with like, um, like couches and stuff. Oh wow. Sectional, couches. Those would be perfect spots because it's away from, you know, the, the main area. They could
**Gizmo:** easily convert that. You should light up, up there and see what happens. I, I tried . I tried. Did you? I did.
**Rooster:** I did.
Does that
**Gizmo:** really surprise you, babe? No.
**Bam Bam:** I got
**Pagoda:** Is this PS 17, the place which was supposed to be, Restaurants of the world with, uh, Anthony bk and no, I'm not sure if that's, and a couple of guys getting together to try and really set up
**Rooster:** foods. Yeah. I'm not sure if that is the one
**Pagoda:** I Is it, is it all relatively new?
**Rooster:** All right. Yeah. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Fairly new. Yeah. I got a, I got a question about Mac Canuto Club. Mac Canuto. So what do you think the move is to pull chairs and put tables in? Is it more tone? Is it more [00:44:00] turnover? Is it requiring food and drink? Is it not having people like us sit there for six hours at a given time?
Uh, no. No.
**Senator:** I asked them, they told me, um, the issue was they needed more capacity. Ah, they were getting really filled up. And when you have couches, especially when you have like a three seater couch, you're never gonna have three people on. It's gonna be two people at one end. There's an empty seat in the middle that gets wasted.
So it was just eating up space where there was just so much more demand that they were trying to accommodate more
**Gizmo:** customers. Makes sense. Makes sense. And also, I think we talked about this, the Grand Havana room closing Yeah. Permanently. That's, that's what did it itself drove a lot of the. Yeah. Highend spot on customers there, right?
Yep.
**Senator:** Spot on. Yeah. Most of the guys that were regulars at, um, the Grand Havana room flocked to Club Macondo after. Right.
**Gizmo:** So for the listener, the Grand Havana room was kind of like the what celebrity high end destination of cigar smokers in New York City. Very private experience. Very private. It was a club.
Yeah. You kind of needed to know people, right? I mean mm-hmm. . Yeah. And
**Senator:** they have multiple locations. There's, there's one in LA that still exists.
**Gizmo:** Hmm. Cool. Yeah. [00:45:00] So we'll come back to this in a second cuz I do have some questions about outside New York spots, but what are you guys thinking about the, uh, diplomatic coi about halfway through here?
What do you think?
**Bam Bam:** It's kind of, uh, even down for me. Yeah. It's got to plateau and it's, it's, it's still enjoyable.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It's not
**Rooster:** quite like the first third of, of the stick. I mean, uh, those flavors were, I was getting a lot more aroma outta the smoke as well. Right. Which has kind of subsided a little bit.
I'm not really quite getting that enjoyment I was getting in the beginning.
**Senator:** I'm, I'm with Rooster. I, I feel the sort of middle of this has just kind of fizzled out. Um, I'm not getting, it's pla as much flavor. Um, it's not offensive, but I, I can't pick out any interesting flavor notes at this point that I'm getting that really excite me.
It's just very bland. Right. It's like just tobacco. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously.
**Gizmo:** I think, I think floral, I'm getting more floral now than anything. Mm-hmm. in the middle here. Uh, but it's kind of muted. I, I feel like it's [00:46:00] muddled. It's not, uh, it's not bad. It's not
**Bam Bam:** bad. No. Like Senator said, it's not
**Gizmo:** offensive. No. But
**Rooster:** to me, um, if you're only going to make one
**Gizmo:** stick , make, make
**Rooster:** it a fucking good one.
Make it awesome. Make it a good stick. You know, have it needs a little bit more. Very true. It needs more flavor from top to bottom. I mean, it is a number two. Number two is a. , you know, it's like a coveted bettola, you know, if, if for, you know, for lack of better words. I mean, it's your, it's the only stick you make, right?
So I think there should be better blending in
**Gizmo:** the cigar. You
**Senator:** know, I agree. To Ruth's point, they've got one shot to draw a consumer to appreciate this brand and this is it. And, uh, I, I, I'm with you. There's not a whole lot you get outta this. And I think a brand that is similar in some ways is Boulevard, who doesn't make all that many violas.
Yeah. Right. There is what, at most four, I think
**Gizmo:** it's, you got, uh, petite
**Rooster:** Corona, you got the Royal Corona Corona bf. [00:47:00] Uh, BEUs. Pheno. Then you have
**Gizmo:** Petite Corona. Petite Corona, and
**Senator:** one more, little, more little short guy. And that's it. Yeah. Yeah.
**Rooster:** Isn't it shorter than,
**Gizmo:** Boulevard
**Senator:** Shop. Look, I can look, I forget what it's called.
Either way, they, they only make four or five. Right? Right. Which is way less than all the other major brands. And and to their credit, that's what we always say. We appreciate Boulevard. They're great. They stick to what they know and what they do well and they are fine not making any more than that. But when you light up a boulevard for the first time, you're gonna remember it.
And I'm just so surprised to have only one. And I'm not gonna remember.
