Episode 1 | Gran Habano Persian King

Welcome to Sticks and Stones, the podcast for serious cigar smokers and even more serious commercial real estate deals. So, this podcast is all about cigar smoking and cigars in general and commercial real estate. So, I'm a commercial real estate broker. I've based pretty much my my whole life around commercial real estate and real estate deals. And I am an avid cigar smoker. I smoke anywhere from two to five cigars a day. So, I figured why not combine the two? So, that's what this podcast is all about. Sticks and Stones is about cigars, cigar smoking, cigar lounges, picks, recommendations, tips, tricks, stories. I'll probably bring on some guests and friends. And it's also going to talk about real estate deals, all sorts of stuff. So, kicking off the podcast and just as a promise, this podcast is only going to get bigger and better and we're going to be investing in this podcast and we're building currently building a new studio. So, you know, stick with us guys and we appreciate it. So, why do cigars pair well with the business world and cigar smoking and business deal making? Well, you know, I think that when people think of cigar smoking, when when you hear I'm going to go smoke a cigar, people are doing two, three, four, five things at once. That, you know, when you say you're going to go smoke a cigar, it's kind of synonymous with you're going to go chill out, you're going to go hang out, you're going to blow off some steam, you're going to relax if you had a hard day, a hard week, whatever it is, and you're very focused on that one thing. So, you're not at a cigar lounge or you're not, you know, somewhere relaxing, having a cigar and paying bills, writing checks, or doing admin work. You are there to hang out and smoke. You may be having a drink. You may be having coffee, but you're there for that one purpose. And I think that multiple people that are involved in a deal or are will be involved in a deal. I think a lot of deals are made in cigar lounges or we all know that a lot of deals are made on a golf course and most golfers not all but most golfers are also cigar smokers. So I think they kind of go hand in hand. I know personally a lot of deals I have made were done at a cigar lounge. It's just it's a it's a chill environment. It's a comfortable environment. It's an an environment outside of the boardroom, outside of the office where people can kind of, you know, let their hair down, kind of let you know what what they're thinking about, what they're going through, what's going through their mind about the deal, you know, so on and so forth. And you're able to hyperfocus on that one thing, on that deal, on that property, on that business transaction or that the business that they're that you're buying or selling or whatever. I think that you can you can get a better deal done in a comfortable environment on the golf course, at a cigar lounge, you know, at a nice restaurant, whatever. I feel that you can and just, you know, my personal opinion and and the deals that I've done in my career, I've done bigger deals. I've done better deals outside of the office than I have in the office or in the boardroom. You know, that's just it's just the way it is. So my my personal story with cigars, I would say I have been smoking oh boy maybe since 2009 2010. Um which at the time of this recording it is fall of 2025. That puts me at uh 15 16 years uh smoking cigars. And you know it's it's a journey. I mean it's a it's a fun ride. you um you definitely cigar smoking will take you a lot of places. Just just the pursuit of cigars or a cigar shop or a cigar lounge. It'll it'll take you places. I mean, I've been the cigar shops and lounges all over the world. Geneva, Switzerland, and California, Vegas, of course, Miami, all over the United States. So, I mean, it's a fun fun ride. It's definitely a fun ride. And you know, you meet a lot of interesting people. You meet a lot of business people. I mean, cigar smokers. My my goodness, so many business people, entrepreneurs, and CEOs smoke cigars. I mean, it it's it's definitely a hobby, a pastime, a leisure that a lot of the seauite are involved in. So, meet a ton of people. You know, you see a lot of different locations, meet a lot of different shop owners. Sometimes if you're lucky, you can meet some cigar brand owners, cigar rep, you know, cigar manufacturer reps, and you learn a lot of stuff like you learn a lot of things. You learn about, you know, new cigars that are coming out and, you know, stuff like that. It's definitely definitely something that is a long-term thing. Cigars and cigar smoking is something that most people stick with for many, many years. And I'm actually going to give you my recommendation now. So, I I prefer the old school just straight cut. I'm going to dig in there just a little bit and I'm going to twist, which if your blade is sharp enough, you won't take a lot of effort to get that cut. So, what I'm smoking today