A Cigar Sanctuary

I wish we had something like this where I live...

In the dim light of a Bronx cigar shop, Al Bryant stretched out on a brown leather couch, watching TV and taking long, slow drags from a fat cigar as a passing No. 6 train rumbled on the elevated tracks nearby.

"There are not too many places that a person like me can feel all that comfortable outside of your own apartment,” said Bryant, who works for the transportation department. “I can come here without worrying about offending anybody.”

It's getting tough for our brothers of the leaf who live in the nanny state of New York City. And it has another attraction:

It’s where police officers, sanitation workers and lawyers come to get a taste of cigars that are hand crafted by Felix Diaz, who rolls as many as 200 a day in the shop’s basement as he listens to Spanish radio.

Diaz sits at an old wooden table customized for the trade, rustling through a deep pile of dry leaves, crinkling them in hands that first started rolling 44 years ago in the Dominican Republic.

When he came to the U.S., Diaz brought his wooden cigar molder, his chaveta — a sharp blade, and a cigar cutter.

Hand rolled cigars on the premises, now that is a taste of heaven. Best of luck to this venue.