**Gizmo:** This is not memorable. Right. We actually missed a couple. So they have, uh, a Boulevard Tubo number two, which is not a pyramid, it's a petite Corona, but it's in a Tubo only. They have a Coronas Junior, the Bellaco Soos, petite Corona, and the Royal Corona.
So we miss two. So, and they also have a, uh, LA Casaa Delano exclusive, which is the, uh, Liberta door. Oh, okay. Yeah. Right. So the, and there's a new one coming out in 2023, which [00:48:00] is gonna be a new gold medal. , uh uh, which will also be an L CDH exclusive. Yes. Yeah. That, that's really sort of after that gold. The gold, gold, gold label.
Gold, yeah. Like half
**Rooster:** of the stick is covered in like gold foil. Really. I mean, not, not, I mean, just the color is gold. But
**Gizmo:** yeah, I think
**Pagoda:** bam will be able to sew that
**Gizmo:** very quickly.
I am a sucker. So, uh, before we get back to the lounge discussion, I'm curious, you know, we, we mentioned that we're kind of wrapping up the battle of the pyramids here on the pod, at least for 2022. I'm sure we'll revisit this in a couple years, but let's go through the scores of the other five that we've done and kind of see how we're feeling about the scores, how they've, if they're accurate or not, and where this stacks and let's judge ourselves a little bit.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Up, up. And two was,
**Gizmo:** was the highest, the last, yeah. So that was a 9.8. Yeah. Now we have to, we have to factor that, that was a 2014 cigar, so it was eight years old at, and a great box code. And a great box code. Yeah. You know, um, [00:49:00] In second place was the Parus series P number two at an 8.7. Wow. That's quite the drop.
Quite the drop. A full
**Rooster:** point. And then, uh, well then,
**Gizmo:** well Monte two, Monte two was an 8.4. And then Vegas, Romania Unico was an 8.2. And then really a major drop. La Punta was the . The punter son. Christobal de Havana,
**Senator:** la Punta by the way. Thanks again for that. Bam. Oh, you're welcome. .
**Pagoda:** What was that rated?
**Gizmo:** Oh, by the way, wait
**Rooster:** a minute, by the way.
Bam has brought us two sticks. One was the Opus
**Gizmo:** 6.6.
**Rooster:** 6.6, and the La
**Gizmo:** pun, which is a 5.94, 4.8.
**Bam Bam:** I thank you for reminding me. They're all coming from this tougher. I see you guys tomorrow, guys. Take care, .
**Gizmo:** So, uh, do you think those good work man? Do you think those scores, how do you think they [00:50:00] they fair? I think that, I think that's a pretty accurate representation of how I feel about the, the, the,
**Bam Bam:** I have a question about the up and two.
If we were to smoke a younger up and two, wonder if that would get such a high rating,
**Gizmo:** it definitely wouldn't get a 9.8. I think it would be very close. I think a young up upmanu, my guess is that it would land somewhere around the P two. Like mid Mid mids. Yeah. Mid the high
**Senator:** eights. Yeah. I agree with that.
Yeah. I have to say though, just hearing those ratings one from, he just validates all of the unique pallets that we bring and we obviously average those scores together. Those averages track with exactly how I would rank those sticks that we smoke. Agreed. Those exact ones. Agreed. Agreed. I have not one gripe with that.
Nope. Right.
**Gizmo:** So yeah, I, I do wish, I was just gonna say, I do think that the money two at an 8.4 is a little low. That's, I disagree to me that that should be a little higher just versus my [00:51:00] experience where it's been Well, that's the only one that's a little off.
**Bam Bam:** Here's here's the thing, so we've, we've discovered, and I think we all would agree that there is a difference in the current mons that we're sourcing compared to the Mons that we had, let's say, three or four years ago.
Absolutely. They're more consistent, they're more flavorful, they're built better. Previous Mons, some you couldn't even finish. Yeah,
**Rooster:** right. I had a, I had a, Monty made Corona this morning with a cup of coffee, and I'm telling you,
**Gizmo:** it was at the movie theater
**Rooster:** before . Delicious, delicious smoke. Nice. And the other thing, you know, I just thought of this the other day, and this is kind of towards the end of summer and stuff.
It was kind of a, still a humid day and I had a qd Coronas Claro.
**Gizmo:** Oh gosh, what a stick. Yeah. Great
**Rooster:** steak. Awesome. I have always, always enjoyed that stick. awesome citrus notes with a little bit of spice. We've had it indoors plenty of times. Great stick. [00:52:00] Right? We always try to find it. I had this outside on a humid day, late summer.
The cigar tasted horrible. Yeah. So I don't know what everybody's experiences when you guys smoke, uh, especially a Cuban cigar where the rapper is kind of thin and it's humid out. It burns weird. The flavor is off. I mean, I love to smoke outside, you know, in a, in a hot summer day. But you gotta be careful when you smoke a cigar that's on a humid day.
