The Carnegie Club

An air of vintage class pervades this sprawling midtown cigar bar, with hand-carved wooden bookcases stuffed with worn hardbacks giving the club’s main level and large lofted hideaway the feel of an Ivy League alumni club. Jazz groups perform on a patch of floorspace downstairs beneath cathedral-like windows, with the modern, mellow groove of a trumpeter (or even a didgeridoo player) on one night giving way to the swing of crooned standards and an 11-piece orchestra on another. The crowd buzzes from upholstered sofa chairs and couches to the long bar. With 25 or so cigars in a glass-enclosed humidor, even non-smokers may experience a whiff of nostalgia for the days of indoor smoking as they watch how the club’s lighting catches swirls of smoke just right. But that feeling’s likely to wear off once they get a whiff of themselves outdoors.