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MI CASA ES SU CASA . . . EN LAS VEGAS! |
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 Long-awaited Casa Fuente now open at The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace
Los Angeles, June 7 – There are very few tobacco shops in the world which can be considered “destinations” for cigar lovers.
Certainly the Davidoff store at One Rue de Rive in Geneva, Switzerland is one, as is its rival, Gerard Pere et Fils in Geneva’s Noga Hilton.
Certainly the Dunhill emporium at 48 Jermyn Street in London and the nearby Davidoff, J.J. Fox and Robert Lewis and Sautters of Mayfair shops in London.
Perhaps the first Davidoff store in the U.S. at 535 Madison Avenue in New York and some of America’s great old stores like L.J. Peretti in Boston, A. Fader & Sons in Baltimore and others.
Add Casa Fuente in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
It’s the first-ever shop dedicated solely to products produced by and for the Tabacalera A. Fuente, developed by Michael and Robert Frey of FreyBoy Tobacco in Las Vegas and Robert Levin, president of Holt’s Cigar Co. in Philadelphia. The Freys and Levin are 50-50 partners in the project, licensed by the Fuente family.
Although open since late May, it celebrated a formal opening on June 6, with jazz trumpet great Arturo Sandoval and actor Andy Garcia present among other celebrities. The store reportedly cost more than $1 million to build and includes all the necessary features to make it an instant classic that will be a focal point for smokers coming to Las Vegas:
• A full bar with a vast selection of wine, cognacs and Cuban cocktails, such as the famed Mojito. The back bar was designed to mimic the back counter at Havana’s historic El Floridita.
• A smoking patio for 65 and an additional indoor smoking area to allow enthusiasts to enjoy their cigars at a leisurely pace;
• A full selection of accessories, including Fuente-branded items such as the Opus X ashtray and lighter;
• A large, walk-in humidor featuring only Fuente-made products:
> Arturo Fuente, including Arturo Fuente Gran Reserva, Añejo, Don Carlos and Hemingway;
> Ashton, including Ashton Classic, Aged Maduro Selection, Cabinet Selection, Heritage Puro Sol and Virgin Sun Grown;
> Bauza;
> Cuesta-Rey Centro Fino Sungrown;
> Diamond Crown and Diamond Crown Maximus;
> Fuente Fuente Opus X;
> La Unica;
> Montesino and Montesino Sun Grown, and
> Sosa, including the Sosa Exclusive Series and Super Selection.
The prohibition on any non-Fuente-made cigars is complete and the partner’s own non-Fuente brands such as FreyBoy Tobacco’s Sweet Daddies and Holt’s La Aroma de Cuba were not allowed to be sold in the store.
Even so, it’s the only place in America where you can actually stand in front of stacks of boxes of the rarely-seen Opus X. “It’s the most beautiful humidor in America,” said Michael Frey.
You can buy your cigars right there and take them with you, but there is no mail-order or telephone sales. You must buy in the store.
In addition to the wide selection of well-known Fuente-made brands, there’s an exclusive cigar to the store, the aptly-named “Casa Fuente,” featuring a very old Cameroon wrapper and Fuente-grown binder and filler leaves from the Dominican Republic in four sizes.
In addition to paying more rent than any cigar store in America, a portion of the proceeds from sales of the Casa Fuente and other rare cigars will be donated to the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation. This joint project of the Fuente and Newman families supports the construction and operation of charitable programs in the Dominican Republic, including a school with a medical facility, adult training center, youth recreational facility and more on a 23-acre complex. Frey estimated that annual contributions to the Foundation would top $100,000 a year.
The Casa Fuente is open from 10 a.m. to midnight every day at The Forum Shops, one of the most spectacular shopping malls on the planet. For more details, you can call the Casa Fuente at (702) 731-5051.
Coming Monday: Cigars you can buy at the Casa Fuente and absolutely, positively, nowhere else.
~ Rich Perelman
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