The other weekend I had the opportunity to visit one of my local cigar lounges, Paradise Cigarz, in Rockledge, FL. It was their 7th anniversary event and the owner’s (Brook) birthday – so expectation was pretty high that this would be a terrific event. The event itself and was being sponsored by two of the shops best-selling brands; Yayabo Cigars and Cordoba y Morales Cigars. This is an annual event at the shop, and this year it was bigger than ever. The event started at 4PM and continued to about 9PM when the shop closed.
Diany and her husband Alex, from Yayabo Cigars,were presenting their newest introduction, the Yayabo Series 04 Admiral, along with the rest of their portfolio including an exclusive Paradise Cigarz, house cigar, from Yayabo. In addition to Yayabo, Azarias “Z” and his wife Emily from Cordoba y Morales Cigars had their full line of cigars on display. Of course the deals were great with discounts of 20% off boxes and the boxes quickly diminished as the night rolled on.
As the event rolled on, the crowd got larger and spilled onto the sidewalk seating area which was excellent for one of the highlights at the event. You see, in lieu of the standard event raffles, Brook decided to do a single raffle to support one his patrons who has had some medical issues. The raffle raised over $1,000 to support this patron and his family and 3 children and we hope they have a merry Christmas. Brook informed me that 100% of the proceeds will go to the family. This is the kind of kindness that the cigar industry offers – we take care of each other. There was just one prize and it was spectacular. It included boxes, yes boxes of cigars from both Yayabo and Cordoba y Morales Cigars along with an HC humidor and a variety of other cigar lover gifts.
The evening drew on and the main event was about to be disclosed. A table was set up and Charlie Lopez, the Marketing Manager for Yayabo Cigars, entered through the back door with a beautiful pit roasted whole pig. Charlie transported the portable pig pit all the way from Miami for this event and it was cooking all day. Besides the main course, there was ample sides to fill your belly. Yes this was a fine cigar event.
Charlie Lopez
We continued through the night enjoying the fine food, cigars, and drink. At the end, I spoke to Charlie Lopez and he told me this is the biggest anniversary event that they have had yet at Paradise Cigarz, and he’s been helping to run these parties for a number of years. You can see from the gallery below, everybody was having a swell time.
After the event, my wife and I invited the Yayabo team over to our home for breakfast the next morning. My wife made an amazing breakfast,including home-made southern style biscuits and gravy. I have to say, Alex and Diany never had this dish before and their reaction was priceless. They loved it and now maybe we can bring it to Esteli, Nicaragua. After breakfast we retreated to the Stogie Press lounge and burned a few Yayabo’s before they headed off to more shops in the Florida area.