is the Persian King from Grand Habano, which honestly I think Grand Habano doesn't get enough love. I will say this, I have personally reached out to Grand Habano. They never called me back. They never responded to my inquiry on the website and it was basically just to find out where I can get the Persian King because it is a great smoke, but there aren't a lot of shops that stock it. And I asked one of the cigar shop owners that I know, you know, what's the deal? Why why don't more shops stock this thing? And the one owner that I spoke to told me that Grand Habano doesn't move. You know, shop owners stock it and then it sits on the shelves. So, you know, that's just from one person's perspective. But I will say it's really tough to find. It's really tough to find anything Grand Habano for some reason. But this is a great stick. It doesn't. It's got a lot of It's got a lot of taste. It's not It's not mild by any means, but it's not super bold. It's got great draw. This is the 60 ring gauge. It's got great smoke output. The ash usually, you know, holds together is in um usually a good solid color, you know, and it's a good it's a good affordable smoke. This thing won't break the bank. So, you know, a guy like me who's smoking two to five cigars a day, do I do I love the David Offs? Of course, I love the the the late hour. I love a lot of the David Off brand, but David Off is not known to be the cheapest smoke around. And when you smoke as many cigars as I do, I mean, you have to be costconscious on your daily drivers. I I can't uh I can't be smoking a$25 $30 cigar, you know, multiple times a day. I mean, this is it's a great stick. It really is. I mean, this this one this one's really tough to beat for the price. Depending on where depending on where you find it, you can get the the Grand Habano Persian King for 750, eight bucks, you know, maybe, which by no stretch of the imagination is is that dirt cheap. However, it's not $25, $30. So I think there are parallels with cigar smoking in commercial real estate in that it's patience time consuming but you don't you don't smoke a cigar in 8 minutes it's not a cigarette you know it's not a it's not a 2-minute smoke you know these things take you anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour hour and a half depending on the vata you're smoking strength and everything else so you know commercial real estate same thing it takes you a while as far as investments real estate is a great investment whether that's residential or commercial, but real estate the liquidity is is not very high at all. You're not getting in and out of real estate quickly. You're going to buy and hold. You know, fix and flip, yeah, you can, but even fix and flip on a residential deal, fix and flip, you're it's going to it's going to take you a bare minimum of 6 months to to acquire the property, rehab the property, put it up for sale, and then close on a on the properties, you know, sell it. So, both real estate and cigar smoking, you know, it takes a lot of patience. It takes, you know, the right timing because I have done deals on properties that sat and sat and sat on the market and didn't move, didn't have much activity, um, and then all of a sudden just boom had a flood of activity and sold. So, you know, your timing has to be right. You have to be patient and you have to have long-term vision. You know, get into cigar smoking because it's something that you want to it's a fad. You're going to get in and get out. It's something that you you kind of hold on to for life. You know, most of the guys that I know, most of the guys that I smoke with have been doing it for for decades, you know. So, it's uh it's got a lot of parallels to to the commercial real estate industry. I would say, you know, commercial real estate insights, you know, current market trends, the we're in a really, really weird time right now for commercial real estate and and really the real estate market in general. And why do I say that? I say that because we're in a very strange time right now. We're in a time of instability. No one really knows what's going on. No one knows what's happening with, you know, the tariff wars, with the markets. Is it going to be the stock market? Is it going to be the gold market? You know, is is my gold bullion? Is my gold coins going to be worth anything in a year? Do I focus on cryptocurrency or is it still stocks and bonds, whatever? So, anytime there's insecurity, unsurityity, when people are unsure of a lot of things, what do they do? They stand still. They don't do anything. So, they hold off on their plans. They hold off on buying. they hold off on selling unless it gets, you know, really bad and they and they get desperate, then, you know, sometimes you got to do what you got to do. The trends right now, I mean, there's one trend that I'm seeing, and we're actually going to post on it. We have several we have several social uh accounts, but there's there's one thing that I'm