Good Cigar Stores in Toronto, Ontario

[curtismayhem]

I'll second Cigars for You on Steeles as a good place to go. I'm just getting started but this seems like a good store with a friendly owner. I've probably bought 5-6 sticks from him so far as it is pretty close to home for me.

[DonnieW]

Originally Posted by curtismayhem

I'll second Cigars for You on Steeles as a good place to go. I'm just getting started but this seems like a good store with a friendly owner. I've probably bought 5-6 sticks from him so far as it is pretty close to home for me.

I don't smoke pipe, but apparently its a good shop for tobacco too.

[CohibaMan]

Recently went to Toronto and visited these places. Here's my reviews:

First: Casablanca Tobacconist; 4 King St W (though the entrance is on Bay St I believe)

Nice little shop, there seemed to be a fair selection in the walk in humi and a ok amount of accessories in the shop. The shop keeper seemed very uninterested with even being there and quite antisocial. We were there for about five minutes without a hello or offer of help even with us peering intently into the humi. Being the first stop of the day and both hungry for lunch we didn't ask to go in; so it is partially our fault we didn't get much service but he could have asked us. All in all not a bad experience, just uneventful.


Second: Metro Cigar; 712 Yonge St

A smaller shop with no walk in humi, but about 6 large cabinets with a fairly good selection for the space they had. There was a decent selections of desktop humi's and some other accessories. As we are looking through the glass of the various cabinets we pulled out my sheet of suggested cigars to see what we could find. The owner/employee, a middle aged east Indian man, came over to ask what we were doing with the sheet of paper. I told him we were looking for some cigars that had been suggested to us and he seemed quite content with the answer and told us if we needed any help to ask. Once the one other customer in the store left a couple minutes later he became quite angry, said we should have asked permission to look at the cabinets (they were closed and I assume locked, we hadn't tried to open them as we were only looking through the glass doors) and that he did not want us in the store. After some back and forth resulting in me showing him my shopping list we left completely unhappy with the service. I don't know if we violated some taboo but the owner/employee was a complete jackass and should not have acted that way to customers that had every intention of dropping some money there. Will NEVER return and advise others to avoid as well.


Third: Tabac; 526 Yonge St

Quite discouraged by this point we walked into a gem. Very uncluttered and very friendly staff. The walk in humi was nicely organized and had a decent selection, though not the largest of the day. Asking to go in the humi was no problem with the staff, even letting us in there alone to take our time. Once we had found a few we liked, some brands from the shopping lists though not the actual cigars of each brand on the list. The staff was knowledgeable of the brands and even recommended a couple cheaper ones for everyday smoking. Quite enjoyed the experience, decent prices and would recommend the place to everyone!


Forth: Tobacco Haven; 595 Bay St

Kind of a variety shop, but with a main focus on the smoking culture and quite a large shop at that. The humi at the back is long and thin with full glass walls making it easy to see what's in there without actually going in. Since we had picked up some stogies already at Tabac the selection while fairly decent did have anything that really jumped out at us. The staff was nice enough and quickly helped me when I asked about some items for the travel humi I'm going to be putting together. All in all a good place, worth a check out. Being across the street from the bus station makes it a quick trip before catching a bus.


Fifth: Sleuth & Statesman; 130 King St W

A smaller shop with a smaller walk in humi. They have quite a good selection of some certain cigars, the best we had seen all day but seemed to be lacking somewhat in overall brands. The staff member was quite helpful and seemed to have a good knowledge of the cigars they carried. While we only picked up one stogie I would say this place is more then worth a stop, the prices seemed to be better then most places.



Hope someone finds these useful!

[Cigar Lover 101]

[QUOTE]Third: Tabac; 526 Yonge St

Quite discouraged by this point we walked into a gem.[QUOTE]

CohibaMan, you and I have similar tastes. I go there once in a while.

I'm a huge Thomas Hinds fan, although I just checked their website a few moments ago and they took down their price list, which kinda blows. Guess I'll have to either call them or show up as I really want to try a Cohiba Magico or Genios.

I used to like Cheers Tobacco, now known as Cheers Smoke Shop. I noticed the owner seems a lot nicer then usual. Problem was the last two cigars I bought from him were crap. As soon as I lit my Trinidad Reyes, the ash was completely black and tasted harsh.

