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Camaraderie Up In (Cigar) Smoke at Monte’s
“It’s the best kept secret in Albuquerque,” says Ron, a retired Albuquerque Police Department captain, who currently works as an inventory specialist at Monte’s Pueblo Pipe Shop http://www.montescigarshop.com/, located at 3636 San Mateo Blvd. NE, a block north of Comanche on the corner of San Mateo and Palo Duro Ave. NE, in Albuquerque, NM.
Recently, I had an opportunity to visit with the owner, Larry Monte Jr., and his son, Matthew Monte, who is the store’s manager. They treated me like royalty and in that one meeting I understood just why Monte’s is a leader in the industry and as a business model continues to thrive even in a skittish economy.
Larry and Matthew
A cigar/pipe shop that was started in 1976 by Matthew’s granddad, Larry, Sr., this three-generation family-run business has been superbly serving customers for over three decades. It’s a sybaritic setting that one enters through the glass/wood front door, with Monte’s, printed in gold letters. A part-time cigar smoker myself, I was greeted promptly by Ed, who mans the cash register, smoking a stogie. You learn quickly about his sense of humor when he says to Paul, another Monte’s employee, that his “beauty is exceeded only by your choice of fine cigars.”
Ed
It’s a surprisingly unpretentious place, where all are welcome. Of course you must be 18 or older to indulge in their collection of over 200,000 cigars (which includes 3,000 different facings: sizes and brands) that are kept in a 1,200 square foot humidor, which is just a part of the cigar/pipe shop that has a spacious selling floor stocked with a plethora of elegant pipes and flavorfully fresh pipe tobaccos (I will be trying a pipe full of their crème brulee, which in its 1.5 oz. package smells unbelievable!), along with high end, natural cigarettes and a variety of other smoking paraphernalia. There’s also the two-story La Gloria Cubana Cigar Club, which is accessed with an electronic key held by its current 76 members, who pay $480 a year to belong. I’m told by Larry that you can enjoy the club for a daily fee of $5.
It becomes quickly apparent to this reporter that Monte’s cigar club is a cigar smoker’s paradise where cigar culture is cultivated.
On any given day (The store/humidor is open 8:30a-6:30p seven days a week, and the cigar club is open 9a-9p every day, except for Wednesdays when Matthew informs me that the club is open from 9a-6p so that they can do extensive cleaning in the evening.) you will probably meet man’s best friend, Trooper, Matthew’s 11-year old black lab, who likes to take naps, sprawled out in various places on the selling floor. Or he might greet you, acting just as friendly as the Montes or their employees. There are seven cigar enthusiasts (aka employees) waiting to serve you at Monte’s, including Larry’s wife, Jean, who handles the tobacco room. “You’ll know it’s her room,” says her son, Matthew with a smile.
The Montes weren’t always at their present luxurious location, which opened its doors to customers in January 2009. Prior to that, the store and separate cigar club were located in a strip mall, Encantada Square, on Louisiana and Menaul.
A New Mexico Business Weekly article http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2009/07/20/story6.html, dated July 19, 2009, praised Larry’s gutsy relocation of the family business to the bigger (4,900 square feet) location on San Mateo Blvd. NE. Charles Rempel, owner of Charles Pianos, is quoted as saying, “They took a building that was a total dump, and now it’s this nice little spot where you can go and smoke and relax and get away from the pressures of everyday life. I think Larry has made a good move.”
On this fourth Thursday afternoon in March, I meet Larry, who is much taller than my 5’11”; he’s just lit up a factory second cigar named Flor de Oliva. When I tell him how impressed I am with the reception I received walking through the front door, he responds by saying, “We’re one big family here.” And it’s a consistent kind of family feeling you experience every time you visit Monte’s. I was there the week before, with my wife, Alicia, to redeem a coupon for a free La Gloria Cubana Serie N cigar that’s part of a virtual world-wide smoke promotion being held by La Gloria Cubana Company on Friday, March 25. Both times I stepped into the quiet store off the busy street outside, I felt as if I’d found an oasis in the desert where life slows down dramatically (No road runners here!) to a by-gone time, before technology (cell phones and internet) overwhelmed us, when people truly knew how to unwind.