seeing, and that's office buildings were like the plague. people after you know the pandemic and corona hit every investor was like give me multif family multif family multif family give me industrial industrial industrial everyone was staying away from retail because so many so many landlords got obliterated in COVID so many people so many retail tenants just leaving out of nowhere and office buildings I mean I mean for obvious reasons you know we had a global pandemic with a virus that was highly contagious and you have a bunch of people in one office building. Yeah. Like nobody wanted to be in office and then the government shut everybody down. So then everyone went to work remotely and no one and their brother wanted to buy office to save anyone's life. And I know of past clients that bought office buildings for $6 7 million that pre- pandemic were trading for 29, 30, 35 million. I mean, crazy. But I am starting to see a trend in office buildings. I see a lot more there's a lot more happening in office right now. And you know this is my own personal opinion but office buildings I feel are going to start to spike again because you know there are certain things that are happening and you know we're going to post about this but you know there's office buildings that are going up you know 150,000 plus square ft office buildings mixed use and I think that's the trend. I think the trend is developers have learned their lessons not to build strictly quote unquote office buildings, just office. I think the trend is going to be mixeduse office parks. And what do I mean when I say that? I mean that office building developers are going to start building from the ground up or rehabbing current office building parks and they're going to create something that is very similar to a mixeduse luxury living space with restaurants and you know offices and you know professional sections and and all that kind of thing you know car parks and and whatnot. So, in the event that there is another global pandemic that forces everyone to stay home, you know, you're going to have some essential services in these office parks. You're going to have, you know, car parking. You're going to have doctor's offices. You're going to have restaurants where you can have outdoor seating so, you know, you can social distance and still partake and still be a patron, you know. So, I think developers have learned their lesson from the global pandemic of the past and I think um I think they're going to start building office parks that can get more people involved, you know, more sectors, more industries. So, you have retail, you have restaurants, and you have offices all in the same building or the same complex. I think that's the trend. I think that's the new trend. But most definitely I see office making a comeback. I see more plays are being made for for office parks, for office buildings. I think that's definitely where the market is going or will be going. So yeah, you know, I would I would keep an eye on that if you're looking for an investment. I would keep an eye on on office space because as these big companies, you know, it's like a it's a collaborative thing. They're and it's true. It's so true. You can get a lot work done from home if you are a self-starter, self-motivator, self-driven, without a doubt. However, there's that collaborative aspect from being in the office. You know, your mentor, if you if you have a mentor, they're they're not going to be right there to to help you out. They're not going to be there to have that conversation with you. You're not going to be around the water cooler having conversations with co-workers and teammates and stuff like that. So I think as bigger larger corporations are calling everyone back to the office that is going to be a thing where you know smaller businesses are going to be looking for more office space and medium-sized businesses are going to be looking for entire floors and stuff like that. So I I definitely think that office is going to be a play very soon. Um I see it happening now. I see all the you know the news the deals co-star and uh Kraxy and all that. So, it's definitely going to be making a comeback. It's just a matter of will they get back to like prepandemic markets and and prices and rates. I'm not sure. I don't have that crystal ball. But, it's definitely a trend that I see and I see it coming. Getting back to this cigar, one of the key things I look at I look for when I look for a cigar, is it going to die on me 12 times in one smoke? You see that? And that's not that holds no prejudice with price point. So I have had 40 $50 cigars die on me a bunch of times in one smoke. And I've had $2.50 cigars die on me a bunch of times in one smoke. You know, the the Drew Estates factory smoke, great smoke, and most of the time fantastic. No issues staying lit, no issues any way around. But, you know, sometimes you're going to get a dud. And this cigar, the Persian king, I can think of maybe on one hand