jgohlke
My other hobby
They had big doin's going on Saturday for a parade they planned to have that night. Some kind of a Mardi Gras thing. It was before lunch and not much open, so we circled the block a couple of times scoping the place out. They had the main drag closed down for the festivities. We found the Tampa Sweethearts building (it's an A. Fuente corporate store)...we drove around it once before stopping and going in. The whole time, my wife is asking me "Are you SURE this is the right place?". It looks like a big square 3 or 4 story building that was built in the mid 1800's and then never renovated. The bottom half of it is all boarded up with what looks like overlapping 6"x9" sheets of metal and unmatched scraps of wood and plywood. The whole building is painted flat black or covered in creosote, I couldn't tell which. It looked completely abandoned, except for a few cars in the parking lot and the propped open front door.
We park and go inside. The lobby of the building is about 8 feet by 8 feet square with a small display case of shirts. No cigars. There is a window, almost like an old fashioned teller station at the bank. I knock on the window and some old guy comes to the window. I ask him, "Is this a store?". He is very friendly and tells me it's the Fuente store and they sell all the Fuente products. He's moving a bit slow, but he's very helpful and we review all the products. He gives me the spiel on each of the product lines and I settle on a bundle of Flor de Ybor City Toros. They have natural and maduro and I ask him to explain the difference just to hear what he has to say. He does a very nice job of detailing the differences and I pick the naturals.
He starts to ring me up. The cash register isn't cooperating and he calls for some help. A younger guy (40ish) comes out of another office to help him. They futz with the cash register a bit and get it working. The younger guy tells me they just got some new shirts in and we talk about the shirts. He is also very nice and friendly. I decide to buy an Opus X t-shirt and he gets the two styles they have and I pick one. Now they have to add the shirt on to the cigar sale, but the cash register isn't cooperating, so they tell me they are going to ring me up in two sales instead of one. No problem. While I'm standing there, the younger guy offers me his hand and says, "I'm Arturo Fuente Jr. and this is my dad, Arturo Fuente Sr.". I introduce myself, we all shake hands. I'm kind of stunned to meet them both so casually on a Saturday in Ybor City (not the nicest area of Tampa), in a dumpy little building that looked like it might have been on fire recently....ha, ha, ha. It was very cool though and one of the highlights of my weekend.
We park and go inside. The lobby of the building is about 8 feet by 8 feet square with a small display case of shirts. No cigars. There is a window, almost like an old fashioned teller station at the bank. I knock on the window and some old guy comes to the window. I ask him, "Is this a store?". He is very friendly and tells me it's the Fuente store and they sell all the Fuente products. He's moving a bit slow, but he's very helpful and we review all the products. He gives me the spiel on each of the product lines and I settle on a bundle of Flor de Ybor City Toros. They have natural and maduro and I ask him to explain the difference just to hear what he has to say. He does a very nice job of detailing the differences and I pick the naturals.
He starts to ring me up. The cash register isn't cooperating and he calls for some help. A younger guy (40ish) comes out of another office to help him. They futz with the cash register a bit and get it working. The younger guy tells me they just got some new shirts in and we talk about the shirts. He is also very nice and friendly. I decide to buy an Opus X t-shirt and he gets the two styles they have and I pick one. Now they have to add the shirt on to the cigar sale, but the cash register isn't cooperating, so they tell me they are going to ring me up in two sales instead of one. No problem. While I'm standing there, the younger guy offers me his hand and says, "I'm Arturo Fuente Jr. and this is my dad, Arturo Fuente Sr.". I introduce myself, we all shake hands. I'm kind of stunned to meet them both so casually on a Saturday in Ybor City (not the nicest area of Tampa), in a dumpy little building that looked like it might have been on fire recently....ha, ha, ha. It was very cool though and one of the highlights of my weekend.
:thumbs: 