I mean, it totally ruins the whole
**Bam Bam:** experience. Yeah. You know, uh, go one thing, honestly, I only a, like a, a petrova would do well in that environment or any other new world Millennium smokes. I think in a human environment, I don't think any Cuban would smoke well in that. Yeah. So over the humid day.
**Senator:** So I agree with both of what you, both statements that have been made and, and when Rooster mentioned this the other day about that qd non-smoking, well, in extreme humidity, I've had the exact same experience and I just thought maybe it was kind of a one-off.
[00:53:00] And then when you described it, everything you did, it was identical, extremely humid. And I remember the cigar was, it was the first time I tried a Schwa Supreme that we reviewed on the pod. And I, I was so excited to have this cigar sitting on my deck. It's humid as hell, and I light that thing up and the flavor just got totally muddled.
And it was nothing like when we've had it in a more controlled environment indoors or on a non humid day. Um, so I do think, you know, my, my takeaway away is when it's extremely. Cubans have thin wrappers. They do not fare well. It, it's like they just immediately absorb all the humidity. Yeah. And then it doesn't burn.
Right. It muddles the flavor where when it's that humid, I would pull for a new world stick that's got a thicker wrapper that is just much better suited to handle that amount of humidity. Yeah. I think
**Rooster:** the, I think the cigars like, just because like what you said about the thin wrappers mm-hmm. , the cigar has like a tunnel effect almost.
Like it's burning [00:54:00] like as if it, you know, internally.
**Gizmo:** Internally it's too fast. Yeah. Yep.
**Pagoda:** Right. So, so are the Cuban smoking new worlds in Cuba? ?
**Gizmo:** I don't know.
**Bam Bam:** It's pretty damn humid down there.
**Gizmo:** It's a good point. I'll let you know in November, , you know, I, I've had the same experience. I mean, if it's humid outside, either I'll turn around or if I'm really desperate, I'll reach like, like you both have said, for a new world, you know, uh, even, even reaching for a new world in a hum, you know, humid environment.
I'll never reach for something special. Mm-hmm. , because I never want to take that, I never want to gamble on a cigar in humidity. And I mean, even, you know, some of the evenings in the summer we talked about this, how great it is to smoke outside when it's so nice. Even when it's like modest humidity, I can still taste differences in and, and field differences in how the cigar smokes and burns.
It really does affect it. Yeah. And same
**Rooster:** thing on a, on a, on a windy
**Gizmo:** day. Oh, Wendy, I stay away from wind's. That's the [00:55:00] worst. It's
**Bam Bam:** the worst. Yeah. But kids, that's good. That's good advice for the listener actually.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Yeah. I, I just, if you have something you love or special, I don't care if it's your birthday, your anniversary, you just, your, your, you just had a baby at.
do not smoke outside in humidity. Yep. Any, any sort of special cigar because you're really, you're really gambling. The exclusive is a great one. Yeah, of course. I would say any of the, the new world, let's say under 15 that we've reviewed on the pod. Mm-hmm. , you know, the aging room, the El Centor from EP Carillo.
Yep. Uh, and of course Thei, I think are all
**Senator:** the, all the, all the pubs mentioned I think is
**Gizmo:** farewell. All the David offs. Yeah. Oh yeah.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Be fine. Yep.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I'm, I'm finding that this cigar is kind of, I don't know, I'm not hating it right now. I don't hate it, but I guess I, I want a little bit more, and I'm not expecting Monty two or any of the other flavors that, that we've discussed on the other pyramids, but [00:56:00] I'd like a little more. Yeah. Yeah. I wish it tasted
**Rooster:** more like the aroma from the smoke.
Yeah. Like initial on the light, like what you got that aroma. If it tasted like that, that would be Yep. A
**Gizmo:** plus.
**Bam Bam:** Combustion's. Good on the cigar though. It is.
**Gizmo:** It's burning. Well, looking at your
**Bam Bam:** stick and how it's smoking, it's
**Gizmo:** nice.
**Senator:** Yeah. To your point, Ben, great. Combustion. The construction even on this is great.
Oh yeah. I mean, if you look at, I think most of them, it's burning evenly. Yep. Um, great smoke output. I just, I mean, gizmo said he wants a little more, honestly, I want a lot more out of this cigar. I, I'm not happy
**Gizmo:** with this, but I'm, I'm just trying to be reasonable with my expectations of the cigar, knowing that it's designed to be mild to medium, knowing that it's not trying to be a pure, as far as flavor or strength as of some of the others that we've mentioned.
So to me, expecting that is unreasonable. , but I don't think this is delivering what it should be delivering for 20. For $21. For $21. There you go. At
**Rooster:** that price point,
**Gizmo:** you have many options. Oh yeah. [00:57:00] Oh yeah.
**Senator:** Oh yeah. So I mean, I'm also gonna say, look, I mean, this is crazy to even bring up this comparison, but I only say it because it was a cigar that completely surprised me that I thought I was gonna hate that little Fuente Hemingway series.
A signature that we had. Yeah. That was a natural wrapper. Yep. And I thought it was gonna be way too mild and entirely uninteresting. And that cigar actually put out more flavor in that very mild, easygoing delivery than this ever could. And, and that's where, you know, I, that's satisfies me more flavor-wise than this.
