June 15, 2010
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Another Wonderful Day
Things have been pretty crappy lately, for me. I busted my foot and was out of work for three days and only got paid 2/3 of one day’s salary from work comp, I lost my job, my car broke down and fixing it cost me over $350, and to top it all off I tossed my future-step-son on my glasses, breaking them in half. Yikes, what a bad run. But despite the less than promising outlook of my immediate future, today was a great day.
Last Friday was my best friend’s 25th birthday, and today (since my car junked out last Friday) he and I celebrated at the Chuck-E-Cheese for adults more commonly referred to as a cigar lounge. The place we chose to visit is all the way out in West St. Paul, and the drive out there is a long one involving crowded freeways and stop-and-go rush hour traffic. Once you get there, however, the nostalgia makes the pain of the long and frustrating drive completely worth it.
When the freeways come to an end, and you finally make the exit off of the “main street” drag and into the neighborhood area, you totally forget you’re in the downtown area of our state capital. Green grass, a canopy of trees, a playground or two and a windy two-way street make you feel completely at home, at peace and away from it all. I didn’t realize I was going a few miles per hour below the posted speed limit of 30 until I reentered reality for a moment to glance in my rear view mirror where I found a long lineup of cars following me bumper to bumper. Apparently some people are just too impatient to slow down and take in the sites they most likely take for granted.
Several miles into St. Paul through the neighborhoods lies an oasis known as Grand Avenue. It’s a main street drag laid out in the middle of a never ending sea of West St. Paul homes. The buildings are rustic, some are old Victorian Era homes converted into shops or restaurants, and the diversity of the people who blanket the crosswalks and sidewalks is quite impressive. There are young people, old people, those out for business and those out for pleasure, and somehow everyone manages to go about whatever it is they’re doing without disturbing the peace of anyone else. If you ask me, Grand Avenue is one of the most beautiful places in Minnesota.
Towards the end of the strip lies a renovated Victorian Era house with a small parking lot where the driveway used to be. The awning over the front door reads “Stogies on Grand” but I prefer to call it my home away from home. Upon entering you’ll find a number of patrons you can count on one hand enjoying cigars and hearty conversation in one of the three comfortable and decadent lounge areas, and a couple employees all happy to see you and happier to help you find the exact cigar you’re looking for (whether or not you’re looking for anything specific) all together in one completely relaxed and friendly atmosphere. The humidor is packed wall to wall with cigars of every shape, size and color imaginable, and with the staff members cigar smoking experience ranging from 15 to 30 years worth, any one of them can tell you facts, stories and even a few jokes about every single one of them.
With a love for cigars like mine, choosing one out of that many is more often than not an arduous task to say the least. But with the help of the guy behind the counter whose knowledge of cigars, and “I’ve known this guy for years” friendliness (and whose name I forgot to get) my friend and I selected a few cigars, and headed to the back lounge to enjoy them. We sat together in the lounge talking away and puffing through our first cigar for a solid two hours, the guy behind the counter occasionally coming back to empty ash trays or stow a newly emptied cigar box which gave him an excuse to hang out with us, and let me tell you, for those two hours I didn’t have a care in the world.
Happy Birthday, Adam, and thanks to you and to Stogies on Grand (and it’s employees) for giving me a much needed break from life.