Larry smoking a fine cigar.
Larry takes me into the humidor, the biggest in the entire southwest, including New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and even Nevada (including Las Vegas)! It’s not long before I meet Ron and Paul, who’s also a retired APD police officer. They are in the Cave, a room off of the humidor where Ron, aka Big Bear, is on a computer screen ordering cigars for the store. Both men are happily smoking cigars. Ron tells me his favorite cigar is an Avo, which is $16 a stick.
I can’t decide who’s more gregarious Larry, Ron, or Paul. Maybe they should conduct a contest among their many faithful customers. While Larry is helping a customer, Paul begins to show me some of the very fresh cigar stock that Monte’s has housed in the humidor. He prefers smoking a Cabaiquan cigar and tells me that “there is nothing in life that a little cigar smoke can’t fix.” He points out that Monte’s caters to all cigar smokers. “We have cigars that sell from $2.50 to $99 a stick.” (For those readers who are not in the know, a cigar is also called a stick.) While touring the aisles of Monte’s humidor, that’s bigger than my two-bedroom apartment in downtown Albuquerque, he adds, “Prices are not indicative of the quality. Quality is in your own palate.”
Matthew comes into the humidor at this point and I ask him to make a suggestion for a cigar I might enjoy. He chooses a Hoya de Monterey Excalibur ($6.90 a stick) for me. “I think you’ll enjoy this one,” he says, telling me that his choice of cigar is a Winston Churchill Blenheim ($22.70 a stick). It’s up front in the humidor along with the $99 Partagas Signatuer Series 150 (only 10,000 of them were made), which his dad says he’s smoked recently for a special occasion. Generally Larry’s favorite cigar is a Padron Series 1926 No.9, which sells for $18.80 a stick.
Paul
While we’re talking about cigars, it’s obvious that this father and son team love smoking cigars and that passion is translated into great customer care. While I’m a visitor in their cigar shop, they never make me feel as if I’m an amateur because I readily admit I’m a sometimes cigar smoker. They treat me with the same degree of reverence as a cigar connoisseur.
Back in the storefront, Larry even explains the difference between cigar cutters (punch, guillotine and v-cut). With the kind of personalized service that has made Monte’s so successful here in Albuquerque, the owner of this establishment uses a punch cutter to prepare my Hoya de Monterey Excalibur for smoking. He is so self-effacing and humble in his service to his customers that one forgets he is the proprietor of this place.
One satisfied customer claims, “This is the best cigar club in the southwest hands down. Drop in and say hello to the wonderfully friendly staff and the upstanding family who have owned Monte’s for more than 30 years!”
Both father and son take time out from mingling with customers and the three of us sit for an interview in one of the cozy private meeting rooms downstairs in the club. (Upstairs is a large room with comfortable chairs, tables and a big screen TV, and also a small humidor with lockers for members.) Larry and Matthew sit on a black leather sofa across from me; I’m sitting in an elegant wood and leather chair. The room has subdued lighting and framed originals of local artwork, along with framed tobacco leaves and a print of pipes. I wish all interviews could be conducted this way.
I light up my Hoya de Monterey Excalibur and take a few delicious puffs before asking Larry and Matthew about their work chemistry and how that contributes to the success of their cigar/pipe empire here in Albuquerque.
“He does the talking and I do the walking,” says Matthew succinctly. He’s been working as Monte’s manager for two years now and is quick on the draw, helping one customer after the next, while keeping the shop well stocked. Prior to joining his dad in business, he was working for Spirit Halloween in Austin, TX. In December 2008, he came to visit his family for Christmas. That’s when Larry “asked me to stay, so I went back to Austin, packed and was in Albuquerque within a few days.”