Yeah. I, I want a lot more out of
**Bam Bam:** this cigar. That was a shocking. . Yeah. I mean,
**Senator:** even in epicure number two in oil, I feel like I get more interesting flavor out of that than this. And that's a, I would call a mild medium. Mm-hmm. .
**Gizmo:** Yeah. I do love the flavor of that cigar. When it's on, it's on. Yeah. I just find that 25% of the time it's just a com complete dud.
I think I'm
**Bam Bam:** off of those completely. Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** Same. Yeah. Try
**Rooster:** some other vitos of the Hoyos. Yeah. You might be [00:58:00] surprised. Okay. Especially the San
**Gizmo:** Juan. What's that with? Shaped? Is that a regional?
**Rooster:** No, it's not. Oh, the Hoyo San Juan. Um, it's a little bit bigger than a booster. Ah,
**Senator:** that's not the Rio Secco.
**Rooster:** Um, no, I think it's the sun.
I like that
**Gizmo:** cigar. It's a 54 ring gauge. And I, you guys know how I feel about 54 ring gauge. Yeah, you're off that gauge. Really? You liked it? I really liked it. It was actually the best, it was actually the best. Aside from that one double Corona that we had, that knocked our socks off. Oh yeah. That, uh, that Rio Secco was fantastic.
**Senator:** Okay. Then we should review this at some point. And the reason I say that, I've never had one, but I remember sitting at our North lounge with Puba and he lit one of those and about five 10 puffs said he just threw it down in the astray. He said he couldn't smoke. Oh boy. I've been a little scarred by that experience.
I know he still made that. They must be bad. But given what you're saying now, I do. I'm
**Bam Bam:** looking at Gizmo's [00:59:00] face right now. He's like, he's frustrated with that con,
**Gizmo:** I'm a little frustrated with it. I just, I just know that I'm not gonna say it. You know, we know what you're gonna say. I'm just maybe reference the, the humidity discussion we just had.
The
**Rooster:** hoyo San Juan is also a 54 ring gauge. It is, yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's a big stick. Wow. It is. You know, and that's something that I talk, we talked about. I mean, I don't love cigars at that ring gauge, even though I love the flavor of an e tooth, the flavor of a cutie 54. . I just don't love that size. But I think that those are cigars that we need to put in, in the rotation coming up because a lot of people love that ring gauge, love them, you know?
Yeah. So we gotta do it. Especially Americans,
**Bam Bam:** smokers, it's, it's very, I was about to go there. It's very American.
**Rooster:** Yeah. Yeah. We need to do a 60 ring gauge .
**Gizmo:** What
**Pagoda:** about gonna happen? What, what about the octagon? Can, can we
**Senator:** just tell this story? How about
**Rooster:** Octa? Not .
**Senator:** Can we tell this story quickly? So we're at a cigar lounge.
I think most of us have seen this at this point, and there's a [01:00:00] guy in our cigar lounge that smokes this outrageous sized cigar. I mean, I, the biggest cigar I've seen in a retail shop is 60 ring gauge. I've never seen bigger than that, right? No one else has seen a 65, 70, 80 ring. And this guy smokes a cigar that is 80 ring gauge.
It's
**Gizmo:** obscene. It's a, it is obscene looks, it looks like a
**Senator:** baseball bat. Yeah. It literally looks like a bat. You could actually hurt someone with this thing. .
**Gizmo:** What did he say? It took him two days to smoke it one time. Like he, he wetted. That's
**Bam Bam:** a, that's a unique guy.
**Gizmo:** didn't,
**Pagoda:** did ba didn't he give you a one? No, he
**Bam Bam:** did not.
I, I just looked at it and said, very nice. .
**Senator:** I think instead of the FDA trying to regulate cigars out of existence, they should regulate no ring gauge larger than
**Gizmo:** 60 . I agree with that. I I will get behind that lobby.
**Pagoda:** Pardon me? Can't do this. You
**Gizmo:** don't like it? Cigar moia. It's just, yeah. No.
**Rooster:** You know, I'm, I'm curious. They should be a, we should [01:01:00] do a poll of the listeners. Like what is your. Rain gauge.
**Gizmo:** That's a good idea. What length, what size do you guys like, enjoy? Yeah. And, and to your point, you know, I, I, you know, and I, I wanted to go back to this for a second, but I would love for listeners to email us about, you know, what their favorite cigars, their favorite rain gauge is cigars.
We haven't done, like, we need suggestions. We, we love, when we hear from listeners, we Oh, yeah. Used a lot of them. Yeah. We've used a lot of listener recommendations in both liquor and in cigars, so please email us. It's exciting for us to hear back. Yeah, it's awesome. It's, it's great to hear and, and it kind of helps point us in a direction of what other folks are smoking that are outside of our group.
