Hemingway Cigar Lounge, Arcadia: BYOB and No Corkage

Hemingway Cigars, at 26 N. First Ave in downtown Arcadia, is one of the few rooms in the San Gabriel Valley where you can still sit indoors and smoke a cigar. It is open seven days a week from 10 am, takes walk-ins without a membership, and lets you bring your own bottle with no corkage. The catch is simple: you smoke what you buy from its walk-in humidor, so the shopping and the sitting happen in the same visit.

The room has a longer history than the name on the door. Robusto Cigars opened here in 2012 and ran the lounge for 13 years. In 2025 Matthew McDavid and Daniel Coats took over, renovated the space and reopened it as Hemingway, a nod to the writer's appetite for adventure and good craftsmanship.

That continuity matters more than it sounds. Indoor smoking is rare in California, and the lounge explains on its own site that what survives are grandfathered spaces that kept their permits. The permit here transferred with the business, and the new owners upgraded the air filtration while they were at it. So the lounge you visit today is a legal indoor smoking room with a clean-air system, not a patio with an awning.

The renovation turned the shop into an 1,100-square-foot room with warm ambient lighting and vintage decor drawn from the 1870s through the 1940s. Reviewers describe leather chairs and couches, and the owners pitch it as a place for conversation: their own copy promises no blaring TVs and no music fighting your voice, just low light and old-fashioned furniture.

That makes Hemingway a very different evening from a sports-bar lounge. Come here to finish a long robusto over a slow chat with one or two friends, or to read for an hour. There is no time limit on your chair, so nobody will hover once your drink is empty. Staff keep the humidor at steady humidity, and the filtration means your jacket smells far less of smoke on the drive home than it would after a patio session.

The walk-in humidor holds more than 35 boutique and legacy brands. Classic names include Padron, Arturo Fuente, Oliva, Ashton, AVO, Montecristo and Hoyo de Monterrey. The boutique shelf is where the room stands out: Black Works Studio, Crowned Heads, Aganorsa, Illusione, Southern Draw, Casa Cuevas, Paul Garmirian, Crux, Eiroa and the OZ Family lines all appear on the brand list.

If you are new, ask staff for a medium-bodied robusto that suits your drink, since a 45-minute smoke fits a single visit well. If you already know what you like, the list also covers Liga Privada, My Father, Joya de Nicaragua, AJ Fernandez, La Aroma de Cuba, Quesada and Matt Booth, so a fuller-bodied evening is easy to build. The site lists no individual cigar prices, so read the shelf tags before you choose a box-pressed toro you didn't plan to buy.

Hemingway has no bar and no bartender. Instead you carry in whatever you like with a cigar: bourbon, a six-pack, sparkling water or a thermos of coffee. There is no corkage and no cover charge, and the house supplies the ashtrays, the seating and the clean air.

The one firm rule is about tobacco. Outside cigars are not part of the deal, because the lounge asks guests to light up the cigars they purchase in-house. Last light is 30 minutes before close, so on a Sunday, when the doors shut at 8 pm, your final cigar needs to be lit by 7:30 pm. Bring your own glass if you're particular about stemware.

You never need a membership to walk in, but the numbers are posted for anyone who comes often. The monthly plan costs $45 and the annual plan costs $500. Both give 20 percent off tobacco, 30 percent off box purchases or any 20-cigar mix-and-match, 25 percent off accessories, a complimentary non-alcoholic drink and priority access to new brands. You can cancel either plan at any time.

Veterans, active-duty military and first responders become members automatically at no cost once they show ID in store. The lounge also runs a referral game: bring a friend who buys and you earn a ticket toward a Cigar Socialite Reward Coin, drawn at the year-end Christmas event, worth 50 percent off your first cigar every visit through 2027.

Weeknight hours run until 10 pm, and Friday and Saturday stretch to midnight, which the owners bill as the valley's late-night cigar option. The owners point out that the drive back to Pasadena at 11:30 pm takes about twelve minutes with light traffic, which makes a Friday nightcap realistic. On mild days the front door is usually propped open, and the room is climate-controlled the rest of the year, with air conditioning in summer and heat in winter. A weekday morning, right after the 10 am opening, is the easiest time to browse the humidor at length with staff who aren't busy.

The lounge sits on First Avenue, half a block south of Colorado Boulevard, and the owners say street parking is easy. From Old Pasadena, drive east on Colorado or take the 210 and exit at Santa Anita, and you'll arrive in about 15 minutes. Metro riders can use the A Line's Arcadia Station, also on First Avenue, a short walk north.

Before you settle in, wander the small grid of restaurants and bakeries around First Avenue and Huntington Drive. If you have a free afternoon, the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Santa Anita Park are both a short drive away, and either one pairs well with an evening cigar.

Address: Hemingway Cigars, 26 N. First Ave, Arcadia, CA 91006.

Hours: Monday to Thursday 10 am to 10 pm, Friday and Saturday 10 am to 12 am, Sunday 10 am to 8 pm. Last light 30 minutes before close.

House policy: walk-ins welcome, no membership required, BYOB with no corkage, smoke only cigars bought in-house. Memberships cost $45 a month or $500 a year.

Getting there: street parking on First Avenue, or the Metro A Line to Arcadia Station. Veterans, active military and first responders get free membership with ID, so bring it on your first visit.