Ode To The Cigar
CIGARS AND KEN ARETSKY go way back, long before he opened Aretsky’s Patroon in 1996. The smoking tradition carries on there to this day, as well as on rivers, streams and manicured greens—Aretsky being an equally passionate puffer, angler and putter. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though.
Aretsky, the natty proprietor emeritus of Patroon, has been called “one of New York’s most accomplished restaurateurs of the last 30 years” (blogger Steve Green), “the last of the great Gotham restaurateurs (Wm Brown’s Matt Hranek), “the last front-of-house man” (David Coggins, in Air Mail) and “a great American saloonkeeper” (David Halberstam, Vanity Fair). That’s a lot of lauding. And while he’s far better known for his decades of culinary undertakings, to a select group of others he’s especially notable for his efforts as a staunch defender of the cocktail-hour cigar and traditional postprandial puro—rituals observed atop Aretsky’s Patroon, on its rooftop bar. For that, a hardy round of applauds—perhaps even a standing ovation.
The chronicles of Aretsky’s cigar exploits began in the premiere issue of Cigar Aficionado (autumn 1992), in which the magazine’s former executive editor, Gordon Mott, wrote about the 21 Club, whose domain Ken surveyed as its then-president and general manager. “The 21 Club sets itself apart from most other American restaurants with its liberal policy toward cigar smokers,” Mott wrote. “In the smoking section of the bar dining room, cigar smokers may light up at their tables.”
A few years after Mott’s piece, David Shaw, a three-time Pulitzer-winning journalist and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, interviewed Aretsky, who famously noted, “If someone in the smoking area complains about a customer smoking a cigar, we move the complainer, not the smoker.” Ken has repeated this sentiment over the years; it’s notable for exemplifying just how ingrained and revered the 21 cigar culture—which has become the Patroon cigar culture as well—is to Aretsky and his loyal clientele.
The 21 Club was one of New York’s truly legendary social and culinary institutions, a perennial celebrity hotspot where even the fictitiously famous—notably James Bond, who dined there in Diamonds Are Forever—held court for precisely 90 years, 1930 to 2020. (Curiously, the very same years that the New York cigar landmark Nat Sherman, “Tobacconist to the World,” opened and closed its doors.)
With a distinct cigar culture that catered to a discerning clientele, the 21 Club was known for its lenient cigar policy, private-label (Cuban) cigars and a dedicated smoking section where patrons could enjoy their puros in peace. So committed to the pleasures of dark, oily, hand-rolled Havana leaf were 21 founders/owners/cousins Jack Kriendler and Charlie Berns that they acquired a substantial cache of cigars (a rumored 750,000 of them, or 30,000 boxes) for its best customers in 1962, just before the U.S. blockade of Cuba and embargo of Cuban-made goods took effect. (Rumors of the embargo had swirled for months; few had the foresight to act upon it, but the 21 proprietors did.) Infamously, Jack Kennedy engaged in a similar ploy on February 5, 1962, when he had his press secretary and fellow cigar enthusiast Pierre Salinger round up 1,200 H. Upmann Petit Coronas from all the Washington, D.C., cigar merchants he could contact. It was the president’s favorite smoke, and the embargo went into effect the next day.
Prior to his departure from 21, Aretsky discovered a reserve of pre-Revolution Havana Hoyo de Monterrey, Punch and Belinda cigars, and today in the Humidor Room, an intimate Spanish cedar–lined private dining space on Patroon’s second floor, you’ll find nostalgic memorabilia redolent of 21’s cigar culture, including displays of remarkably well-preserved “Jack & Charlie’s ‘21’ Exclusive Havana Selección” cigars under glass—a visual menu of the classic smokes once offered at 21.
Ken’s stylish son, Eugene, Patroon’s second generation proprietor, now carries on not just a family tradition but a grand 95-year-old cigar praxis set forth by Kriendler and Berns on the rooftop bar of Aretsky’s Patroon. This aerie is a Manhattan cigar sanctuary home to a regularly stocked humidor with a fine selection of premium Dominican and Nicaraguan puros, private cigar “keeps” (secure locked baskets in a glass-walled temperature- and humidity-controlled walk-in humidor room) for Patroon’s best cigar-loving clientele, and a dedicated smoking area. Making the Rooftop Bar have sophisticated atmosphere that makes for an unforgettable New York experience.
Next month, on October 7, Aretsky’s Patroon will host its first Cognac & Cigar Pairing Dinner, a sumptuous three-course gastronomic exploration both Ken and Eugene hope will become something of an annual autumn tradition. The cohost is author Aaron Sigmond, a cigar doyen who has penned five books on the subject; he’ll be debuting his all-new limited-edition Delamain SIG CIGAR XO, the first Cognac specially crafted by Maison Delamain in its more than 200-year history to be enjoyed with cigars. Charles Braastad, Delamain’s Jarnac, France–based cellar master, will jet in for the festivities, as will Switzerland-based EGM Cigars founder Ettore Moraschinelli, who will première the EMG Empyrean Paraisos, a new premium blend/series and model, in North America.