Alhambra - Havana House

[Freight]

Havana House
133 West Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 576-0547
http://www.havanahousecigars.com/

Great place to hang out with the younger crowd. I was just there yesterday and they had a live band to complement your smoking. They also have a good selection of cigars to choose from as well.

I have gone to the location in Whittier and it was much smaller and not really "happening".

[audilicious]

haven't been to the Alhambra location yet.

Whittier- it's a cozy spot, but you can bring your own, the liquor laws don't allow hard liqour there, but they're rather creative with their beer cocktails.

great place to ride your motorcycle or roll your rod to.

[raralith]

I just went here two nights ago and I don't think it is very good as a cigar lounge.

The selection is pretty bad; maybe things have changed since the original poster was there. The humidor itself was 12 by 4 and only 1 side held cigars. There were less than 10 brands for sure, and the selection between the brands are pretty poor. The humidity in the humidor must have been around 80rh, if not more. Price wise, its California so taxes kill almost everything, but even so, it was on the pricey side; Hemmingway Classic $17, Cohiba Tube Toro $20+, I purchased an Onyx Reseve (robusto I think) for $10 plus tax.

The "cigar lounge" area was pretty small with a large double leather sofa and two individual leather sofa seats, and there's also a small round bar table with seating for 2. There were no smoke eaters, and it is located behind the bar so there was pretty much no air circulation. Now, the rest of the bar is probably 3 or 4 times larger than the lounge, and you can order hard alcohol there. Maybe someone can correct me but I read that you cannot smoke indoors at a tabacoo retailer unless 51%+ of the sales are from tabacoo related sales? Well, not many people were smoking and there were a hell of a lot of people at the bar, and waitresses came in and asked me what I would like to order...

There is a good night life here with lots of younger people, and the music is top 40 except for the live band nights which is good. Drinks are a bit expensive too ($8 for a Gimlet + $1 tip). Overall, if I want to purchase cigars, this is not the place. If I want to smoke a cigar, this is probably not the place. If I wanted to listen to a live band, and have a few drinks with some friends, this is not a bad choice.

[raralith]

I moved into Alhambra about 2 months ago, and I've revisited it a few times in the past week. Here are my current thoughts:

Cigar lounge wise, the physical place didn't change so it's still pretty small. I noticed that they have a few more accessories now like Xikar cutter, and cigar scissors ($60 each for either). In their humidor, it looks like they got a lot of Oliva's (O's and V's), Nubs, and a few other lines lately. It's still pretty small though, but the selection has improved slightly. If you are here though, one thing you want to check out is the stuff on the top shelf where they store boxes awaiting to be put on display. You'll know why and have a good chuckle.

What I did like this time around was that I didn't spend my time in the tiny lounge, but rather at the bar area. This is pretty much the only bar in Southern California that I've been to where you can smoke indoors so I got to kick back, watch TV (4 flat screens), drink beer, and smoke cigars; it was very pleasant. Best part is you can bring your own cigar.