WHERTAGO - LIGHTHOUSE CIGARS

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Episode Transcript

(00:07):
It's another Where to Go podcast episodelive from Lighthouse Cigars in Old Bridge,
New Jersey. Check them out atseven three two five nine one eighty eight
zero zero or on their website atLighthouse Cigars dot com. So if you're
looking for a great cigar, we'lltell you where to go to Lighthouse Cigars.
And I'm here with the owner,Ralph Sieber. So, Ralph,

(00:28):
thanks very much for doing this withus today. Thanks for having me.
I appreciate it. Garrett, howare you enjoying yourself in a cigar store?
Well, this is your territory,you know, and this is what
friendship's all about, of learning abouteach other. So I'm getting to learn
a little bit more about you andhow you came across a place like this.
You know what, Man, Ineeded a good cigar. I came
in here and I actually met somepeople that were super super nice. In

(00:51):
this establishment. I always feel likeI'm welcoming. I feel like I'm at
home. That's good, it's true. Oh this is true. Can I
put a little tear in your eye? Have a little tear in my eye
from that? So, you know. So Ralph is the owner, and
then also is Tony McCoy who operatesthis establishment here right? Yes, how
did you come about owning a cigarshop? Two of them? I mean,
you know, kids grew up wantingto, you know, play baseball,

(01:15):
and they try to become baseball playersare firefighters? Did you grow up
loving cigars? I did not.I used to be a union carpenter and
became friends with a guy who wantedto open a store. And I said,
well, what about me? You'rekidding? Is that really how it
all started? That's how it allstarted. So you weren't raised for a
cigar. Your dad did a smokecigars. My grandfather used to smoke cigars.
He's miss mainly chewed them. Hewould like them maybe once or twice,

(01:37):
and then he would chew them.But yeah, no, not a
big cigar family. You know.I heard about guys that the old the
old school guys. Man, theychew on those the ends of those cigars
day long. He just have ithanging out of his mouth. Wow,
tell me exactly the householding came tobe? So I was a union carpenter.
I was working with my friend Pete, and he knew a guy had
a store it they wanted the franchiseout and he was going to open one
in New York. And then Isaid, well, what about me?

(01:57):
I was tired of humping sheet rockand commuting and he said okay. So
I went and I met the guy, and uh, six weeks later I
had a store. I opened upon Black Friday. And twenty seven years
later here I am, Yeah,twenty seven years that's pretty good. So
now you have two locations. Cashenis Hazlet on thirty six, So Hazlet
in New Jersey on Route thirty six. And which one was the first one

(02:19):
you opened up? You're sitting intwo right now, right two point,
that's right, it's Lighthouse. You'reright Lighthouse two, meaning this is the
second one. No, which isyour favorite cigar? One of my favorites
is the Ashton maduro ooh, Ashton, very good. One. Who actually
makes Ashton? Does Ashton make Ashtonor just because I know there's some big
companies that actually make several different brands. So Ashton is made by the artorial

(02:39):
fa went Day family. They makeit and sell it to Ashton, and
then Ashton distributes it. And whatare some of the other brands that they
that they put out? They puttheir own brand, which is the Arctoral
for went Day. They do theopus X, they do the Enajo,
they do the Don Carlos line.Oh wo, my line. Talking on
cigar smokers, I was gonna say, yeah, what is the coke and
pepsi of cigar? The coke andpepsi would be a macanudo. Romeo and

(03:02):
Juliet, Oh body Christa. Yeah, Romeo and Juliet. Those are the
ones that, like in high school, everybody would try to like buy at
the deli uh and and sneak them. Now, I am not doing Romeo
and Juliet. You couldn't pay me. I'm not doing it, no way,
I don't care. Just like alcoholthough, growing up, like you
always got introduced to like the introductorydrink of your your cigar, and that's

(03:22):
the introductory cigar. Yeah. TheRomeo and Juliet is like it's like your
your your first Budweiser you had.Yeah, So someone that wants to,
like, you know, get intoit. We're not gonna throw them into
the deep end and talk about thecigars. You guys are just talking.
Good point, good point. DoesRomeo and Juliet have like a high end
cigar? So Romeo and Juliet hasmultiple level cigars. Oh they did,
okay, they have some mile,they have some full, they do some
limited production stuff. I think likewhen it comes to a cigar smoker,

