A Conversation With David Berkebile
David Berkebile, 85, has owned and operated Georgetown Tobacco for more than 60 years. The store, located only about two miles from the White House, is a landmark for cigar smokers in the nation’s capital, one that sells a host of cigar brands both big and small. Berkebile recently had a conversation with Cigar Aficionado executive editor David Savona about how the cigar business has changed over six decades.
Savona: You opened Georgetown in March, 1964. What inspired you to open a cigar store?
Berkebile: It was pretty simple. I had a couple of kids and I always wanted to have my own business. I was in the Navy [prior] and I was smoking a pipe, and I decided to open a store. By March, I opened one. I didn’t have any money. My father didn’t have much, but he lent me $5,000 on his house. I opened with $5,000. And $1,800 of it went to merchandise, and another $2,000 for fixtures and a little escrow. The first year, we did $24,000. And that was terrible, but we made it. I think I succeeded more by having some . A guy named Bernie Martin, Capital Cigar, he was a distributor here. We liked each other and he saw faith in me. At one point he said anything you buy today you have a year to pay it.
Savona: What was the market like in 1960?
Berkebile: It was much more pipes. The whole store, all the cabinets on the left side, they were all pipes. I would buy a gross [144] of this shape, a gross of that shape. We’d buy 50 grosses a year of pipes. They were just huge.
Savona: So a person walking into your store in the 1960s would more likely be a pipe smoker than a cigar smoker?
Berkebile: In those days, yes. When I opened up, this is what a neophyte I was, I was smoking Middleton’s Cherry Blend and a Kaywoodie White Briar. And this customer said ‘What are you smoking that crap for?’ I started out with the basic stuff.
Savona: So you were pretty green coming into this.
Berkebile: Very green.
Savona: Jumping to cigars, what were the prices for cigars back in those early days?
Berkebile: The range [in the 1960s] was from about 12 cents for a Tabacalera Panatela to 72 cents for the most expensive, a Royal Jamaica Double Corona.
Savona: Why did you open a cigar store in Georgetown?
Berkebile: I grew up in Georgetown. I lived just down the street a couple of miles from here. I went to school at Georgetown High School, my mother used to work at the five-and-dime across the street when I was a kid. I raised ducks for years where I lived on MacArthur Blvd., and I used to buy the grain and the straw and what I needed right here in Georgetown.
Savona: You said you got into smoking pipes when you were in the Navy. Did you smoke cigars too?
Berkebile: Just the pipe.
Savona: Was it straight from the Navy when you opened the store, or did you do something else?
Berkebile: I got into sales with Great Bear Spring Co., selling water coolers and spring water. And I did that for about a year and a half, maybe longer. I did well, broke about an 80-year-record for sales with them. But I wanted to do my own something.
Savona: You wanted to be your own boss.
Berkebile: Yeah.
Savona: You’ve been selling cigars for six decades. Tell me about some of the changes you’ve witnessed in the cigar business. What were some landmark moments?
Berkebile: When Joya de Nicaragua came out, that brought a lot of interest, and that increased sales. We didn’t get Davidoff ’till the 1990s. Royal Jamaica was a good one. The real change came with Cigar Aficionado in the ’90s. In those days it was crazy. Whatever we did in one year, the next year it doubled.
Savona: What was it like when the magazine came out and people start clamoring for cigars? Did it catch you unawares?
Berkebile: It was gradual, but it didn’t take long to build up to a point where we had to have a guard in the store, and we had to have somebody watching the store. You know the cupcake places, that you have up there? Customers would be around the corner, standing in line to get into the store? It was everywhere. I was on a at one of the trade shows at the time, with a bunch of big shots, and when it was over I don’t know how many people wanted my autograph. I thought: Get a life!
Savona: Let’s jump ahead to Covid, which led to a new cigar boom. Did you notice a big uptick with Covid?
Berkebile: No, we were unfortunate in D.C., they closed us up for two months. In Virginia, they were fine, did a lot of business. It hurt. That was pretty tough.
Savona: Was that the toughest thing you’ve been through over the years?
Berkebile: No, I think every year’s been like that—it’s always something (laughs). No, that was the worse time.
Savona: It’s remarkable to have a store that you created last such a long time—it’s a testament to your success.
Berkebile: It is a group of really great people, from the consumer to the manufacturer. When they get together in the lounge—we have a little lounge, about eight chairs—it’s great camaraderie.
Savona: I have a two-part question for you: What has changed about the business that you miss, and what’s better about the business today?
Berkebile: I don’t miss anything. The nice things are pretty consistent. As far as the changes, the biggest thing is having cigars that cost $150 or $100, or your basic cigar is $25. That’s the big change there.
Savona: You mentioned expensive cigars—do you sell any?
Berkebile: We have the Davidoff Royal, the $120 one. We had the Padrón/Fuente collaboration; we sold all of those out.
Savona: What are your biggest sellers now?
Berkebile: Padrón and Davidoff are very big, and then we have Fuente, Paul Garmirian. We do Rocky, My Father. We have our own cigar, Caucus—Rocky makes it. We’ve had that for 15 years. It’s been consistently good.
Savona: How do you feel about the cigar market in general? What’s your outlook for the future?
Berkebile: I think it’s very favorable. I’m looking for growth. I’m going to be adding some brands next year. We’ll put in some more boutique cigars—there’s some good ones out there. The only thing I’m really worried for this industry are generational laws, like Massachusetts. [Generational tobacco bans aim to make it illegal for anyone born after a specific date to ever be old enough to buy a cigar, or any other tobacco product.] This could impact us forever. It’s already growing.
Savona: You must have some very long-term customers.
Berkebile: I do, 50 years. Longer than that in some cases. And they’re still coming in.
