The Bronx Is Burning
A hungry traveler walks down Arthur Avenue, tempted by the sights. Pastry shops and pork stores, delis and restaurants beckon from every direction on the most famous road in the Belmont section of the Bronx. Many refer to it as New York’s genuine Little Italy. He picks up a savory loaf of olive bread from 100-year-old Madonia Bakery, samples a plate of cherrystones shucked streetside at Cosenza’s and ogles (but isn’t brave enough to buy) the capuzzelle—lamb heads—staring from the window at Biancardi’s Meat Market. But this shopper is here for more than Italian delicacies—he came to Arthur Avenue for the cigar factory.
La Casa Grande Cigars, located inside the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, is probably the only cigar factory in the world within steps of fresh fruit and vegetable vendors, espresso stands and an Italian deli. This popular tourist destination is the brainchild of Paul DiSilvio, who goes by the moniker Pauly Cigars. Opened in 1995, La Casa Grande employs 10 rollers, Dominicans from the Cibao Valley who have honed their skills over decades. Working six days a week, each rolls 200 cigars a day, which works out to some 600,000 cigars a year.
DiSilvio grew up in this neighborhood, which is three miles away from Yankee Stadium and a short walk to the Bronx Zoo. He remembers cooling off in the streets with the other kids by playing in the spray of an open hydrant. “That was our pool,” he says. His family shopped in the Arthur Avenue Retail Market when he was young. “As a kid, this place used to be packed with little Italian ladies getting food for the week.” Today, the crowd is a mix of tourists and locals, some shopping for groceries, others sitting and dining or treating themselves to a gelato to beat the heat. Plenty watch the cigar rollers as they turn leaves into cigars.
With his shaved head, thick build and heavy, black beard, DiSilvio looks tough—he wrestled in high school before becoming a bouncer in Manhattan and once considered becoming a fighter. That changed after he smoked his first great cigar. He bought a humidor, began smoking regularly, and soon saw similarities between the artisanal Italian foods of Arthur Avenue and great cigars. “I said, ‘everything in this neighborhood is handmade,’ ” he says. He opened a kiosk in the market and began selling cigars made by other companies, but soon dreamed bigger, hired a roller and began making cigars of his own.
What transformed his business was when he provided the roller as an amenity at weddings (an ongoing service). “It just blew up after that. I went from one roller to 10.” He expanded within the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, adding other businesses such as a café that serves drinks and a pizzeria. People come in for light bites and a drink, buy some cigars or even take a class to learn how to roll. You can’t smoke inside (no one wants their cherries smelling like cigars). However, a few tables out front provide a venue for puffing and people-watching on the never-quiet street. Even on a summer Thursday when the Yankees were out of town there was a busy crowd.
A chalkboard shows two choices, mild or maduro, the former made with Ecuador Connecticut wrappers and the more powerful maduro cloaked in Brazilian leaf. The construction is impeccable, the flavor works. Even with New York rent and labor, the prices are reasonable. Entry-level cigars start at about $6, and prices range up to around $15 for others, with plenty of choices in the middle.
DiSilvio, who turns 50 this fall, always seems to have his eye on more. He sells online and he’s thinking of opening a cigar factory outside the United States. He’s even done a few celebrity partnerships, most notably helping create the A Bronx Tale cigar, which is made in the Dominican Republic for actor Chazz Palminteri in partnership with Epic Cigars and Zander-Greg. Palminteri is also from the neighborhood, having grown up with DiSilvio’s father. Those cigars are sold here too, along with Palminteri’s wine.
The cigar operation is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. most days, but it closes later on Friday (6:30 p.m.) and Saturday (7 p.m.), and earlier on Sunday (5 p.m.) and Monday (5:30 p.m.).
A trio of rollers step away from their stations, men in their 60s: Paulino Núñez, Elvio Perez and Genaro Polanco. The trio has been here for nearly the entire 30 years. “They’re like my uncles,” says DiSilvio. “They don’t work for me—we work for each other. I give them a canvas and I let them paint.”
La Casa Grande Cigars 2344 Arthur Ave., Bronx • (718) 364-4657
