The Road To Texas – Local Cigars

Well folks, after Pennsylvania, we headed down the road to Texas. We were looking forward to getting back home and some local cigars.

While I don’t spend a lot of time in Texas, I do call it home and enjoy coming down and visiting with the kids, not to mention the milder climate during the winter months.

While anxious to get here, we are never in too much of a hurry to stop for a cigar adventure and we did just that in Vicksburg Mississippi!

River City Cigars

We found a nice campground in Vicksburg, Ms, called Battleground Campground and we decided to stop for a couple day to rest up and get some laundry done.

So of course I started looking around for a cigar bar and found River City cigars where we met the proprietor Mark Smith who was a defensive tackle and played college ball for Auburn and was drafted in the 7th round by the Arizona Cardinals in 1997.

He is also a lover of fine premium cigars.

River City had a nice selection of boutique cigars as well as some name brands like Perdomo, Acid and Montecristo to choose from in their wall humidors.

We went in on a week night and their was a pretty decent crowd gathered, I believe there was a game on!

Back In Texas

That was it for cigar adventures on the road and we settled in down here in Castroville, TX. We had planned on going to Arizona, but I had some VA things to take care of and a lot of work to do on my bike, and we just have run out of time to go that far west, especially since our next job will be in Monroe, MI.

Oh yeah, Deb will be working her first Nuke job! She’s real excited!

So of course, since we are back in San Antonio, I have been visiting Finks Cigars quite a bit. I keep meaning to get up there on a Thursday as that’s when the Bike riders hang out, maybe tomorrow, only supposed to be in the 60’s (that’s cold for Texans).

Tabak Haus

One fine cigar adventure we have had while here is at the Tabak Haus in Fredricksburg.

Son was playing some gigs up there and told us about this cigar bar he saw on the way into town.

We got there too late the first time we went up, but the next time, I made sure we had plenty of time to visit.

Fredricksburg is a plethora of small shops comprising several city blocks and the Tabak Haus is no exception, sitting at the end of a little strip of 3 stores, one of which is an ice cream place and a coffee place that might both be the same owners, Deb says they are called Twisted Sister.

We haven’t checked them out yet, but will make the effort to do so on our next visit.

As we stepped onto the concrete patio outside of Tabak Haus, we first encounter and 8′ tall wooden Indian, then as we go inside we find a comfortable looking lounge with 100 year old Welsh pub chairs.

I went over and introduced myself to Bob Kreipe, who is the owner and proprietor of Tabak Haus. We hit it off right away and talked for several minutes about cigars and the history of Tabak Haus, then Bob got a little busy with customers and I made my escape to the humidor.

While the humidor is not real big, they do carry a nice selection of cigars, including the big names like Fuente, Perdomo, Leaf by Oscar and Kristoff, he also tries to keep a nice selection of boutique sticks by Texas manufacturer such as Roma Craft, Southern Draw and Micalles, out of Dallas.

I’m sure that I purchased more cigars than my budget comfortably allows for, but on my second trip to the shop, Bob turned me on to a Kristoff Corojo that I really liked and look forward to purchasing the next time I’m up that way.

I have recently become enthralled with the Kristoff Criollo, the Criollo leaf being one of my favorites and I think that I purchased a sampler pack which included the Criollo.

As I mentioned, we have been in there twice and to Bobs credit, he inquired as to the condition of the bike the last time in.

I haven’t made the ride up on the bike, since it’s about 100 miles each way and between the bikes dependability issues and the fact that it gets pretty cold at night and even colder up north.

I will endeavor to get up there on the bike soon, probably this week end.

Tabak Haus delivers a full bar experience with a premium assortment of Bourbon, Scotch Whisky, and other fine spirits. Drink them neat with your favorite smoke or add ice and mixers to suit. Or choose from one of our hand-picked Texas and international wines, beers, and ports.
Stop in for a current list of Tabak Haus beverages.

War Fighters Tobacco

We also had the opportunity to revisit our friends at War Fighter Tobacco and see how things are going with them.

I have been up there twice, the first time when Deb had to take her truck into a diesel shop up that way and the second time two days ago, when temps soared into the 80’s and I just had to ride.

As you know, Cigar Pals, is a guy who rides around on motorcycle seeking out cigar adventures and then writes about them.

I always feel like I’m slack if I don’t show up for these adventures on the bike, and was very pleased to arrive on my scoot for the second trip up.

On the first visit I had talked to Scot about a couple cigars. I recommended Steve Saka’s Sin Compromiso and we talked about JC Newmans American, which at the time neither of us had had the opportunity to try out.

So between visits, I was able to locate some of the American, so when I rode out to the shop, I also took a couple Sin Compromiso’s for Scott and Jon.

Well the first trip up, they were getting ready to go to Vegas for a show. While they were in Vegas they met with Drew Newman and got hold of some Americans, (by the way, they mentioned me to Drew and he remembered me from last year when we were extended a personnel tour of JC Newman) so they had the opportunity to try them out, so when I got there and presented them with the two cigars, they opted for the Sin Compromiso.

I had a War Fighter Victory with me and opted to smoke that. So we lit up and sat around talking cigars, politics and motorcycles.

Always a pleasure to visit War Fighters and lest I forget, it also really cool to visit with Jon’s dog Keera!

And The Adventure Continues

While I have not been keeping up with the blog, we continue to have cigar adventures.

Coming up, I will be reviewing the Cigar Aficionado cigar of the year The Aging Room Quatro as well as the JC Newman American.

I will also be revamping Cigar Pals, with more concise and informative Cigar Reviews. The into music for videos will be performed by me. We will also be letting you know where we are smoking this week.

These are a couple of the changes we will be making. I also encourage you to let me know if there is something you would like to see on Cigar Pals.

I hope you have enjoyed The Road To Texas – Local Cigars

Until next time Light em up and burn em down!