Guy Fieri And Erik Espinosa Opening Dominican Cigar Factory
Longtime Knuckle Sandwich cigar partners Guy Fieri and Erik Espinosa of Espinosa Premium Cigars are taking their cigar venture to a higher level—they’re opening their own cigar factory in Santiago, Dominican Republic. It will be a 30,000-square-foot facility, with the capacity for 70 pairs of cigar rollers, and they are hoping to be operational by September 1.
“Having my own cigar was a dream come true. The cigar factory was almost too big of a dream,” says Fieri, the television personality known for his popular show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” He’s part owner of the Nicaraguan Knuckle Sandwich brand, which debuted in 2022. “When I started peeling back the layers of the onion on this, we said ‘why don’t we make ’em?’ ”
Says Espinosa: “Now you can conquer two of the best countries that make cigars.”
Despite the new facility, things aren’t changing for any of the cigar lines Espinosa already produces in Nicaragua. That includes what he rolls at his own La Zona Cigars factory as well as all the Knuckle Sandwich cigars, which are made under contract in Nicaragua by A.J. Fernandez.
“Everything stays the same in Nicaragua. None of the brands change,” Espinosa insists. Even though he will be operating in the Dominican Republic, he intends to use some imported tobaccos. “We’re going to import a lot of tobacco from Nicaragua.”
Espinosa says the factory will begin on the smaller side. “We’re going to open up with 25 pairs, but we have the capacity for 70,” he explains. The venture is an equal partnership between Espinosa, Fieri and Isaias Santana Diaz of D’Crossier Cigars, who lives in the Dominican Republic. This wouldn’t be the first time that Diaz has worked with Espinosa. From May 2015 to March 2017 Espinosa distributed the D’Crossier brand.
Espinosa did tease a potential new product. “We will probably make a Knuckle Sandwich Dominican,” he says.
Fieri is excited about the new venture and its potential: “There’s so much more we can do.”
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