We are closing in on a year of doing this thing every Tuesday night, and episode 53 reminded me why that matters. Bruce told us about a saint who asked for a cigar instead of anesthesia. That sentence alone is why I keep the cameras on.

For anyone just finding us, Smoke and Steel records every Tuesday night in my garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. The core crew has been sitting around together smoking cigars and talking for years. We just were not recording it. When we finally turned the cameras on, nothing changed. Same guys, same conversations, same cigars. The only difference is you can pull up a chair now.

Tonight it was Mark, Bruce, Eric the Elder, Jim, and me. Eric Drumheller was out at Dorney Park for his daughter’s birthday, so we gave him grief about it from a distance. What follows is a saint story, a full report from Bruce on the new Chartwell Cigar Club, and about two hours of Connecticut wrapper appreciation.

What a Polish Soldier Taught Us About Cigars in 1863

Bruce listens to some religious stuff from time to time. This week an app he uses called Hallow featured a saint named Albert Chmielowski, and Bruce could not wait to bring it to the table.

Chmielowski fought in the Polish January Uprising against Russian rule in 1863. A wound in battle wrecked his leg, and Finnish soldiers fighting alongside the Russians captured him. They told him the leg had to come off. There was no anesthesia. Chmielowski asked for one thing. Give me a cigar. That will help me pass the time.

He got through the amputation smoking that cigar. His allies later smuggled him out of the hospital hidden inside a coffin. He went on to become a Franciscan friar who spent his life serving the poor in Krakow. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1983 and made him a saint in 1989.

None of us had ever heard this story before tonight, Bruce included. It is not every night a saint story lands at the table. This one earned its spot next to the ashtray.

Bruce Goes Deep on Chartwell Cigar Club

Bruce joined a new shop called Chartwell Cigar Club, and he came prepared with a full report. It used to be Cigar Cigars before that company started selling off locations. Chartwell replaced it, and Bruce says it does not resemble the old shop at all.

Membership runs $250 a month. That sounds steep until you break it down. You get $150 back in credit, 15 percent off boxes including mix and match, and complimentary beverages from the fridge. Lockers are available too, with room for around 50 of them and roughly a $50 fee for one that is not already included.

The shop only stocks two or three facings per brand since the humidor is not huge. Half of the old humidor space got turned into a private room with sliding barn doors. Bruce has been using it for online coursework since he retired.

Cleanliness is the thing Bruce kept coming back to. The owner, Will, is a veteran, and Bruce described him as having OCD on steroids in the best possible way. Members get 24 hour access through a key card at a back entrance, though there is no way to grab a cigar after hours if you have not already picked one up.

Bruce also brought up a Tradecraft cigar called the Gladius, a full bodied stick he tried during a retro hale that turned into barbecue on the back of his tongue.

The Guy Who Badmouthed a Priest at a Cigar Shop

Bruce is a real priest. That fact levels a room every time someone hears it for the first time. So when Bruce told us that a lounge owner walked into Chartwell last Friday trying to sell cheap add on cigars, and ended up badmouthing Bruce personally to the shop owners while Bruce was standing right there, we all sat forward.

Bruce did not say a word. He shook the guy’s hand when he walked in, sat back down, and let it play out. The shop owners pulled Bruce aside afterward and told him what had been said. As Bruce was leaving, one of the regulars in the shop stood up and told him, I stood up for you. Every guy in the room shook his hand on the way out.

Bruce has no real idea why this guy has it out for him. It has been going on for nine years now, on and off, and Bruce guesses it might trace back to something involving Tatuaje, but he is not sure. He is not chasing it either. Not worth the time, in his words.

We Are All Connecticut Guys Now

Somewhere over the last six months the whole crew went Connecticut crazy, and nobody can fully explain how it happened. Mark was smoking a New Dawn tonight and called it the best in that whole line, full flavor for a Connecticut. Jim brought a Dapper La Madrina Shade he had never tried before and was clearly enjoying it.

Walt pointed out this probably traces back to the Room 101 Johnny Tobacconaut. Once that cigar got into rotation, everybody started reaching for Connecticut wrappers as a first smoke of the day. I have gone through more Connecticut cigars in the last six months than I did in the previous ten years combined. Coffee and a Connecticut in the morning has become its own tradition around here.

The Kelner 80th and Why the LACC Collective Pack Keeps Winning

Eddie tried the Kelner 80th the last time he was in the garage, and by all accounts it is phenomenal. That cigar came out of the LACC Collective Pack, the monthly subscription from Louisiana Cigar Collective, and it runs close to $80 a stick on its own. Getting one inside a $70 monthly pack is the kind of math that makes the whole subscription worth it.

We have talked about LACC plenty on this show, and tonight was another reminder why. Between the collective pack and the Avowed experience that Eric talked Bruce into trying, LACC keeps finding ways to put serious cigars in front of guys who would never spend that kind of money on their own.

One Year of Doing This in the Garage

We are closing in on the one year mark for Smoke and Steel, and nobody at the table had a real plan for how to mark it. Merch is still coming. We have seen a prototype and it looks right, but between hockey playoffs and everything else eating up time, there is no firm date yet.

What I do know is this. A year ago this was five guys smoking cigars in a garage in Gilbertsville, same as it had been for years before we ever hit record. The only thing that changed is a camera showed up. That is still true tonight. Bruce found a story about a saint and a cigar that none of us had ever heard. We argued about Connecticut wrappers for twenty minutes. It was a normal Tuesday, and normal Tuesdays are still the whole point.

Stay in the Conversation

If you want to hear this one instead of reading about it, the full episode is up on the Stogie Review YouTube channel. And if you want to argue with us about Connecticut wrappers, ask Bruce about Chartwell yourself, or just hang around with people who get it, come find us on the Stogie Review Discord.