Yeah. You know, and is certainly open to our eyes on, on quite a few cigars. And then the other thing I wanted to ask, um, is, you know, other cigar lounges, just briefly, you know, outside of the, uh, New York metro area that we, that we know of that really are destination lounges mm-hmm. , uh, or places to avoid, I
**Senator:** mean, oh, no,
**Bam Bam:** no, bam.
Go ahead. There's a place in Brooklyn. It's a Dal lounge. [01:02:00] Okay. Right around the corner from Peter Luger's. It's a great spot. You know, I'm in Brooklyn a lot. It's a good pit Stop. Have one or two and continue on my day. Beautifully done space. It's an opus destination for sure. I've got a ton of opus there, but, uh, nice place.
Yeah. Hmm.
**Senator:** So I, I have to call out, uh, a cigar lounge in DC and I'll start by saying the craziest thing you would think a city like Washington DC right. Where power is concentrated and you know, all the politicos are nations
**Bam Bam:** are destabilized with the push of a button. ,
**Gizmo:** that's his senator's office. It is,
**Senator:** this is correct.
And so you would expect in a city like that, that there would be tons of cigar smokers, which there are. And therefore there there'd be tons of cigar lounges and there is only one proper cigar lounge left standing in DC one one. I was
**Bam Bam:** surprised when I heard that.
**Senator:** Really? It is crazy. Yeah. Wow. I mean, when I lived there, you know, 10 years ago you used to have the place that [01:03:00] I'm gonna talk about, There was a, a little cigar shop that's still there, Drapers, it's a legendary place.
It's honestly like probably the most famous cigar retailer in Washington DC proper. And I couldn't believe I went there once travel started picking back up again during the pandemic. I went there for the first time in a while and I bought some sticks. And ironically, their selection is so good. You know what cigar I found there just on a whim?
The, uh, Don Carlo shark. Oh, wow. Any retailer that has sharks on a
**Gizmo:** random day, that's pretty surprising to find
that,
**Senator:** you know, they do some good business there. Yeah, I was super impressed. That's cool. I buy all this. I'm so excited. And I say, you know, I've never smoked one in Drapers and it's not a proper lounge, but they have lounge style chairs and people will just buy some sticks, sit and have a, a cigar.
And I had asked the guy if I could sit there and like this and he's like, I'm really sorry to say this, but you, you can't smoke in here anymore. And I said, why you, this is your guy's decision. He said, no, this city made this bizarre rule to try to discourage any smoking indoors. Where they required [01:04:00] you had to serve food in order to be able to do it, which then made all the tobacco shops in DC because they're not gonna get the licensing for all this food, beverage, all that.
And so they, you could no longer smoke there. So I had to take it and thank God that place I'm about to talk about is nearby and I was able to just bring it there and smoke it. Um, there was even another cigar lounge then that a guy who used to work and manage the place I'm gonna talk about, he opened his own lounge in Maryland, just outside of DC And it was a beautiful place, honestly.
Civil. That's right. Pagoda used to live in DC He knows exactly what I'm talking about. Honestly. One of the nicest design cigar lounges I've ever seen. But the location, it's just, you have people that work downtown, they want a cigar right after work. Kind of like, you know, pagoda was talking about, he goes to Carnegie in the city cuz it's so convenient from his office.
The location was so inconvenient, they just weren't doing good business. And over time they actually shut down. So the last lounge left standing that's been there for ages is Shelly's backroom. And what I love about this place, and there are so, [01:05:00] there's so many things to love. There are also some things to criticize, but you, gizmo described the charm that Carnegie has and this place has charm on steroids.
I mean, it, it's, it's so iconic. It's been there so long. And the thing I give them credit for, I think the hardest thing when you have a cigar lounge, you kind of have to decide to go one of two routes. Either you want the lounge to be incredibly nice and high-end and upscale and you wanna provide this real luxury experience or you want it to be more comfortable, more casual and, and kind of no frills.
And this is the first place I have found that. Is the best, an ideal balance of the two where it, it's all wood paneling when you go in. They have some lounge style seating, lots of just tables and chairs all over the place, and a bar in the back. Tons of TVs. You can watch sports there. Uh, but the clientele, you know, it's all people who are, you know, coming after work from, you know, the private sector or the White House or Capitol Hill.
Um, you'll constantly [01:06:00] see and meet congressmen in there, which is great. Um, is it, is it really great though? I say that because the ones, the ones that smoke cigars. Oh, they're cool. You'd be really surprised. They're actually really nice, like people that I thought I would never enjoy a conversation with and I've had some great answers.
Senator, his name is Senator. Senator .
**Gizmo:** This is true. Good point. Ba these are my people. , . Any,
**Rooster:** any congressman that
**Gizmo:** smokes gets my work. Oh
**Bam Bam:** yeah. There you go. . Yeah, I like it. I like
**Senator:** it. And so I just give them credit because it's a very comfortable, no frills place, but it's also nice enough that there feels like there's a real character about it.
and, um, now the, the downs. So the, the plus is, uh, you can, this is crazy. You can bring your own sticks. There is no cutting fee. Wow. I like that. None. The drinks are extremely reasonably priced, under $20 for Macallan, 12 or some of these other things Nice. In the city. Good luck. You'll never find that. Nope.
