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- Circa Tabac
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32 Watts Street, 212-941-1781
Smokers can breathe a raspy sigh of relief upon entering Circa Tabac. This self-styled “cigarette bar” is exempt from the smoking ban thanks to a loophole that that gives grandfather status to establishments that can show that ten percent of their business comes from the sale of tobacco products. A clubby, candlelit shrine to nicotine, Tabac offers more than 200 brands of cigarettes (from Gauloises to Indian bidis) as well as cigars. The décor is sort of Art Deco by way of Havana, with vintage ad posters for rolling papers and glass cases displaying antique lighters and humidors. It probably wouldn’t satisfy Bloomberg, but there’s a very efficient ventilation system in place to keep the fumes to a minimum.
Best Smokers' Refuge
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PrintFrom the 2003 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine
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Our mission this year: to hunt down not just the best but the best values in the eating, shopping, drinking, and general-consuming universe of New York. It’s quite the process, this, requiring eating and shopping and drinking (all in the name of research), followed by heated but civil discussion, and heated but less-civil discussion, until a winner emerges in each category.
