Daniel Sunmugavail’s Norman shop brings a broad cigar selection, the accessories around it and a private cigar lounge into one destination.
The most revealing detail about The Cigar Company’s lounge may be that the business suggests using it to get some work done. Meeting a client and simply relaxing belong on the same list. These are everyday uses for a room that could easily be presented only as a special-occasion retreat. They suggest a practical idea: giving cigar enthusiasts a place that fits into the life they already lead.
Owned by Daniel Sunmugavail, The Cigar Company combines a premium-cigar shop and members-only lounge in Norman, OK close to the Will Rogers Airport (OKC) . Choosing a cigar and finding a setting in which to enjoy it are closely related decisions, and the business makes room for both.
A lounge associated with a shop gives interest for a regular meeting place.
At the counter
The shop advertises a selection of more than 100 cigars. Its published brand roster includes Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, ADVentura, AVO, Camacho and Drew Estate, along with Tobacco Tactical, Deadwood and Sweet Jane. There are familiar reference points, as well as labels that might lead a customer toward a different choice.
A selection of that breadth invites browsing with a purpose. An experienced smoker can begin with a favorite and consider what to try alongside it. Someone with less experience can approach the same assortment through the occasion: a gift, a celebration or a cigar to enjoy at the end of the week. These are different kinds of shopping trips, with different questions behind them.
The retail offering extends to humidors, cigar accessories and bar accessories. That gives the shop a role beyond supplying the next cigar. It also speaks to the customer building a collection at home, preparing to host friends or choosing something for a person whose tastes are particular. A humidor, especially, is a purchase made with future cigars in mind, part of establishing a place for the interest at home.
Room to settle in
The lounge brings the experience back into the store. The company describes a setting intended for conversation and relaxation, while also making room in its description for work and client meetings. That range allows for visits with different purposes. A person can arrive with something to discuss or simply with a desire to settle in.
A lounge associated with a shop gives an interest a regular meeting place. It can accommodate the ordinary afternoon as well as the occasion marked on a calendar. The Cigar Company’s stated combination of working, meeting and unwinding places its lounge within that everyday rhythm.
Membership is available in Bronze, Gold and Platinum tiers.
The social possibilities follow naturally from the setting. A shared interest gives people an easy opening, whether the subject is a familiar cigar or something newly discovered. Conversation can stay with the tobacco or move elsewhere. In a room organized around the same activity, the cigar supplies a starting point without having to supply the entire evening.
A local address
For Whiskey Scene readers, there is a familiar sensibility here. An interest in whiskey often grows through comparison, conversation and gradually learning what suits one’s own palate. Cigar enthusiasm can follow a similar course. A local shop brings choices into view; a lounge provides a setting in which those choices can become part of an occasion shared with others.
At The Cigar Company, that connection runs through the business, from its advertised cigar range and accessories to the uses it proposes for the lounge. Sunmugavail’s Norman address gives the hobby a practical home: somewhere to make a selection, somewhere to settle in and a reason to return.
