Davidoff On NYC’s Madison Avenue Gets Its Grand Opening
Top brass from Davidoff of Geneva flew into New York City last week to oversee the grand re-opening of its flagship store on Madison Avenue. Chief executive officer Beat Hauenstein and Emanuele Uccellini, president of the company’s U.S. division, were there for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, cocktail party and celebratory Chef’s Edition cigar afterward.
The shop closed its doors in the winter for not only a full renovation but a complete rethinking of the store’s retail footprint. When it opened back up for business late last month, the entire layout of the store had changed. The most notable improvement was moving the humidor—which now features tobacco leaves hanging from the ceiling—from the back of the store, where it was awkwardly placed and not readily visible, up to the front. Now, a patron can get a complete sense for Davidoff’s entire product inventory—cigars and accessories—as soon as he or she walks in.
Davidoff has been in New York City for nearly 40 years. It opened its first Manhattan store in 1987, relocated in 2000 and eventually moved to this spot on the corner of 53rd Street in 2010. There are two more stores in the city: one on Sixth Avenue near Central Park and another in Brooklyn done in partnership with Matador Cigars. Davidoff recently closed its Brookfield Place location in lower Manhattan.
According to Hauenstein, the Madison Avenue flagship is among the three top-performing retail locations in the world, along with Hong Kong and Geneva. When asked why the New York market is important, he told Cigar Aficionado: “There is a culture of cigar smoking in New York, and the New York smokers are very knowledgeable, similar to the customers in Geneva.” Hauenstein also pointed to New York as being a very good test market for the rest of the country.
Other improvements include not only new placement of the upstairs lounge, but an expanded, stylized lounge in the basement. At 3,300 square feet, the renovated store also offers two tiers of membership: Private Lounge ($1,400) and Locker Membership ($3,400). The former allows patrons to smoke in one of the store lounges, while the latter allows members to store their cigars in one of 75 lockers, plus includes lounge access. The lounges are for members only, however, a walk-in can gain access for the day by making a purchase of $250 or more.
As expected, the humidor is stocked primarily with Davidoff cigars, but includes brands from third parties such as Padrón, Plasencia, My Father Cigars, Ashton, Arturo Fuente and Foundation.