Ron
By comparison, Larry, who bought the cigar shop from his father in 2007, has been working here for eight years. Larry Sr. ran the cigar shop from 1976 until July 2007, when he passed away. Larry Jr. bought the cigar shop in 2003. Previously he was working as a police officer and then an executive in the insurance business in Texas.
Larry points out that none of the employees of Monte’s “smoke cigarettes. We like our cigars because they have no additives. Cigarettes have lots of chemicals.” He goes on to explain that “there’s a lot of misinformation out there,” mentioning a soon-to-be-concluded study in Europe that’s university-affiliated which was originally designed to “trash cigar smoking, and they’re actually finding more benefits from cigar smoking.” Remunerations include relaxation leading to lower blood pressure, improved mental health and even weight control. Larry reinforces this research by talking about their “best clients being doctors, including cancer specialists, who look forward to a relaxing cigar smoke after a long workday.”
According to cancer.org, "The health risks linked to occasional cigar smoking (less than daily) are not known". One can only conclude that the health of most people will not be meaningfully impacted by smoking one or two cigars per week, especially since there is no current proof to the contrary. That said, the ultimate decision about how much to smoke, if at all, is your own. Moderation, as with anything else, is the key.
When I ask about attempts by politicians to legislate a ban on all smoking throughout Albuquerque, Larry, who’s dressed in a white and blue striped short-sleeve knit shirt, says that their club has been grandfathered in, which currently gives it protection from any new anti-smoking laws that might appear on the books. Three years ago he worked with New Mexico legislature and he says that help from certain key people shifted things to a pro-smoking stance against the government. “I even debated on Channel 4 Eye on New Mexico,” Larry claims proudly.
Larry, who is respectful of the non-smoking public, says a lot of people are “outraged by government wanting to overstep its boundaries.” In the next puff of his cigar, he mentions Michael Cadigan, who back in October 2002, as city councilor, introduced a bill that would prevent smoking in all public places throughout Albuquerque. On Larry’s side at the time was Councilor Tina Cummins, who said, “It's a business-owner rights issue, and it's also an intelligent-consumer issue. I'm the most intense advocate for non-smoking, but I would never allow government to be so large to prohibit that."
In March 2003, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez signed into law an ordinance that would prohibit smoking in certain Albuquerque business establishments. At that time, Montes was still in the Encantada Mall, where other tenants complained about the smoke smell, and fire marshals began ticketing customers who walked out of Monte’s with lit cigars. It was back when cigar club members had to walk half a block from the retail store to the club.
Anecdotally speaking, Matthew remembers the time a customer came into Monte’s with a friend, who was anti-smoking. “This man came into the store and was upset. He was saying, ‘How can you sell cigars and sleep at night, knowing that you are selling cancer?’ After I explained to him how safe cigars were to smoke, he ended up purchasing a cigar for himself.”
Larry, who is 55 years young, informs me that he has traveled on cigar business to the Dominican Republic and Honduras (home of Rocky Patel cigars). He takes another puff from his Flor di Oliva and happily proclaims, “I believe a cigar every evening helps to keep people alive today.” He elucidates, professing a certain mystique surrounding cigar smoking. “There’s a certain romance tied to a cigar, and it naturally allows you to slow down and relax.” So, it becomes a double win for those who indulge: a class act accompanied by an antidote to the fast pace of modern life.
Ed, Larry, and Matthew
His 28-year old son, dressed neatly in a pressed blue button down shirt with the Monte’s name on it, concurs, adding, “Cigar smoking is like a mini vacation.”
I ask Matthew, who has his left leg casually folded across his right knee, if it’s exclusively a man’s domain here at Monte’s. He tells me that there are “a few women who enjoy cigar smoking at our club.”