(03:46):
someone that actually purchases cigars, youdon't like change. You continue to go
back to the same place that youknow makes you feel more welcome. And
then this is that place they've alwaysbeen coming here to have my cigar.
So this is that same routine.You know, hate change, I don't
want to, I don't want you. I'm a perfect cigar smoker, exactly.
You like one type of brand andyou stick with it. That's right,
that's right. Which is what mine? The Legas, that's my favorite.

(04:08):
Tell me a little bit about whomakes the Lega brand. So Liga
is made by Drew State. SoDrew State also makes the Acid brand,
which is a very introductory cigar.It's a flavored cigar, a little sweet,
and then their CFO at the timedidn't want to smoke it, so
they had him make Liga for himpersonally and then became a full on brand.
I love the Legas. You wantto try one, Garrett, No,
you're sure good coll Why won't youtry a cigar? See I'm just

(04:31):
not I'm not a fan. Doesn'tthis smell us nice? I'm a friend
and this is what friends do.You're open to experiences, but somewhere it's
just not for me. So ifI'm having a good glass of red wine,
what kind of a cigar would youmatch up with a good red wine?
So with a red wine, I'dprobably do a nice medeuro cigar Medua.

(04:54):
Yeah, yeah, because Medua I'llhave that little chocolate flavor. So
when you drink the wine, andI'll bring out white wine? No red
wine? No? What about awhite wine? So white wine you might
want to go. It's something alittle bit stronger, So you usually kind
of go a little opposite. Youwant to go a little stronger smoke with
a lighter drink. Gotcha. Whatabout a old fashion? So an old
fashion? Depending on the bourbon that'sin there, you'd want to do something
more on the lighter side because it'snot going to overpower the bourbon. Did

(05:16):
you know all that? No,it's like sitting down at dinner and you
know, matching the wine with yourfood. Are there dessert cigars? There
are cigars that are sweet. Idon't know if we call them dessert cigars,
so they have a little bit ofsweetness on the end, so when
you first light them, you geta little sweetness on you. Oh that's
right. There are a lot ofthose now that have the flavors. Yeah,
I'm not a big flavor guy.I know some people are. Do

(05:38):
you sell many cigars now that areflavored? We still a decent amount of
favored, yes, but still thebasic is still the favorite. Is the
true cigar? Yeah, gotcha,Aul Tobacco straight up. So I've been
noticing, though, there's a lotof young cigar smokers that are going towards
like the acid brand. Why sobecause the acid brand is a light smoke
and it has that little bit ofsweetness, so they don't actually feel like

(05:59):
they're smoking. So most beginners startwith the asset, They smoke it for
a while, Some will stay withit, and then others move on to
more like the ligas, the autoro, the padrones. Yea, they move
on from there. Let's talk aboutthe like the questions from the non smoker.
Oh, jed, how do Iget the smell out of my clothes?
Almost like asparagus, It stays withyou for weeks. Oh my god,
it is not that bad. I'masking h I'm joking obviously. So

(06:24):
after you we hang out, Ishould wash my clothes immediately, you can.
They do make sprays. They makesprays that are like a breeze that
help mask, you know, killthe odor of the smoke so you don't
smell. So if you want togo home and you don't want your wife
to know you smoke, do yourgirlfriend they know you smoked, you get
sprayed on you. How many cigarswould you say do you have in a
store. We have about nine hundredopen boxes. Wow, that is thousands
of thousands, thousands. And whatabout returns? Do you have people come

(06:46):
back and returning cigars? Good question? Who returns the cigar? We don't
get many returns, right, butbut people do come back though, or
at least if there's a construction problemwith the cigar. Maybe you know it
didn't draw right. You know,they're all handmade, so sometimes there are
some construction issues. There really are. And you know how people are they
just they they saw people just liketo complain right right, right, right
right now. That's what we givevery very little returns. That is a

