They Love Their Cigars in Tulsa

Tulsa, Oklahoma, doesn’t sound like a mecca for cigar fans, but as of the last few years, the city has several cool places to enjoy a smoke.





A small smoking lounge called The Tobacco Pouch opened in 1995, followed by Fogue & Bates in 1996. Since then, partners Kim and Russell Hurt and Tammy and Robert Foust opened the Cigar Box on the RiverWalk in 2005. Now there are also Cigar Box locations in Broken Arrow and Tulsa, all of them serving alcoholic libations as well as smokes. Another place to enjoy a drink and a cigar is the Classic Cigars & Lounge, which now has smoking lounges in Owasso and in the Brady Arts District.

Russell Hurt of the Cigar Box thinks the cigar lounges are as popular for socializing as they are for smoking. He told the World Scene, “On our busy nights we often have an equal number of men and women. Some come with husbands and boyfriends, some with other women and some by themselves. It’s been a little surprising, but we see more women all the time. People have found it’s relaxing to come by for an hour or hour and a half and enjoy a cigar and good conversation. People make friends here.”





James George, owner of Fogue & Bates and Café Cubana, offers twice yearly “cigar safaris” to Honduras and Nicaragua for local cigar lovers. These trips let his customers get an up-close look at the cigar business. “We tour the plantations and view the cultivation of tobacco and see how cigars are made. Since it also is coffee country, we sometimes combine coffee and cigar tours. I only take a dozen people at a time. When I have a trip planned, I just put a notice in the lobby, and it usually sells out in a day.”