When I query if any celebrities belong to Monte’s La Gloria Cubana Cigar Club, both Larry and Matthew are suddenly reticent. I realize it’s a matter of privacy regarding their clientele, which includes a cross-section of society’s workers, from doctors to ditch diggers. Smoking cigars cuts across class and career classifications. Says Larry: “On any Friday afternoon there is a lot of camaraderie with cigars here at this club.”
Adds Matthew: “Blue collar, white collar, democrats and republicans all enjoy cigar smoking here.” In Monte’s cigar club, where clients bring their own alcohol to drink, Larry says, “Guys come into escape the mundane pace. Most have a smile on their face once they’ve been here a while.”
When I ask Larry and Matthew, who make it a point to get together for family Sunday dinners, how it is to work together, Larry, who’s originally from Beaumont, TX, pipes up, “I get in Matthew’s way.” The two laugh. There is an obvious connection between this father and son. “Someday I’d like to see Matthew take over the business,” Larry continues. “But not just yet. I’m not ready to retire!”
As a dedicated manager, Matthew says, “I’m the first one here in the morning at 8:30 and am here until the cigar shop closes at 6:30.” (The cigar club stays open until 9 pm, except on Wednesdays.)
While Larry is looking at the positive side of the continuing embargo on Cuban cigars, which has “resulted in the increase in quantity and quality of cigars using Cuban seed worldwide,” he also educates me saying that it takes “three hundred sets of hands to create a cigar. That’s from planting the seed to your mouth. It’s harvested by hand, with one plant taking up to three weeks to harvest. It’s an unusual crop.”
I mention when Alicia and I were living/working in Costa Rica and visited the San Jose headquarters for Don Benigno Cigars www.benignocigars.com/cigar, we got to watch an experienced cigar roller at work, creating a superb smoke. Larry’s been looking for a qualified cigar roller and would like to have one working at his shop someday.
Monte’s serves fresh coffee, bought from Michael Thomas, a local roaster on Carlisle, north of Gibson. “I like that the owner imports his own coffee beans,” says Larry, who is no stranger to the import business, buying his cigars from around the world. It continues to be a relaxing interview, especially when Matthew offers me a cup of coffee to go with my cigar. He comes back with a hot cup of Sumatra blend coffee, with sugar, and after one sip and another puff of my cigar I realize I’m in heaven.
Speaking of which, the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is reported to have smoked at least 22 cigars a day, maybe as many as 40. Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clemens, once said, "If smoking is not allowed in heaven, I shall not go."
While enjoying my cup of Joe, Larry, the attentive host, generously offers me another, sweeter cigar, an A. Fuente Gran Reserva, to smoke. I could get used to this imperial treatment.
Besides the cigar business, both father and son are involved in community causes. Larry mentions Monte’s involvement with Juvenile Diabetes and the Police Athletic League. They even have a special connection with the veterans, shipping cigars to soldiers serving on foreign soil. Their patriotism is apparent in the shop, where US flags and letters from service men, including one from a three star marine general, hang in frames for all customers to see.
In talking about cigars, Larry mentions that prices have held steady and that the average customer will smoke five cigars a week. (When he and Ed are hunting “anything we can get a permit for, especially fishing, I’ll smoke more than three cigars in one day!”) I tell him that I subscribe to Cigar Aficionado and he frowns, saying it’s a “bit elitist.” Larry contends a better cigar publication is Cigar Insider or Cigar Smoker.
In keeping with the egalitarian approach at Monte’s Pueblo Pipe Shop, Larry claims, “Everyone who walks through our door is important.”
On a recent episode of CBS Sunday Morning (3/27/11), the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz said, “We’re not in the coffee business serving people; we’re in the people business serving coffee.”
The same might be said of Larry and Matthew Monte’s fine cigar and pipe shop/club in Albuquerque, NM. They’re in the people business first and foremost, earning each customer’s respect one puff at a time.
Writer: Joseph A. Haviland
Editor: Alicia Frank Haviland
Copyright 2012