A new lounge for cigar smokers to hang out and unwind opens April 4 in the Quail Valley shopping center at 6801 St. Andrews Rd. The lounge will have a three-day grand opening celebration in the former dry cleaner spot that has been totally revamped, according to one of its owners, Izzy Landau.

During the grand opening celebration, Landau says they plan to have a couple of organizations out at some point during the three days. Cigars for Warriors is one nonprofit that will be out Saturday and they donate cigars to those serving in the military overseas. Smoke and Shields is another organization that will be out at some point.

The lounge will be open seven days a week with opening hours being between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. If there’s a special event or sports broadcasting, hours may differ. 

Landau says the lounge will also offer live jazz on occasions and has seating to accommodate about 24 people. The seating arrangements include tables and chairs along with leather chairs embroidered with the Smoke Break emblem. 

“Some people just want a break,” said Landau, explaining this offers people a place to come after work to hang out or people can come and work utilizing the Wi-Fi available at the lounge. There are also televisions inside the lounge. 

Another one of the owners, Jeff Hensley, said the four owners talked about the atmosphere they wanted to create.

Hensley also pointed out their logo, which is a clock with no hands and underneath the clock it has the phrase “break in time,” which he says his wife discovered so they went with it. The logo goes with their created atmosphere allowing people a place to hang and not worry about time. 

In addition to Landau and Hensley, the other two owners are Tim Woods and Dave Weissman. All four guys are cigar smokers with similar backgrounds who met smoking cigars a little over a year ago. The guys decided after hanging and talking to open up their own lounge giving cigar smokers – both men and women – what they wanted. 

“We’re all [cigar] smokers and came up with a master list and traveled around the state. We drove to check out what the people like,” Landau said. 

Their backgrounds also united them with Landau being a retired firefighter, Jeff being a retired emergency responder and Woods being deputy. Currently, they all work day jobs elsewhere so the lounge is a side hustle. 

Another aspect the guys looked into when starting the lounge was air quality inside the lounge. 

“One of the biggest complaints is the smoke stays on the clothes,” says Landau, adding sometimes the smoke layers in places. 

So, the guys went above and beyond and have two smoke eaters, air purifier and a negative pressure exhaust system. Landau says the whole space will exchange air and get fresh air every six minutes. He adds they really invested money in the ventilation system because it’s important to them and everyone they talked with. 

Other aspects of their lounge include a walk-in humidor with an assortment of cigars and a labeling system allowing people, especially new cigar smokers, to see the strength of the cigar. They also include flavored cigars. They also have personal humidor lockers for people to purchase, cigars to take home with humidor bags to keep fresh for a little while and a mini bar with non-alcoholic beverages only.