how many times this thing has died multiple times in one smoke. That's good. That's good quality assurance, man. I mean, they're checking they're check stuff. They're checking their product and they're making sure that, you know, it's it's rolled right. It's rolled with the the better the better parts of the tobacco leaf. That the draw is good, the humidification is good. It's not soggy. It's not stale. I mean, this is this is right around some of the best stuff that you can get for the for the price point. I will say this, cigar smoking, the passion that it is, the hobby that it is, the leisure that it is, there are a lot of hobbies out there that are more expensive. Obviously, there there are hobbies out there that are not as expensive. I challenge you to find another hobby that brings together various walks of life, you know, various statuses, various locations. Like I've said before, you know, you could be at a cigar lounge that Winston Churchill used to hang out at talking and drinking and smoking with a CEO of a huge, you know, gully global brand CEO and no one knows the wiser. I mean, like, unless you know, they're they're wildly recognizable, everyone's kind of the same when you go into the cigar lounge. You know, no one no one has any precepts. No one's, you know, eyeing you up or judging you. It's it's kind of like, you know, you're there and you're chilling out and you're you're all just a a group of people that have a common bond, a common interest, cigars, and you're talking about your experiences. You're talking about lounges that you've been to that you like or you dislike. You know, cigar products that you've tried, you know, you've talked about, recommended. I mean, we talk about anything and everything in in a cigar lounge, you know, sports, you know, the weather, things that are happening, current events, whether that be good or bad. And it's really and truthfully, it's it's like a brotherhood, you know, it's it's a fraternity. So you can you could have absolutely nothing in common with 10 people that you thought you had nothing in common in and then find out you all have varied interests in cigars and cigar smoking. Now you have something in common and that's like a it's a brotherhood. It's a fraternity that you kind of never break, you know, because there are people that I know that I only know from the cigar lounge and never met them outside of the cigar lounge. never done a deal with them, but you see him at the cigar lounge and that's your buddy, man. Like, you guys are are hanging off each other and cracking up and busting jokes and having a great conversation, talking about the the baseball team or the the football game from the previous night or whatever it is, family stuff, whatever. Probably wouldn't have had that if you didn't have the common interest of cigar smoking and didn't meet at the cigar lounge. And the one thing that I found, it's it's very much like the barber shop, like the local corner barber shop. You know, you you go to get your haircut or you go get um a beard shave and everybody knows each other. You know, everybody is, you know, greeting each other and shaking hands and being very friendly and very very cordial. It's kind of the same thing in a cigar lounge. You know, everybody talks to everybody. Everybody introduces themselves. You know, no one is is greater than or beneath anyone else. Everyone's just there for a good time. They're there for a good time. Smoke a cigar or two or three. Maybe have a drink or, you know, coffee, whatever. Enjoy yourself and then go home. You know, it's it's it's a great experience when you're with great people and you're having a good time over a pastime you guys all love, smoking cigars, chilling out, you know, being brothers and sisters basically. because, you know, I I do have a few friends that are female frequent the cigar lounge. You know, it is a thing now, guys. We can't be sexist about that. There's there's some very very interesting ladies out there that have the same affinity we do. They actually um one of the country club in New Jersey had a food and beverage manager that was very interesting lady, super cool, loved cigars, loved tequila, very knowledgeable at all sorts of spirits and it was a good time talking to her. Was good time. So, yeah. I mean, and and she knew her stuff when it came to tobacco. I mean, she she knew her cigars. So, you know, it's it's a great it's a great pastime. It's a great leisure activity. You know, you're not hurting anyone, having a good time. It relaxes you. You know, it's a it's it's in my opinion, it's great all the way around. So, I hope you enjoyed this podcast. This is some of the content that we're going to be sharing on this podcast. Hopefully very soon we're going to be bringing guests on, friends, maybe some industry experts in both real estate and tobacco. So until the next episode, I'm Angelo Mitlo. This is Sticks and Stones. And just keep on rolling. Keep on rolling, baby. Till next time.