Long story short is if you and you friends are wanting a cigar at a B & M in downtown T.O., try Thomas Hinds. Their prices are slightly higher than LCDH, and I've only had one bad cigar from them. That's what keeps me going back.

[DonnieW]

Unfortunately the really good shops are spread far apart in the outskits of Toronto. Woodbridge, Mississauga, etc. Tabac and Cheers, while decent, carry less selection than most members here have in their humidors. While at Tabac yesterday, I counted 19 total boxes of open Cubans covering only 6 brands. At least Ben (the owner) lets you look around on your own time, not wary in the least.

[andrewm]

Thought i'd post my experiences today going into a couple of shops.

Casablanca: There was a younger guy working the shop who was very polite and an older man was mucking around in the humidor. I knew what I was looking for so the young guy let me in the humidor to take a look but I was weirded out right away because it was super humid in there. Maybe it's just because the humidifier choose to be blasting when I was in there but the air was super moist and a bunch of the cigars looked really suspect. i'm not an expert by any means but stuff looked more moldy than plumey. something that I also thought was strange was that he had a brush and was brushing off cigars. just thought it was weird. picked up a couple of r&j tubos no.2 for $9.99 each

Cheers Smoke Shop: Didn't look around much. went right to the back where they have a humi with all the cubans. You can look at them through the glass. Everything looked legit, ie: no mold and no old guy brushing off cigars. Bought a partagas series d no. 4 ($15.50) two R&J Short Churchills ($15.50 each) and a Monte petit edmundo (I forget $10ish) They all look great. I didn't go into the humidor I don't think you could if you wanted to a lady working there grabbed my selections for me. I liked it though. Good place to go if you know what you want and just want to pick up a couple of sticks.

Can any more knowledgeable botl who've been into casablanca's humidor recently let me know your thoughts on how it was looking as far as mold goes? They had a lot of stuff decently priced. would like to give them a chance, just got a bad vibe today.

[GWN]

Originally Posted by andrewm

Thought i'd post my experiences today going into a couple of shops.

Casablanca: There was a younger guy working the shop who was very polite and an older man was mucking around in the humidor. I knew what I was looking for so the young guy let me in the humidor to take a look but I was weirded out right away because it was super humid in there. Maybe it's just because the humidifier choose to be blasting when I was in there but the air was super moist and a bunch of the cigars looked really suspect. i'm not an expert by any means but stuff looked more moldy than plumey. something that I also thought was strange was that he had a brush and was brushing off cigars. just thought it was weird. picked up a couple of r&j tubos no.2 for $9.99 each

Cheers Smoke Shop: Didn't look around much. went right to the back where they have a humi with all the cubans. You can look at them through the glass. Everything looked legit, ie: no mold and no old guy brushing off cigars. Bought a partagas series d no. 4 ($15.50) two R&J Short Churchills ($15.50 each) and a Monte petit edmundo (I forget $10ish) They all look great. I didn't go into the humidor I don't think you could if you wanted to a lady working there grabbed my selections for me. I liked it though. Good place to go if you know what you want and just want to pick up a couple of sticks.

Can any more knowledgeable botl who've been into casablanca's humidor recently let me know your thoughts on how it was looking as far as mold goes? They had a lot of stuff decently priced. would like to give them a chance, just got a bad vibe today.

Is it just me, or do those prices at Cheers seem well below the going rate for retail here in Ontario?

[DonnieW]

Originally Posted by GWN

Is it just me, or do those prices at Cheers seem well below the going rate for retail here in Ontario?

Cheers is okay, they're essentially a convenience store with tiny humidor inside. They are well visited by Metro's finest, Doctors from across the street and boatloads of lawyers from QP. Their stuff is legit as far as I can tell, they just don't play the silly B&M game with their prices... again because they're primarily a variety store.

I don't do retail, but they'd be the place I go if I need a popular cigar (cheapish).

[andrewm]

Thought i'd post a follow up. Smoked that Monte petit edmundo and it was really good. Cheers gets my backing. I agree with DonnieW in that I think they keep their prices lower because they have more of a variety store vibe than a tobacconist. ie: selling drinks, cigarrettes etc. as well as cigars.