A Grand Cigar Lounge On A Virginia Farm
Any living situation presents trade-offs. For city dwellers, accessibility to just about anything the heart desires is virtually boundless, except for perhaps a bit of peace, quiet and privacy. Those who choose a more rural locale typically face the opposite dilemma, which as a cigar lover, may present both challenges and opportunities. Dave Fike, who lives on a 38-acre-farm in Northern Virginia, found himself in this very context during the trying times of the Covid-19 virus. When his local, private cigar club closed down, he was left without a comfortable cigar escape, particularly during the winter months. But living on such a large piece of property, he was also faced with a unique opportunity: why not just build a lounge on his land? Fike did just that, and the result is a grand, smoky getaway fit for the expansive property on which it sits.
Fike had toyed with the idea of building his own lounge for some time, but needed an extra bit of motivation to go from plan to reality. “The rationale was there’s nothing even close to my house,” says Fike, noting how losing the cigar club he belonged to pushed him over the edge. “During the winter it’s just miserable sitting out there trying to smoke a cigar and I didn’t want to inside the house, so I decided to go all in.”
Fike certainly didn’t pull any punches. His lounge is quite big, more of a cigar house or club than a cigar room. The cigar lounge is 2,500 square-feet-in total, sharing space with a few horses, a large vegetable garden and a small river on Fike’s land. The lounge is about 60 yards from Fike’s main residence, and its outer perimeter is fully landscaped with a lighted walkway, built with a specific purpose in mind: “So when we leave after the football games we don’t fall on our face,” says Fike with a laugh. There’s also a large, covered porch outside, equipped with a pair of ceiling fans and rocking chairs, where Fike likes to smoke during tame summer days.
As you enter Fike’s cigar spot, a doorway to your right leads into a well-stocked bar with plenty of Bourbon and beer on tap. Straight ahead, a second doorway awaits you, leading to the lounge portion of the room. Though both doorways ultimately lead into the same, larger room, which one you head through first is sure to reveal your order of priorities.
The lounge space itself is large and rectangular, with symmetrical furnishings. There is a set of four leather chairs, one pair facing another, each with a table with an ashtray in between them and a coffee table in the center, all on top of a white Turkish rug. A few steps farther down the room, the same presentation is repeated with the very same furnishings, for a total of eight leather chairs. Floor-to-ceiling windows sit before the outside porch, on the right side of the room, offering plenty of natural light.
There’s even more seating via several high chairs, which are spread around the bar, which is equipped with a pair of fridges, a sink, two beer taps and a few shelves of liquor. Most of the selection is Bourbon, including some familiar brands such as Basil Hayden, Four Roses and Knob Creek. Fike prefers beer with his cigars, but as a considerate friend, he likes to keep plenty of Bourbon on-hand for his buddies that frequent the spot.
On the far end of the room, a towering stone fireplace takes center stage, with an electric fire pit on the lower portion and a large, mounted flat screen TV above, one of three throughout the room. The fireplace reaches up to the light, wood-ed ceiling that’s intersected by a handful of large beams. A thick, black border runs below the ceiling, shining lights above onto the wood.
A trio of large signs hanging from the ceiling headline the decor of the room, and are quite hard to miss. Fike describes them as original English pub signs, noting he was lucky to find a deal on them some years back. Such signage has a higher asking price than one would think. Fike said that the artwork in the room is still a work in progress.
The filtration system in Fike’s room isn’t exactly your standard contraption. Atop the large beams intersecting above the smoking area is an attic space that’s sealed and insulated, which Fike says operates like a big return air duct. “The return air is drawn through the room faux beams with a 2500 CFM silent filtration blower’s pleated and carbon filter, maximizing the adsorption of odor and particulate capture,” says Fike. A few of his buddies helped design the system in their spare time, and it appears they knew what they were doing. “For as many cigars as we’ve smoked up there,” he says, “it really doesn’t smell like cigar.”
The whole process took around 16 months to build, and involved the help of Fike’s friends, including one close confidant who helped conceptualize the room and see it to fruition during its construction. “My buddy acted like the general, he came by four to five days a week after work to check in on things,” says Fike, who hired a construction firm to handle the build. While his friends might’ve gone the extra mile to see the project to its end result, Fike says they’re certainly reaping the rewards now.
“I have friends who come by all the time. I entertain quite a bit because the property’s so nice,” says Fike. “It gets quite a bit of usage.” Though he often has visitors, Fike noted there’s a healthy balance between personal use and entertainment in the cigar room.
The frequency in which Fike uses the room, and his overall cigar intake, are inversely correlated with the temperature outside. As the degrees go down, the cigar smoking goes up. “During the winter, I hate to it it, but probably five cigars a week,” says Fike. The correlation saw a larger spike in recent months, as Fike mentioned that during the NFL playoffs, he typically had two cigars per game day to watch the big matchups. Sadly, we all have to put that excuse to light up an extra smoke on pause for the next six months, until football mercifully returns.
As a longtime Cigar Aficionado subscriber, Fike is an experienced cigar smoker. He said he was first introduced to the hobby 35 years ago, though it really became a true ion of his about 25 years ago. “Friends of mine would often smoke and I would them,” says Fike. “I lived in Dublin, Ireland for three years and you could get Cubans and stuff there.” He also credits time spent on the golf course as an additional source of exposure to cigars.
“When I started drinking beer, I was a Heineken guy because no matter where you went in the world it was a consistent beer. So when I started smoking cigars, I was a Davidoff guy because they were consistent” says Fike. “As I’ve branched out, it’s My Father, Fuentes, LFD.”
Fike does have some favorite smokes, although geography plays a critical role. “My favorite cigar, if I’m in Europe, is the H. Upmann Connoisseur B,” says Fike. “My second favorite cigar, that rivals the first, is the LFD Andalusian Bull.” Some of his favorite brands include Fuente Fuente OpusX Lost City, Arturo Fuente Don Carlos, My Father The Judge and Padrón Family Reserve, to name a few.
Fike’s cigar ion is also evident in his inventory. He has a large, built-in wall humidor in his cigar room that he estimates holds about 750 smokes. This is just a portion of Fike’s total collection, which he believes is roughly 2,000 cigars.
While losing the local cigar lounge is never cause for celebration, it did seem to be the straw that broke the camel’s back when it came to Fike putting in his dream cigar space on his vast property. When you have the space to do it and the circle of friends to enjoy it with, then why not? In this game of trade-offs, it feels like Fike came out a winner.
Do you have a cigar room worth sharing? Send us a note and some pictures at [email protected].
