Cigar shop owner knows where he's not wanted -- and where he IS

Once upon a time, Independence had a cigar shop and lounge.

Once upon a time, Blue Springs didn’t have a cigar shop and lounge.

Now the city, one of the last in the metro to remain smoker friendly, will see a cigar shop and lounge open its doors to what its manager hopes is a more tolerant urban climate.

“This whole experience has been tough,” Jeff Johnson, manager for The Cigar Merchant, said Friday, three days before the opening of the store on Missouri 7 in Blue Springs. “It’s been difficult to be in this type of business and not do things properly.”

That is – smoke.

Johnson is pretty well known in Independence. Early last winter, he sought from the City Council an exemption that would have allowed him and his customers to smoke inside The Cigar Merchant, located on Valley View Parkway.

Fat chance.

When Johnson sought the exemption, the city had been smoke free since March, and city leaders made it apparent they weren’t budging. At the time, Johnson, who manages the store for owners Denis and Colleen Reed, had been seeing bar and tavern owners complaining of the financial hurt their businesses were taking.

His own business was seeing much of the same.

“It wasn’t like the years previous,” he said. “We didn’t have anyone hanging out anymore, and the cigar events we had during the months after the ban... they didn’t go very well. You have to be able to smoke to have an event like that.”

So Johnson soldiered on, keeping a close eye on Blue Springs, his hometown that was at the time deciding on whether to enact a citywide ban on smoking. And the city did – but only partially, banning smoking in public places and in all restaurants. Bars, taverns, pool halls and bowling alleys were exempt.

And smoke shops, too.

Johnson bumped into Council Member Lyle Shaver one morning at church, and the invitation was out.

“He told me, you should come over to Blue Springs,” Johnson said. “We were looking at a spot in Lee’s Summit, but Blue Springs is a better fit,” he said. “Where we are now is only about five minutes from where we were in Independence.”

Located in a former title building just south of I-70 on Missouri 7, The Cigar Merchant will pick up where the former Cigar Merchant left off – that is, offering one of the largest selections of cigars in the Kansas City area.

Stepping past a sophisticated pair of outside lights, customers will enter a world of cigars, pipes and tobacco. A wide variety of cigars will be on display, and customers can step downstairs into a dimly  lit lounge area equipped with leather sofas, tables and a big screen  television – staples of the cigar smoking experience.

“It’s a place where you can come, talk, socialize, watch a game,” Johnson said. “There’s nothing else like it. All types of people come in here, from regular blue collar to white collar, urban professionals, cable repairmen.”

A cigar smoker himself, Johnson lived in Nashville, Tenn., for a number of years. He found a cigar shop there, frequenting it often, becoming good friends with the proprietor and learning the ropes.

“After that, I got into the biz and have been in it ever since.”

Devotion to the business helps, too, he admits, especially when the floor was yanked out from beneath him while operating in the city next door. The work involved in closing one shop (its last day was Sunday) and opening a new shop cost money and time.

The shop officially opens 10 a.m. Tuesday, but people can stop by today and rap on the door. Say hello. Light up a stogie. Johnson will be there. He’ll be there most days, seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“In about a month, we’ll be where we want to be,” he said as the alarm installers tested out one of the front doors.

Johnson quietly thinks about the move he’s just made from Independence to smoker-friendly Blue Springs.

“It’s a shame, really, that Independence lost a store and some revenue,” he said. “But this is a good move for us.”