Every Tuesday night, the crew shows up in my garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. We’ve been doing that for years. We just weren’t recording it. When we finally turned the cameras on, nothing changed.

Episode 66 started with an empty list. Eric had spent the whole day dreading it. We lit up anyway. Thirty-six minutes in, Bruce said he’d be right back and walked out to his car to get a cigar smoking jacket.

Nobody planned any of it.

What Was Burning Before the Jacket Showed Up

I smoked the original Blood Medicine from Crowned Heads. Mark had the B Positive. Bruce had a Frank from the Tatuaje Pudgy Monsters, a gift from his young friend Chris. We also had a Hallowed Hands Toro from Avowed Cigars on the table, a Plasencia Reserve Robusto, and a Gris Gris from LA Cigar Collective. The Moonflower Corona Gorda was finishing up too.

Bruce’s Frank came wrapped in brown cellophane. He joked that it looked older than Chris. That turned into a real question. Does brown cellophane mean a cigar lost something? Bruce didn’t think so. His Frank was tasting great.

Some guys online see brown cellophane and assume the cigar is old and potentially flavorless. We see a badge of honor. We never did settle why some brands dump more oil into the cellophane than others.

Where We Got Carried Away on the Hype

The Moonflower Corona Gorda got a shrug. It was fine, and there was no rush to buy another. That got us talking about hype.

Eric said it plainly. We bought into it a little. He said we got carried away with the ChiMolly Pioneer too. It’s a very good cigar and it earned its spot. Number two was too high.

Bruce Went to His Car for a Cigar Smoking Jacket

Bruce had posted a picture of the Mayflower smoking jacket online. He wanted to know if any of us would actually wear one. So the night turned to smoking jackets.

Bruce said it was funny we should bring that up. “I’ll be right back,” he said. “Keep talking.” Then he walked out to his car. We called it a fashion show before he was out the door.

He came back in a reversible jacket. Paisley on one side. Green on the other, with little skull buttons. Bruce called it the stupidest thing he ever bought. He got it online years ago for about $200. Back then he thought it was cool.

“That’s how bad of a cigar smoker I was in the beginning,” he said. He had left it in the car in case the topic came up. He wanted to make sure he embarrassed himself.

It barely fits, he told us. We told him it looked like drapes. Turned inside out, it went from sophisticated to Liberace. By the end it had gone from Liberace to Uncle Fester.

Then there was the $895 one. Bruce told us the guy selling it is the same guy behind Mayflower cigars. The price is what made it the joke. We figured you could buy a few really nice Carhartts for that.

We had a few theories on why smoking jackets exist. Keep the smoke off your clothes. Catch the ash. Maybe just show you belonged. But the idea isn’t as far off as it sounds. We all own a jacket we only wear to to the cigar lounge.

Jim and the Guy Who Wore a Bib for Five Hours

Jim told us the strangest thing he ever saw while he was working a shop.

A guy came in for the first time and bought some cigars. He had a small duffel bag with him. He sat down, cut a cigar, lit it, and set it in the ashtray. Then he unzipped the bag.

Out came a bib. Not a baby bib. A giant one with a big pocket across the front. Jim asked him about it. The guy said this way he didn’t have to worry about dropping an ash. It would roll right into the pocket.

It looked like plastic. Jim told him it would burn. The guy said it was treated with something fireproof. He wore it for five hours. He wasn’t a little guy either.

We asked if he was selling them. Jim said no. The guy never said another word about it. He didn’t bother anybody, and there was less ash to clean up.

Eric knew right away what was going in the merch store next month. Then he wondered if Troy at Shirt Devil could make us jackets. If you’ve ever seen one of these bibs in the wild, tell us. Jim can’t be the only one.

Why Jim Says Thank God for the Lounge

The night got quieter after that. We got talking about work, retirement, and winter.

Jim said the drive home used to be his therapy. An hour and a half in his truck with the music on and a cigar lit. “That’s when the world went away,” he said.

Then he told us about his first winter retired. “Thank God for the lounge,” Jim said. He asked how many conversations you can have with just you and your wife. He loves his wife. They get along great. But a man needs other guys.

That’s when Eric told us how his day went. He had spent it dreading the show. The night before, he waited for Bruce and me to add more to the list. Nothing came. All day he kept asking himself what we were going to talk about. Then we sat down, and it didn’t matter.

“I love nights like this,” Eric said. “These are my favorite nights.”

Not Everything Is About You

Grievance Corner is our newest segment. It doesn’t take much to set it off.

I’ve said this before. The daily discussion questions are not about you. When we ask what makes a cigar lounge go downhill, that’s the question. It isn’t a shot at your shop. We keep them general on purpose. We want them to work for a lot of people. We have 365 days to fill, and they can’t all be big ones.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

One Chance or Two for a $42 Cigar

The daily discussion topic that week was Mark’s $42 cigar that blew up. The comments split down the middle. A lot of you said you’d give it a second shot.

We always say give a cigar two chances. At $42, some of us were one and done. A friend of ours named Nate bought the same cigar at the same lounge. His blew up too.

The lounge owner heard about a blowup from a customer and reached out to replace it. That’s rare. Most owners can’t eat the cost of a cigar like that. We also heard about a guy who spent $500 on a cigar. He got halfway through it and it fell apart. He wanted to return it. The owner told him a cigar isn’t a shirt that didn’t fit.

Sean from The Burnable has a rule for reviewing. Core line first. If a brand can’t make a good core line, he never moves up to the limited stuff. We liked that.

Ralph and Bill Showed Up in the Virtual Lounge

Late in the night, we noticed people in the virtual lounge while we were recording. That has never happened during the show. Ralph and Bill were the first.

We waved. They waved back. They had headphones on, so they could barely hear us. They said they might jump in once we finished filming.

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Stay in the Conversation

If Bruce’s jacket made you laugh, subscribe to the Stogie Review YouTube channel. Smoke and Steel is part of it, and we’re in the garage every Tuesday.

Join the Stogie Review Discord community and tell us if you’ve ever seen a guy in an ash bib. Jim can’t be the only one.

You can support the show at the Smoke and Steel Merch Store. And if you want a Smoke and Steel smoking jacket, tell us. We might talk to Troy at Shirt Devil.