Coming from Fresno, I was hoping to find a cigar lounge or cigar bar like they have up there. What I am coming to realize is that a good cigar lounge is hard to find in San Diego, let alone Coronado. Maybe I’ll be hit the lottery and start one myself, but until that fateful day I will have to make do with what we have.
First, let me show you what I’m looking for in a Cigar Lounge, Cigars Limited.
This place is upscale, open late and very friendly. The cigar selection is outstanding and the owner organizes trips to cigar plantations, restaurants, and has even had Rocky Patel cook dinner at his house for guests lucky enough to get an invite! There is a restaurant next door that he gets a conditional liquor license with, and has their servers come over and serve drinks and appetizers. He’s even been known to give out samples of good Rum like Zacapa. There’s always an event on the calendar with cigar tastings and deals, poker tournaments, dinners, and cigar education. His shop is truly the only thing I miss about Fresno, and I really do contemplate going back for a visit.There are a couple of places in San Diego that are nice, such as the Cuban Cigar Factory in the Gaslamp, and Churchill’s in Old Town.
That being said, what are our options in Coronado for buying cigars and nice Bourbons and Tennessee Whiskeys? I tried to do what I figure most people would do, Google cigars in Coronado and the hit the street! First up, I decided to hit the Liquor Stores and see what kind of selections they have. Since I needed to find whiskeys to pair with my cigars, this was a great way to get two birds with one stone.
Park Place Liquor on the Corner of Park Place and Isabella is my number one place in Coronado to get decent cigars. Their humidor is small, but is absolutely packed with good cigars. It’s the only place on the Island that I found Fuente Opus X cigars, as well as a g
ood selection of La Gloria Cubana Serie R, Perdomo’s, Ashton’s, Cohiba, and Romeo and Julieta’s. The cigars were reasonably priced with the Opus X’s being $20.99. Given the Cigar Tax in CA, that’s not too bad. The humidor was slightly ajar when I walked in, but the readings were a perfect 70/70 inside.
Mind you, these aren’t the best pictures, but there is a magazine stand right next to the cigars which makes it very hard to stand in front of the display. I think you can get the general gist of what is inside the case, but it is not a very big humidor. I would estimate it to be 84″ High, by 48″ wide. I will give them props for having a wide selection of cigars, as the other places I found in Coronado seemed to have the same buyer for their cigars.
While I was there, I also found a pretty impressive selection of Bourbons as well. 
It’s a little hard to see, but they have a full selection of Pappy Van Winkle Whiskeys! For those of you that are Pappy’s fans, they have the 12 year, 20 year, and the almost impossible to find 23 yr, just sitting there on the shelf. Of course, the 20 year will set you back $129, and the 23 year is a whopping $249 but at least they have it!
While I’m also impressed that they have the George T. Stagg for $99, I wouldn’t buy it because they have it sitting in the sun on the top shelf.They also have a wide selection of standard Bourbons and Tennessee Whiskeys such as Makers Mark, Jack Daniels, Bookers, Baker’s, etc. Plus a good selection of craft beer is located just a couple of aisles over.
The guys working the counter are friendly, and it’s tough to beat their location. If you need a cigar and you’re sitting over at McP’s, this is the place to go.
Avenue Liquor on 9th and Orange is one of my favorite places in town. I usually take my daughter here for ice cream treats if she’s had a good week at school (long story). She refers to this place as the “Pirate Store” due to the large Captain Morgan statue outside, she’ll even do the pose when I ask her where she wants to go (she’s her mother’s daughter). The clerks are really friendly as well.
Again this is a very small humidor in a liquor store, but does have a couple decent cigars with the Rock Patel’s, Fuentes, and CAO. They are also the only shop that I found a Gurkha cigar in.
One recurring theme that I have noticed in all the cigar shops is that they have the non-Cuban versions of Cuban based brands. Monte Cristo’s, Cohiba’s, Partagas, and Romeo and Julieta’s. While these cigars try to be like their Cuban counter-parts they are grown in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. They just don’t have the same flavor profile to me. It’s like drinking a German beer made in the US, ie. Lowenbrau. It’s just not the same.
For those of you that like a flavored cigar, they have a couple of different options with the Acid brand. I’m not a big flavored cigar fan but my wife certainly digs them.Their prices are pretty standard, and the humidor is in good condition.
As for the Whiskey selection, they are top notch. Ok, so they don’t have the 23 year Pappy Van Winkle, but they have the 20 year. When Makers Mark came out with their “46” version of the famous Bourbon, I knew that I could come here to get it. I also got the new Single Barrel Knob Creek here.
They have a couple of the W.L. Weller whiskeys here that I have never seen in a store, and they have the entire Jim Beam Small Batch Collection. This includes one of my favorite sipping whiskeys, Booker’s.
To give you an idea of how much I like that whiskey, all you have to do is guess the name of my only son (that’d be Booker).
I’m not a huge Scotch fan, but there are a lot of people who are, and this would be a great place to find a good Scotch as well. They pretty much have any Scotch starting with Glen, and a bunch that don’t.
Next week I’ll be talking about a couple of other places on the island to get cigars including the only cigar lounge in town! I’ll give you two guesses about which store I’m talking about…
Bill