Drinks are reasonable. They have a full food menu. You can order dinner. Food is pretty simple, but I've never had a bad, [01:07:00] uh, a bad meal there. Uh, the downsides, the service is a bit of a novelty in the sense that for some reason, and I I, I have to at some point meet the owner of this place. Clearly, whoever owns Shelly's has a real thing for Asian women.
Oh, yeah. . Because every single waitress, keep in mind, right, I lived in DC for six plus years, and I've been to DC well before that, and I still, I'm there once a month at least. Now for the last several years, I have never met any waiter at that place that is not Asian or a woman. , it doesn't exist. Not a bad thing, and it's not a bad thing.
But the problem is, for some reason, these women that are hired there, um, are not the most friendly or service oriented. . What was a blessing in disguise is the pandemic happened. And I will never forget the first time I went there when they, I was there probably the second week. They were allowed to reopen fully.
I have never been treated so nice in that place. They were so appreciative. [01:08:00] So the pandemic fixed all of that. I think when you lose income right, for that long, all of a sudden you have customers again. They're, yeah, it's a little change in perspective. Exactly. So the service actually has been ironed out now.
It's very friendly. They're, they're really great. They're on top of things. Um, and then the only other thing I would com, the only other gripe I have is when that place gets packed, which it does. Not as much after the pandemic, but before any given night, you're there. And the hours are great, by the way.
It's like 2:00 AM they're open. Oh, I like that. Great hours. And, uh, that place would get smokey. I mean, so many people, and they have, they have huge smoke eaters in the ceiling all over. But I think the units are a little old. They probably need to be replaced. But when there's a decent size crowd, it's not a problem.
But you'll just expect to dry clean your clothes the next day. , I just can't
**Rooster:** believe that's the only spot in Washington
**Gizmo:** DC in any
**Rooster:** city's terrible mean there. It's not in Georgetown.
**Senator:** I'm sorry, Alex. I'm sorry. There's one other, I'm sorry. This is my fault. The, the other place is, uh, Casa Damani. Christo. So, Jr.
Cigar used to have [01:09:00] a cigar shop on M Street in DC uh, close to downtown though that you could, they had chairs, you could sit and smoke. It wasn't a proper lounge, but you could have a cigar there. They then moved and, and relocated to a space that they built a lounge. I don't think it's a particularly nice lounge.
It's kind of high top tables, some lounge style seating that's not particularly nice. And then they have an upstairs that's members only with actual nice lounge chairs and all of that. Uh, but so the staff is so nice, so friendly. Um, you know, they, they kind of a policy. You're not supposed to bring in other cigars, but the, every time I go in there, as long as I just buy one stick.
So I'll buy a PE drone, they'll let me smoke Cubans. They have no issue with it. Their happy hour is insane. That's cool. It's like, uh, I'm trying to remember when I would get there. You can get an old fashioned that's normally like, I don't know, 18 bucks for half price during happy hour. Wow. Wow. I mean, great pores by the way.
The bartender there, this girl who's usually there like, uh, after work hours, phenomenal [01:10:00] pores, but it's not the most comfortable place like Shelly's is. You could spend, you know, six hours at Shelly's easily that. I'll spend maybe a couple hours there, and then I'm ready to go back to my hotel. So there's one other spot, but to your point, it's still outrageous that that's it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Not enough. Yeah. So, okay, so we've hit, uh, we've hit DC and we've hit New York, which we have quite a bit of experience with. Are there any other highlight places that we should mention around the country? I, I will say, uh, Las Vegas to me is a huge disappointment, um, in the cigar lounges there. I know there is a new one I mentioned that I asked Henry to visit a friend of ours.
Uh, check out this new eight lounge, which is pretty high end. Um, is that
**Rooster:** the one that's got like a wine bar? Like in the back was very high. It was, uh, there was a article
**Gizmo:** about it. It in ca ca, yeah. Yeah. So the other one's the Davidoff, the, the Casa Fuente. I think they're all huge misses. Um, what about them just
**Senator:** curious.
**Gizmo:** Well, the Davidoff on the Strip is really the only game on the strip [01:11:00] that's not, you know, tucked in a. A mall or something and it's just not great. The, the stock is very, very mediocre. At least when I was there, they didn't have even have any DDoS. I wanted a late hour. They had none. Yeah. I wanted to, last year, millennium Pyramid, they had none.
The drinks are overpriced, the service is mediocre. The chairs are tight. It's just not a, it's just, it's just not worthy of,
**Rooster:** it's not really an indoor spot. No, it's a big, it's
**Gizmo:** like an outdoor, it's an outdoor circle. Yeah. And they have indoor and outdoor seating. It's just not great. But it really the only place to go.
