Smoke and Steel usually happens on a Tuesday night in my garage in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. The core crew has been smoking and talking in there for years. We just weren’t recording it, and when we turned the cameras on, nothing really changed.

This time we left the garage behind and went to a Louisiana cigar lounge. Eric, Ed, and I spent a few days with Kyle and Big Rob at the Louisiana Cigar Collective. This is the second of the two episodes we filmed there.

Fair warning. There is almost no cigar talk in this one. We said so ourselves on the recording.

A Lounge Where Strangers Shake Your Hand

We recorded this on day two of filming, day three of the trip. The weather finally flipped to fall. The wind was strong enough that nobody could set a coffee down.

What stuck with us most was how people greeted each other. Back home, you get a head nod if you’re lucky. In Louisiana, strangers walked in, shook hands, and told you to have a good day on the way out. Eric admitted that in his first ten minutes he kept forgetting to say hi to people. He’d look at his phone, look up, and someone new was standing there.

We went back to the lounge three times in one day, and it was a different room each time. The morning was rowdy. We laughed and busted each other’s chops. After dinner it went quiet and relaxed. Then the fireballs started, and it was game time. The fireballs were a lounge tradition we did not see coming. They ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip.

Back home, we had a shop that worked like this. Tim retired from building maintenance and opened it to bring in a little extra money. You could walk in at one o’clock on a random Wednesday and the place would be packed. Sitting in that lounge was the first time in a while it felt like that again.

People kept handing us cigars all weekend. One night a whole tray showed up. A guy at the lounge also gave us 45 minutes on orthopedic surgery and showed us a screw he’d taken out of someone’s back. I don’t know how we got there either.

The Night Kyle Stayed in the Bungalow

Kyle told this one first hand.

He was in Costa Rica to visit the Lampert factory. Stefan gave him two choices. There was a bungalow five minutes from the factory, or a hotel far away that looked rough. Kyle asked if the bungalow had air conditioning. It didn’t. Stefan told him it gets cool at night.

Kyle told him he’s bougie and doesn’t do anything without AC. Stefan booked him two nights anyway.

The bungalow was not nice. There was a wicker bed and dead bugs everywhere. Kyle stepped on something he couldn’t identify and called Big Rob to tell him. Big Rob’s advice was to get out of there. Kyle’s best description of the thing was a caterpillar with an exoskeleton. It made a noise when he stepped on it. There was also an active spider web with a spider bouncing in it. No hot water. No AC. The factory is remote enough that there were no Ubers.

So he stayed. He turned on a fan app and finally started to fall asleep. Then something slammed into his metal door. He looked outside and saw nothing. He texted Stefan, who said it was probably a monkey trying to get the door open. Kyle never saw one.

The next day, Stefan asked how he liked the place. Kyle said he was glad he got to experience the bungalow, but now he wanted to experience the Hilton. He got room service. He said it made him savor the Hilton that much more.

Stefan told him Europeans would pay a lot for that bungalow. Kyle was not one of them. He did hold the record for the first retailer to make it through a night. He told us Ronnie, another retailer, beat it by staying two. Ronnie said that’s why he did it. Stefan, we were told, stays in that bungalow every time he goes.

Big Rob’s First Trip Out of the Country

Big Rob and Kyle are headed to the Dominican Republic in November. It’s Rob’s first time out of the country. He told Kyle seven times that he has his passport. Kyle told us Rob was booked in steerage with the chickens while he flew first class. Kyle says he got Rob the extra foam in the back.

The only factories Rob has seen are JC Newman and the Drew Estate farm. This trip is five days and a couple of factories, and probably a new one. Kyle’s big selling point is the TGI Fridays at the Miami airport, where you can smoke a cigar.

I’m told Louisiana Walter is a different human. Apparently he does not stop talking. I can’t confirm any of it.

We left for Pennsylvania the next day. Thanks to Kyle, Big Rob, and everyone at the lounge for the hospitality. We’ll be back.

---

Stay in the Conversation

If you’re not already, subscribe to the Stogie Review YouTube channel, where Smoke and Steel lives. Come hang out with the rest of us on the Stogie Review Discord. And if you want to support the show, the Smoke and Steel Merch Store is open.