Drink. Smoke. Eat. Not only three things that all go perfectly together but it is also the tagline for the soon to be opened, Civil Cigar Lounge. Civil Cigar Lounge is the brainchild of Matt Krimm and John Anderson (co-owners of the W.Curtis Draper empire) and is set to open to the public on January 14th. I was recently invited to a media event to get a glimpse of Civil Cigar Lounge. Needless to say, the event was pretty sweet.

Probably the most impressive sight to see is the bar with its top shelf selection of spirits, wine and craft beers. The chairs are mighty comfy and bar manager Dave Hammerly is knowledgable, friendly and a familiar face to many. Not much of a drinker you say? No worries. A coffee/espresso bar is in the works hopefully with the ability to make a nice Cuban coffee.

Within Civil Cigar Lounge is what I call a pocket sized version of W.Curtis Draper. Officially known as the Retail Space for Civil you will find the usual selection of top quality cigars that you have come accustomed to Drapers carrying. The pocket sized Drapers opened it’s door the day after Christmas and is open daily. Civil also has 125 cigar lockers available. Each locker comes with a special box of Tatuaje cigars that Pete did special for Civil. If you aren’t a locker holder or know a locker holder who is willing to share…you will probably be out of luck getting access to those Tats.

You’ve found the perfect pairing of libation and cigar, now you are in search of something to make your perfect pairing into a trifecta, food! Civil has you covered. Connected to Civil by a shared kitchen-ish prep area is RANGE by celebrity chef Bryan Voltaggio that serves small plate food to Civil patrons. During the media event I got to sample all kinds of wonderful small plates including pizza with smoked mozzarella and broccoli rabe. Definitely my favorite had to be the selection of cured pork by their “Meat Master”. Yeah I chuckled too…that title sounds like a porn video…like Meat Master Volume 7.

The devil is in the details as they say. Definitely one of the coolest things is the smoking skeletons in the wallpaper. From afar the wallpaper looks like…well… wallpaper. You get up close and you see these smoke filled skeletons staring at you and you go ‘bad ass’.

Bad Ass is pretty much how I sum up Civil Cigar Lounge. Killer bar. Killer cigars. Killer food. Thats part of what will make Civil Cigar Lounge a success but the key ingredient is the people behind it. With the team of John, Matt, Paul, Dave and all the other knowledgable and familiar faces behind Civil, I have no doubt, that Civil will succeed and prosper.