And
**Rooster:** we talked about like humidity and stuff. The Vegas gets hot. I was there in August. Tremendous. It was hundred 20 degrees. They had these fans with mistress blowing on you and here you're smoking a Cuban cigars. It was just talked about humidity. I mean, you know, it's gonna affect So you wanna smoke a dab off there,
**Gizmo:** obviously.
Yeah, exactly. If they haven't not, not a Cuban, yeah. Prices weren't great now I just didn't love that place. So the casa was, Casa Fuentes
**Rooster:** is not bad though. It's all right. It's the one in the
**Gizmo:** Caesars. Yeah, it's in the Caesars Palace. It's a little dingy. Um, yeah. It's all right. It's okay. Yeah. [01:12:00]
**Senator:** That's a shame.
I mean, you would think Las Vegas of all places,
**Rooster:** but you know what? You, you can smoke a cigar in the
**Gizmo:** casino at the bar area. Apparently they've restricted that one, that that's not the case in, in, in all bars. I think they changed that. They've used Covid, like in Pennsylvania. Um, you can't smoke cigars in casinos anymore, even when they've allowed cigarette smoking.
Vegas is different, I think. No, but I, there's, there are a bunch of, apparently the, the union of employees who work at casinos in Vegas does not want smoking in the
**Rooster:** casinos. Yeah. But there were guys from, uh, this Facebook group that they were there recently, not re like a few months back, they were able to smoke at
**Gizmo:** the bar.
Yeah. So they must have found one that, that allowed it. But I, it's not, it's not everywhere
**Rooster:** like it used to. We were at the Venetian. At the Venetian, you could smoke cigars at the bar area, which was right in the middle of the entire casino. So you could, you know,
**Gizmo:** that's quite cool. And that
**Rooster:** was last, yeah. I don't know if it's, you know, what, you know what's the worst.
Absolutely the worst [01:13:00] place. As where as cigar laws go. Toronto. Oh
**Gizmo:** yeah. Toronto is, Canada's bad
**Rooster:** across the border, but not all of Canada. I think Montreal is still better. Yeah, but Toronto, not even the L C D H, which I think it's on Bloom Street. You can't smoke in a La Casa del Havana. Wow. Inside crazy. Not only they have tables outside, you can't even smoke outside.
That's, that's ridiculous. You have to be, there's, I don't know, 30 feet or 50 feet away from the place. This
**Gizmo:** is crazy. Ridiculous. We bought a cigar
**Rooster:** there. I went to light it up and she's like, what are you doing? I'm like, lighting up a cigar in a cigar lounge. . They have a bar, but you can't smoke. They're like, no, you can't smoke there.
I'm like, you can't. I'm like, how about outside? Like, no, you can't smoke outside. You have to sit on a bench across the street, and smoke and smoke that $50 and the prices
**Gizmo:** are insane. That's, oh yeah. The
**Rooster:** taxes. Canadian prices. I mean, uh, D four
**Gizmo:** is gonna be like 50 plus. Yeah. I feel bad for our Canadian friends.
Oh, yeah. [01:14:00] Yeah. It's not fair. It's not fair. All right, boys, let's, uh, let's rate the Forteza Rapsodo. I really, really enjoyed the tequila, and I think it, uh, it really was a nice pairing with the cigar, and I think it, uh, overshadowed it in a way, just in flavor and quality. So
**Bam Bam:** I'm giving it an eight. Okay. For me, the buttery finish is unique.
**Gizmo:** All right. Pagoda.
**Pagoda:** I don't even think it's fair for me to rate it. Um, um, I'd rate it a seven. No. No. Okay.
**Rooster:** He's a scotch guy. . Okay.
**Senator:** Bam. I'm, I'm surprised with your rating. I'm gonna give it a nine. Goodness. Love it. And, and I say that cuz I mean this is a reto, so I'm comparing this to other retos and I would take this over Don Julio Reto great score.
And I love that great score. So I gotta give it
**Rooster:** a nine. I'm not even drinking it just by looking at the bottle. I'll give it a 10. Yeah. . [01:15:00]
**Gizmo:** I'm also gonna give it a nine. I think it's the best Rapsodo I've ever had. It's delicious. Um, I love it and I look forward to trying more, so hopefully it makes a lot of sense.
But our composite lizard score boys on the fourth, Eliza Rapsodo is an 8.3 Very good score. So I think that's fair. Yeah, I think that's fair. Very good. All right. We're coming to the end here of the diplomatic OS number two. Uh, it hasn't done much for me here in the last third as far as a change in flavor.
It's still a little muted. Little muddled burning fine smoking fine. Yep. It's just not great. . It's not great yet. I'm not offended by it. Yeah,
**Rooster:** it did start off great. Mm-hmm. not great, but it started out off pretty good. I mean, I thought it was kind of continue with that aroma that we were getting from the smoke, but it kind of fizzled off towards, like the first third was not bad, but after that it really fizzled off.
Yeah. So if you want me to rate it. Yeah, I'm gonna give it a
**Gizmo:** seven. Seven. Okay. I'm also gonna give it a seven. I've [01:16:00] been there since that second, third hit. I was all day at a seven.
