Anyone have good or bad experiences with smoking lounges?

Now, the manager and many of the "regulars" are dyed-in-the-wool Republicans/Conservative. Lots of Viet-Nam vets, who have a deep seated hatred of the government and tend towards teabaggerism. At least, the "morning crew" anyway. In spite of this, two of my best friends (as well as a couple clam digging buddies) are regulars there.. they`re not quite as political as the deadbeat morning guys (who sit in there all day drinking free coffee and tip like the cheap-asses they are), and we kind of have an understanding that we just don`t talk politics... hang out playing cards, smoking our sticks and/or pipes watching hockey and planning our next beach foraging trips. So basically, you`ll probably find some good people in your local shop though you`ll likely have to "kiss a few frogs" as it were.

There's no shortage of them around here in North Texas and they don't seem to know how to keep their mouths shut when it comes to politics.

I don't smoke in the house, so this place just seems like a good place to hang out and watch a Rangers game later on in the summer when it gets hot as hell outside, but if it's a bagger retreat I'd just as soon not.

Ultimately, what was your impression of the place and the clientele? Usually, since cigar and pipe smoking is something of a luxury, most of these places put an emphasis on higher-end drinks as well.. (nothing goes so well with a good Opus X as a nice dram of Balvenie Double Wood).. if it seems like the kind of place you'd be comfortable watching your Rangers beat the snot out of my pathetic Mariners, if you go back a few times, I imagine you'll find some decent company amongst the knuckledraggers.

The clientele looked to be upper middle class, but it's kind of hard to tell with cigar guys from what I've known of them. The pipe guys I have known tend to be foreigners and long beard types (although I am neither). These were definitely not those types, but I didn't want to judge too much because I've only been once and even then it was in the afternoon on a weekday.

My wife's lounge only has a couple reviews there but your local spot might have more.

The bigger tobacco shops seem to have them. I just need to check around.

Was kind of guessing that was the area you meant by North Texas.. saw some decent reviews.. Up in Smoke in the Uptown (?) area sounded like a little bit of a local celebrity spot.

But I left all that stuff behind a long time ago. Always very glad I didn't, really, pick up tobacco, because I know I would have had a hell of a time quitting.

But I can see the appeal if it's something you like, especially since there are few indoor public places left where smokers can smoke, in many states.

Edited to add: When I was a kid, everything was a smoking lounge. It was inescapable.

I have fond memories of my smoking youth and the NY Central Hudson line smoking/bar cars. Where else could a 15 year old get drunk in public in a thick cloud of smoke?

Or was that a rhetorical question?

Especially the era they're in now.

Extra fun was being stuck in the car in the wintertime with the parents who were puff-puff-puffing and refused to roll the windows down because "it's cold out there!"

Gaaaack.

Kinsey found a cult and Lane hanged himself. It's a shame because pipe smoking was popular back then. Kinsey is a real life pipe smoker also.

He's this great mix of brilliant and hapless.

He seems to be coming to grips with the fact that he's been handed everything his whole life and that he's a complete psychopath.

I suppose addiction is a possibility for some, but this seems to just happen with ex cigarette smokers who inhale. I generally only smoke when the weather is nice so there are long periods throughout the year when I put it down for months. If you don't inhale, the risk of cancer drops to pretty much that of second hand smoke. That's why pipe tobacco is not traditionally taxed like cigs.

I've found most cigar stores (when I used to dabble in that) are too. A lot of bemoaning the fact you can't light up a giant stogie in front of pregnant women and children in an elevator or plane type stuff. I never understood the want to sit an enclosed space with multiple people inhaling smoke. Going out on the back porch was always better.

I have a few friends that are pipe and cigar guys, and some of us have been tossing around the idea of meeting up somewhere to smoke and I don't really care to hang out in a bar.