(07:10):
good quick guy, I mean,like there's no way, yeah, who
would. I'm so glad you evenasked that. I never think about it.
I want to come here to purchasemy cigars. I have my receipt.
I don't even know why any receipt. I'm not coming back, Ralph.
You can't let me leave here withouthearing some good stories. I mean,
I'm sure you have your own castof characters that are here. It's
like being at a bar at twelveo'clock at night, you know, as
the bar is closing down, butit's not. It's the middle of the

(07:30):
day. So I used to havea guy that talked about the Luminati,
about the eye and a dollar billright right right. I used to come
in and he talked to me,and then if somebody else would walk in,
he would just stop. He wouldlook at the ceiling, he would
look to the left, he lookedat the right, he'd wait from the
leave, and then he'd start uphis conversation. Again. Really, that
sounds like you. But yet hecame here regularly. He came in regular

(07:51):
Every time he came in. Itwas the same thing, the Luminati guy.
All right, so you got Lluminatiguy. Who else you have here?
So we had a guy come innight who was a little intoxicated.
He came to the counter and askedto use the bathroom. We have a
bathroom here, We had one,but not for a guy that just strolls
in and it's a customer's hobby.He wasn't buying nothing only so then the
guy proceeded to relieve himself while hestood at the counter. No way,

(08:16):
and then when he walked out,we came around the counter and there was
a puddle laying on the floor.Ah, who's cleaning that up? The
guy who was working it wasn't me, So we gotta have a mop here
lowing them up. I got thecall I Lluminati guy, pissed guy.
I mean, there's like there's aton of guys that come through these doors.
Yes, so come check out thestore like a bar without liquor,

(08:37):
right, everybody comes here wants totalk about their life, what's going on,
you know. So all the guysthat come in and hang out,
you know, their friends in andout of the store. They go to
dinner together, they play golf together. Right, they meet here together just
to hang out. So it's kindof like its own little family here.
How many women's cigar smokers do youhave another great question. I'm so glad
I brought you along here. Man. We do have a few women that

(08:58):
come in. They don't hang outas much, but we do have a
few women because they don't want theirclose to mell. Probably they don't wan
to hair this mal. I havea couple of dadies that buy for their
husband. I got to deliver tothe front door. What's a good Sunday
afternoon cigar? Smoke good Sunday afternooncigar? Probably like AJ Fernandez. AJ
Fernandez have a nice Connecticut toro.I was just gonna say Connecticut rab a
little bit. Ye, yeah,you're right, Yeah, that's not bad.

(09:20):
I do love a good cigar onthe golf course. That is always
nice. Speaking of occasions, sowhere do you see the most cigars being
sold? Bachelor parties, births,weddings. Weddings and bachelor parties. Births
have definitely gone down over the yearsjust because a lot of people don't smoke.
Cigars are a little right expensive side, so they don't want to hand
something out to somebody that's not goingto smoke it. But weddings, we
do a lot of weddings, soRalph, so you have so many different

(09:43):
companies now that are selling cigars onlineversus where you're just a standalone Is there
a difference between the online sales andwhat I buy in your store? We
offer freshness, we get new productin all the time. We offer customer
service. You come here, youfeel like fami right conversation. Yeah,
that's what we offer. Catalog correct, you order, you call on a
phone or your place online. Youdon't get to speak to no but no

(10:05):
interaction with the humans. You couldalways get a good limitation. Yet,
I think that that's what's great abouta cigar store. Right, You're gonna
get great jokes. It's like beingon the golf course. You get those
quick one liners. You know.It's just it's Oh, there's always a
place that makes you feel at home. All right. So there you go.
If you're looking for a cigar loungeto go to, well, Garret

(10:26):
and I We're gonna tell you whereto go. It's at Lighthouse Cigars one
and two. You can go toHazlet, New Jersey on Route thirty six,
or you can come right here tomart to Morganville right here on Root
nine and they're always gonna take careof you. I mean, this is
like you said, it's like alike a bar, but without the alcohol.
Are you gonna cry? I dolike it here. You're about to
cry. I do. It iskind of nice being here though, Thanks

(10:48):
for having me