**Senator:** Honestly, I'm very surprised by your scores. Um, for me, a seven or higher is at, at least a somewhat recommend. I personally would never recommend, I could easily give it a six.
Yeah. I, I would never recommend this. I would also never smoke this cigar again. I'm gonna be charitable only because I don't know why I'm being charitable. There's a thousand other Cuban cigars that would give someone over this. I'm gonna give it a five
**Gizmo:** o Wow. Wow.
**Pagoda:** Yeah, I'm closer to Senator. I like it.
Makes me want to, Arnold may have been right, you know, when you're smoking certain cigars, you might want a dip in the tequila. .
**Bam Bam:** No, no. I gotta rub, rub the rapper with you. Rub the rapper with the tequila.
**Pagoda:** Tequila right there. I been
**Gizmo:** tempted. That's a good call. That's a callback to what? Episode two. Episode three.
three. That's awesome.
**Pagoda:** So, um, yeah, I, you know, a five for me too. Wow. Okay.
**Bam Bam:** I, I, I think the five is low for this. I think so [01:17:00] too. Yeah. Uh, I I'm gonna give it a seven. I didn't mind it. I took it down to the half inch. Yeah. Halfway through. I don't like to use the word flat or muddled, cuz that's an, to me it's insulting to this cigar, but I think seven is a fair score.
It's
**Senator:** fair.
**Gizmo:** So the composite lizard score boys is a 6.2. Uh, I, I think that's, I think that is representative like we talked about. I think that's a fair score for the cigar. That's okay. Yeah. Now I'll tell you the reason why I gave it a seven. and it's because I don't, this cigar was not made for a smoker like me.
I don't think it was made for smokers like us. No. Now with the construction, the burn, the smoke output, and even the flavor, which I gave it a seven for that. But when I give this to my father-in-law, cuz I have a bunch of these, I was just gonna say that this is your father-in-law and when I give this to my father-in-law, his head's, the back of his head's gonna blow off
He's gonna be, this is the greatest Cuban cigar I've ever had. . Cuz this is what he loves.
**Pagoda:** [01:18:00] Mm-hmm. But what about the price for this
**Gizmo:** particular scar's? The price stuff. The prices. The problem is a problem. Problem. It's a problem. The price is a problem. But you can't fault the construction, the burn, the smoke output.
No. It is a well-built cigar.
**Senator:** I just go back to why I'm really frustrated with this cigar. A $10 Arturo Fuente Hemingway series that is not made for me. , right? That that cigar is not full enough in flavor for me to regularly smoke that. But I could recognize and appreciate that that puts out interesting enough flavor.
I remember how nutty and creamy and we, we were so many things we were shocked that we liked about that cigar that I would give to someone like your father-in-law that I think would actually really appreciate that cigar where I would not, I would literally 60% or more of this cigar, all I tasted was tobacco.
I hate saying that. I think it's ridiculous to say that's what a cigar, uh, flavor note you're getting, but that's how muddled the flavor was. I got nothing. Oh, wow. Other than burning tobacco for [01:19:00] 60%. The first third is where I was getting some interesting flavor and that's it. So I, I just, I wouldn't give this e Even we talk about a guest humidor.
If I had random folks over, I'm sorry. I would not hand this out. I
**Rooster:** mean, interesting. On, on the, on the light. It was promising. It was
**Gizmo:** tasty, right? Yeah.
**Rooster:** So think about a $5 taa. Petite
**Gizmo:** is blow dis guy doors off. More satisfying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Than a
**Rooster:** $20 diplomat. Number two, right. A diplomatic, just the name itself.
I mean, you, you're looking for something else. Looking for, looking for more than what we got out of this stick. Right. And therefore the score is reflective of that.
**Pagoda:** It's all fair. It makes me wanna reach out for the other diplomatico, the petro ,
**Gizmo:** I mean, so I, I just quickly want to go back, uh, to the ratings of the other pyramids.
Uh, we went through 'em before. So this fits, uh, in, uh, the number five slot of six, uh, right above this on Cristobal de Havana la Punta. That was a 5.9. This [01:20:00] was a 6.2. So do you think that is appropriate?
**Senator:** I do. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I think both cigars, the flavor was incredibly muddled and I didn't get a whole lot out of it for most of those smokes.
I, for me, I think they're right where they should be agreed. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Cool. So again, Up two and 9.8, the P two and 8.7 mon two and 8.4 Vegas, Romania, Unicos, and 8.2. Uh, the song Crisal de Havana La Punta was a 5.9 and the Diplomatico number two tonight boys was a 6.2. So right above it. Yeah. So that alongside the, for laser rapsodo at an 8.3, I think.
Uh, I think we got our money's worth tonight. Yeah. At least on the tequila. Yeah. One hit one. Miss . All right, boys. Very good. Thanks guys so much and, uh, we'll see you next week. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.
If you have any comments, [01:21:00] questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello. Tell us what you're smoking, email us Lounge Lizards pod, p o d, that's lounge lizards pod gmail.com. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.