Business is booming for Las Vegas cigar king Michael Frey

Billionaire philanthropist Ron Perelman, who will be honored at our Keep Memory Alive “Power of Love Gala” on April 27, is such an aficionado that he bought Consolidated Cigar Corp. Cigars go with the finer things in life: cognac, champagne and expensive cars.

The title of Las Vegas cigar king has to go to Michael Frey, who owns Casa Fuente at The Forum Shops of Caesars Palace; is partnered with Caesars in Montecristo Cigar Bar; and has a kiosk store at New York-New York and cigarette girls in both casino resorts selling cigars.

But his main store has always been Cigarbox. Five months ago, he moved it to an office building on Dean Martin Drive, and business is booming: “It’s definitely growing. When we first got in the business 20 years ago, nobody was doing cigars until my brother, Robert, and I got into it.

“At one time, we had eight to 10 stores up and down the Strip because the boom fueled by Cigar Aficionado Magazine made everybody want cigars. The business, when we got into it, went to an all-time high, then it tapered off between 1997 and 2005. But it’s still been great. The import of premium cigars is huge,” Michael told me.

“In Las Vegas, even with the anti-smoking stuff, there are three really good cigar bars on the Strip now: Casa, Montecristo and Davidoff. I talked to hotel presidents, and there’s renewed interest in cigar bars because President Obama opened up Cuba, and there’s a lot of interest in Cuba now.

“It’s driving a renewed interest in cigars. For people our age and between 35 and 65 who don’t want to go to a nightclub, you really don’t have a lot of choices. The lounges went away, except for two or three, so I think the cigar bar in a hotel provides entertainment for that demographic.”

The privacy of a cigar bar becomes more important as nightclubs lose their appeal because of what I call subway congestion.

Certainly, our cigar bars at Caesars Palace and Montecristo have borne that out. When conventions are here, they’re packed until 2 in the morning with that age group who don’t want to go to nightclubs or strip clubs.

What does one look for in a good cigar, a great cigar, the best cigar?

Everyone has different tastes. It’s like picking a wine. To me, it’s about flavor and aroma. I think the more you smoke and try, that’s what you look for besides great construction and spectacular tobacco. The non-Cuban cigars are so good now. Cigar Aficionado just did a retailer survey, and they rate the Top 25 cigars of the year. It was shocking to see that of the Top 25 cigars of the year rated, or Top 25 to 40, 90 percent came from Nicaragua.

In the last three to five years, Nicaragua has been turning out some of the best cigars because of the maturation of the industry there as people from the Dominican started going to Nicaragua. The quality of Nicaraguan cigars is so good that they’re some of the bestselling cigars in the country.

You’re not saying Cuban cigars are over, but they’re getting a good run for their money?

Cuban cigars are still good, but not to the level they were in 1995, the last great year of Cuban cigars. When Russia pulled out of Cuba and stopped subsidizing its sugar business, which they exported all over the world, cigars became the biggest cash crop besides tourism, their biggest export. They were pumping them out as fast as possible, and that took a toll on the soil. You’re supposed to let the earth rest, but they were just rushing, rushing, rushing.

It sucked down the quality of the product. I think they’re just as good as … I always say, it’s like people 40 years ago say, “Oh, I only drink French wine.” Geez, look what you’re missing. Then it was, “Well, California,” but now it’s Chile, Argentina, Israel, New Zealand, Australia. Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn at Caesars Palace has a beautiful vineyard in Tennessee. People are growing wine everywhere.

Cigars used to solely be a man’s stronghold, but now there are female smokers.

Yes, certainly, at Casa Fuente and Montecristo and here at Cigarbox, we’re seeing women come in every day. I’d still say 80 percent male to female, but we have regular female customers who come in here, locals and tourists.

What should a good cigar be? What are the qualities of a good cigar?

If you have a beautifully constructed cigar, the ash is going to be firmer. The cigar’s going to burn beautifully. Again, you can just tell a good, well-made cigar. It just feels right in the hand. It’s rolled perfectly, so the draw’s perfect. It should be flavorful, and you should be able to distinguish what its taste characteristics are — spicy, creamy, leathery, hints of chocolate, nutmeg, just like a wine. It truly is like picking a favorite wine.

We get a lot of people here. It’s like going to the men’s club before you go home to the wife and kids. Go, have a drink, a cigar, relax. Then, go home. It’s easy that way. Some guys come on the weekend and spend all day to watch sports. People can come in, grab sticks, then head back up or down to the suburbs. That was the idea around this. We’re here now exactly five months, and it’s really catching on now. We’re doing very well.

I want to expand some of what we have with Casa Fuente and Montecristo overseas. I’d like to do that type of lounge in Asia or the Middle East or India. I’m in the process of developing opportunities for that under the trade names.

What happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas?

What incubates in Vegas might go somewhere else. I love traveling, so why not find an excuse to smoke cigars in Asia? I’ve been to Nicaragua two or three times. I’ve been to their factories. I’ve been to the Dominican 40 times to the Fuente factories. I’ve been to every factory, pretty much, in The Dominican Republic, and the factory where they make Montecristo and Romeo and Julieta is beautiful.

Has the standard of production increased over the years?

Yeah. Actually, a lot of our suppliers are having problems keeping up with the demand now because there’s been a period of growth in the last two years. We’re on an upswing again. We do face a lot of backordered orders, shortages, just because they can’t keep up with the demand. They’re all running at full capacity now.

It takes time. It takes years to train a good roller like a Fuente. They have 3,000 employees in the factory. The room where they make the Opus X, that’s completely apart from everywhere else. It took Fuente years to train a roller to make the Opus X. That’s all they roll, and they’re separated from the rest of production.

For quality cigars, though, it’s still a hand-production business, isn’t it?

Absolutely. But it is cool to see their machine-rolled stuff. To watch that is just something unbelievable. They make them in 10 flavors, and you see packaging in Greek, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and it’s incredible how they turn out thousands of cigars an hour. They’ll have 150 machines going. It’s conveyor-belt production. But for hand production, a good roller will make between 50 and 100 cigars a day. And it takes a long time to train a good roller.

It’s practice, consistency over a long time. It just takes time for them to feel, it’s something you really got, there’s a Zen to it. I truly believe there’s this Zen of rolling a cigar. Someone like a mad genius like Carlos Fuente Jr., to me he’s the best blender in the world. He blends it so specific, and such a perfect formula.

You just got to make sure because when you do something 100 times a day, five days a week, you could get bored. You could get whatever, and you just got to get them into that rhythm to make sure it’s the right bunching of the filler, the right binder and that the wrapper’s put on beautifully.

It just takes time. Sometimes you go too fast; they get plugged. When cigar companies grow too much, sometimes they’re going so fast to meet demand that they’re slipping up, and you’ll find stems and seeds, or it’s compacted too much, and you won’t get a good draw. It’s maintaining the discipline of doing it right. That’s what takes time.

And the end result is that we sit here over 5,000 kilometers away and smoke the finished product to while away our stress and any problems. There’s nothing like a good cigar smoke — nothing!