Leaf Cigar Emporium, Shrewsbury, New Jersey
You enter a busy den. Smoke hovers like friendly clouds, all formed by satisfied men enjoying cigars while lounging in plush leather chairs. They’ve chosen their favorites from an adjacent humidor, whose shelves are full of cigars stacked to the ceiling like grandstands in a seven-tier stadium.
Walnut framed pictures of Winston Churchill and a man sipping a drink at a bar adorn the lounge. There is no attempt here to imitate the dark wood found in so many cigar bars. “We’re a cigar shop,” says owner and tobacconist John Garafolo, explaining why the Emporium serves no drinks. “We make a living selling cigars. My customers can bring in bottles and they do. But we are not a business that monetizes food and beverages.”
At peak times, 24 to 30 people sink into spaciously placed blue, black or red leather chairs. A bright Oriental rug adds warmth. Coffee, cappuccino, and expresso are offered free of charge. The lounge is “business casual,” Garafolo says. “A lounge like ours has to focus on the customer experience.” Printing and WiFi are also available, for those doing more business than casual.
Garafolo worked in mergers and acquisitions before opening Cigar Leaf Emporium in 2020. “I needed the next thing,” he says, recalling his time in the corporate world. “I have always been passionate. I have this saying: ‘I’m all in or I’m not in at all.’ That is so descriptive of who I am. I don’t do anything half-assed.” It’s the philosophy that his friends know him by.
Consider how he scouted cigar stores in his vicinity. "I have a pragmatic approach to things. Before I even started this, I drew a circle around my location and went to every competitor within 20 miles of my store. I lived in the software world for a while as a global vice president. The mantra there was the “customer experience.” That was engrained in us. When I started looking at the competitors out there in the cigar world, the common denominator was that there was no customer experience. Most of these stores have some curmudgeonly old guy sitting behind the counter saying, ‘Yeah, there’s our humidor. Help yourself.’ We made a point from the get-go to become tobacconists—learning the genetics of the cigars, learning the brands, learning the nuances of these products—and greeting every customer that walks in the store and joining them in getting to learn them.”
Then came the task of naming and branding. The name “Leaf Cigar Emporium” sounds classier than “smoke shop” in the same way that “billiard academy” sounds better than “pool hall.”
“I had started down a path even before Covid,” Garafolo says. “Off to the races I went, and then Covid happened, which changed every place in the world, including mine. My plan had been to open by Memorial Day, and I opened in August. I had a retail store six months into the world of Covid. I had to be creative and put an X on chairs and keep people six feet away.”
His learning curve was just beginning. “I started our own cigar label within our store and became a cigarmaker at the same time. One person said it was a well-priced, no bullshit cigar, so NBS,” he says. That nickname was expanded, and became ENEBES TABAC, a completely made-up word. It stuck.
Garafolo’s own smoking began during the Cigar Boom of the 1990s. “That was my entry point into the hobby and culture of cigars,” he says. “At the beginning I smoked a lot of Ashton, Fuente, Padrón, CAO, Cubans. I taste a lot of cigars and so there are days when I smoke parts of four different cigars. We always evaluate the new brands that the companies come out with. If Padrón releases a new cigar, we’ll smoke that cigar, so that way we understand what it is so we can talk to our customers.”
That mantra again: the customer experience. “Cigar smoking is an experiential thing,” he explains. Garafalo loves talking about cigars, and his customers love listening.
Leaf Cigar Emporium
415 Shrewsbury Ave., Shrewsbury, NJ 07702
(732) 747-0592
Monday - Friday: 10:00am - 8:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am - 5:00pm
https://leafcigaremporium.com/
