The Best Outdoor Cigar Lounge in Florissant, MO | Smoke & Sip

[Music] I'm Tony bolson I'm one of the owners of smoking sit and I'm 9l Walden near the owner of smoke except now we want to give you a little bit of history about ourselves how we got started right about two years ago we met at a Brand X we both was out looking for a place to start our own cigar bar I was looking in Florida he was looking in st. Louis and we just happened to meet up at the same place one night and we sat down and started to talk and share some stories and cigars and started thinking about we're gonna do our own spot well a year went by before we saw each other again no communication and then just so lucky we happen to meet at the same spot again and then we sat down inside hey man it's time that we're gonna do this or what we're gonna do create this spot so we got together again this time we got serious about it and we developed smokey City it was a journey it took us two years to find the right building that we needed to be because it was that important to us to be able to service the people with an environment that was captivating and make them feel very like at home so that's when we set this place up you've seen some of the pictures around from throughout the day see some of the people behind me all I can say is it's one of a kind of Missouri most importantly it's the first black owned cigar bar in Missouri first black home that's saying something a lot of people try before us but they felt and I give them plotting for the efforts but me and my partner we took it to that next level for the last two years I had two functions going on here in st. Louis one is called cigars and sundresses and the other one was called smoking hot day for each of those parties that brought over 1,500 close to 2,000 people every year to attend that brought something into me to change the cigar culture here in st. Louis for african-american I've been here living here all my life never heard for the last 52 years never have you ever had of african-american cigar lounge so on that journey of giving those parties I decided that this was something that was needed here something much needed here in st. Louis Missouri so that's how we started the journey we started out with the first cigars and sundresses cigars and sundresses as I said it brings about 2,000 people out every year it's a huge venue we first started out at my trades to go allows my face cigar lounge which is located in Ferguson Missouri was on a road of uh I would say not wanting to do those parties again because they said that we were bringing too much of our people there so when you use the term our people I'm sure you know we mean our people if you're telling that you were bringing two months of our people there then maybe our people need to go somewhere and spend our money very true I support that 100% as I was saying when we developed this business it's a business for not just our people is for everybody it's an open business it's a great business to come relax enjoy a good drink a good stick good music live entertainment good social and entertainment social interactions you can't go wrong for coming here I think everybody that's come here so far on social media has been pleased with what we have done the environment is really we got 11 TVs in the place 11 threes going outside 9 inside for 12 you can't go wrong but we offering you the history behind what me and Lionel is done is trying to we're trying to weave ourselves in this community right to be a part of the community a good part of the community here in Florissant and if we want to grow from there we don't want to stop there or stop here we want to go to the next level keep developing more businesses for other individuals to get involved with not only here but across the country that's our plan that's our business plan well after the first year in business what we're gonna do our goal is in the first year in business is to turn around our second year and try to see if we can create another smoking suit we want to have at least at least four or five smoking sips in the next ten years that is our goal that is a goal we stink think strongly on and that is one that we're definitely definitely going to continue to build we were told for the last two to three years that this could never happen in Florissant in Florissant Missouri Florissant Missouri has never had never had a cigar bar in it in the entire time it has ever been here so what we did when we started this journey we knew it was gonna be a tough one we knew it was gonna be a tough fight but we fought it all the way through we fought it all the way through until we got them to change and put in a cigar acted for us a clean air act just for Florissant Missouri old town Florence the things that set us apart is the ambience of the place the the leather that we have all around and the environment right the social environment that you're able to come and take in is much more relaxing than any place else we play nothing but jazz maybe either we playing live jazz smooth jazz seven days a week and it's just the atmosphere because when you come here it's like being at home we got a world-famous patio that you can sit on we got an outside bar that's one thing that you won't find that any other cigar bar around we got an inside bar and an outside bar we got waitresses and bartenders on both bars all time so you will never wait for a drink here never that's the biggest thing you learn about smoking sip versus anywhere else you will not wait over two minutes for a drink if you do the drink is on me the ambiance for smokers sip is not a black thing or a white thing period smoking sit we want everyone to feel comfortable here we have a sitting here now at a smoking sip that is a relaxing setting for any race any color we treat everyone her to saying [Music] you

Channel: Urban Eyecon

Views: 30,786

Keywords: Smoke & Sip, Smoke & Sip Cocktail Lounge, UrbanEyecon, Black Owned Business, Black Owned Cigar Lounge, City of Florissant Missouri, St. Louis Cigar Lounge, St. Louis Cigar Bar, Urban Eyecon Magazine, St. Louis Entertainment

Id: 67JAGTpU-Ro

Length: 7min 0sec (420 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 25 2018