Saturday at the Hut - 3/30/13

Although everyone wasn't there at once, we had a nice crowd at The Tobacco Hut on Saturday. The first batch of Hutters were there first thing in the morning: Lou, Joe K, Rob, Don, Pete (of course), and myself. Later Steve B, Ed F, and Laurie arrived in the afternoon. It's not like there's a time clock or anything, but there was definitely a morning shift and an afternoon shift. And, naturally, if you listened to Joe, we  have no idea what time it is in the store anyway since I spirited the clock away several months ago.

The humidors are growing. Well, not the humidors themselves, but what's inside. Pete has been actively increasing the inventory and it shows! It's not quite to the level where he wants, but there's plenty of selection and depth now - enough to please most everyone.

We pipe smokers have reason to be happy as well. There's a full rack of Peterson pipes and then some, and four new tobaccos. More pipes are on the way and Pete and I are working on putting together a "Pipe Night" event. More info to come on that.

Maybe Kramer will show up at our upcoming Pipe Night!
(more info to come).

Pete kindly gave me free range to "invent" one of the new tobaccos. I took the existing Baker Street tobacco, which consists of Virginia and Latakia and I messed around with the ratios a bit and added a bit of Perique. The new blend borders on being a Balkan-type tobacco and is quite tasty. The best part, I think, is its name. In honor of our friend, Lou, we named it Searchlight. I think he approved.

There is an English-aromatic crossover tobacco called Spitfire which contains Virginia, Burley, Oriental and a bit of Cavendish. There is also a whiskey-flavored tobacco which is called 19th Hole.

For the fourth new tobacco, Pete needs your help in naming it. It's a fruity, tropical tobacco, very aromatic with a very nice room note. We thought it would be fun to have a contest to name the tobacco. Take a sniff of the new blend, light up a bowl of it if you're a pipe smoker, and come up with a fun name for the tobacco. If your suggestion is used, you'll win a pound of tobacco or the equivalent value ($62) in a new pipe, or cigars! So even if you're not a pipe smoker, you can still have fun with it and have a chance to win some cigars! There are entry forms at the store and the contest is good through April 30. If you're not able to make it into the store before the end of the month and still want to participate, leave a comment on this blog post with your email address (so we can add you to the mailing list) and you could still win!

I think Saturday actually had more pipe smokers in than cigar smokers, especially if you count Rob who is considering switching over to a pipe in the next week or so. Also, a shout out to my friend Alex from the Times who came in a few weeks ago and smoked his pipe. Nice to see the ranks of the pipe smokers growing.

I have developed and am managing the new Facebook page for the Hut. So if you're on FB, head on over to the page by clicking here and "Like" the page. Why should you like the page? Besides continuing the conversation at the Hut and connecting with friends and making new ones, you'll receive weekly, exclusive, Facebook offers available to no one else. Every Monday morning look for a post on the store's page that outlines a special of the week.

Finally, I'm helping Pete develop a monthly newsletter to be emailed out. It will be emailed on our around the first of each month and if you'd like to get on the mailing list you can sign up at the store or shoot me an email - bob.harrison@tampabay.rr.com - indicating you want to be on the list. All the usual privacy policies exist: your information won't be shared with anyone, etc., etc. We won't fill your inbox with crap, just a monthly newsletter and the occasional email if there's an event coming up or something. The first newsletter goes out tomorrow!

There are lots of things happening at The Tobacco Hut. Look for a grand opening party in the next month or so. Hopefully we can plan on a date when Don is available to cater the whole affair with his mouthwatering BBQ.

See you next week!