Please click on the links below to view an announcement of particular interest or scroll down the page to view all recent announcements:

»  Milan Tobacconists Sponsors a Tour to Rocky Patel Premium Cigars in Honduras (4/2/09)
»  Longtime Milan Customer Glynn Loope Named Cigar Rights of America's Executive Director (12/9/08)
»  The Big Move (7/30/08)
»  Milan Tobacconists, Inc. Relocating After More Than 50 Years In Its Current Location! (7/15/08)

Milan Tobacconists Sponsors a Tour to Rocky Patel Premium Cigars in Honduras (4/2/09)
Hosted by Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, 15 lucky Milan customers signed up to spend 4 days in late March with Rocky at his guest house in Danli, Honduras. Day trips included sightseeing in Danli; tours of Rocky's Caribbean and U.S. cigar factories where guests created their own custom blend cigars; and tours of the tobacco fields, farm house, nursery, and drying barns. The evenings were filled with relaxation, cigar smoking, cocktails, dinner, and musical entertainment poolside at the guest house. Customers paid airfare and taxes; all other expenses were covered. *Click here to read a very informative journal written by one of the adventurers - Tom Curling!*

Longtime Milan Customer Glynn Loope Named Cigar Rights of America's Executive Director (12/9/08)
Cigar Rights of America (CRA), a membership-based organization formed to fight for the rights of cigar smokers and against tax increases and smoking bans, has named Glynn Loope as its Executive Director.

We want to take this opportunity to congratulate Glynn on his well-deserved appointment and share with you excerpts from a recent article in Cigar-Review.com!

»»»Loope is the head of Commonwealth Advance LLC, based in Covington, VA, a government relations/economic development consulting firm that has had serious experience dealing with the same prohibitive measures that CRA seeks to address. Most recently, he represented the Cigar Association of Virginia since 2006 where he was involved in seeking to mitigate another set of proposed draconian measures that would have adversely affected cigar smokers and tobacconists in that state.

His involvement with the tobacconists came as a result of his frequenting a tobacconist in Roanoke, VA - Milan, which is approaching 100 years old - that is adjacent to an excellent steakhouse, Frankie Rowland's. They asked Loope to help fight the first anti-smoking legislation introduced in the Virginia General Assembly.

Out of that effort he developed his own passions, not the least of which is clear when he states, "The nanny government has gotten out of control. We don’t need the government to tell us how to lead our lives."

Glynn Loope feels that " ... in the political arena the smoking bans are a diversionary tactic, designed to obscure the fact that politicians do nothing about the serious issues of education, security, etc."

We spoke today [12/5/08], when the CRA Board voted to confirm his appointment, to get his vision for CRA and he quickly laid out several points that were to be addressed forthwith:

• Setting up an office in Washington, DC, or Northern Virginia.
  
• Meeting with Legal Counsel.
• Meeting with Brian Berman, the Membership Director, with regard to rapidly increasing membership.
• Fund Raising: Glynn says CRA need "seven figures" to be able to do the job required.
• Working out a political strategy, which includes partnering with other trade associations and groups that have extensive experience in dealing with legislatures at every level to protect their industry's well being.

Kudos to the CRA Board for their selection of Glynn Loope.

In the October issue of Smokeshop magazine, Loope wrote an article discussing the prospects of tobacco in the forthcoming election. His commentary was very salient and realistic in his discussion of the SCHIPS and FDA issues you can see it here.«««

Related Website Links: Cigar Rights of America, Cigar-Review.com, Smokeshop Magazine

The Big Move! (click any image to enlarge)
On Saturday, July 26th, Milan Tobacconists closed its "old" shop at 2:00 pm, at which time The Big Move began in earnest to the "new" shop.

Owners David and Renée Meyer had decided weeks before to conduct the move themselves in order to closely coordinate the ebb and flow of merchandise between the old and new stores. For example, the cigar humidor at the new store had not yet reached the peak level of humidification on moving day to house all of our premium and ultra-premium cigars properly, so we had to wait until Sunday to move the cigars. It's fair to say a moving company would not have been so patient!

We have always said that Milan Tobacconists' has the greatest customers in the world, and Saturday's move proved that time and again as they started showing up unsolicited to lend a hand, volunteering for everything from packing up products, to loading display cases into the rental truck and coordinating delivery of pizzas and sodas for the "crew." The volunteers worked side by side with Milan staff, friends, and family while the Meyers' Labrador Buddy supervised. Of course, there were free cigars for all!

The Meyers had also brought their secret weapons out of retirement to help with unpacking and setting up product displays at the new store - none other than Don and Myriam Roy, previous owners of Milan Tobacconists. The dynamic duo was instrumental to a successful move on too many levels to mention here, and their support was greatly appreciated! (Learn more about Don and Myriam on our About Us page.)

Aside from the new store's cigar humidor being a little slow to pick up steam, the only other hitch we experienced was how to transport our circa 1900 steel safe. The safe weighs in at roughly 700 pounds and sits atop steel wheels. After much deliberation among the brawnier crew members, it was decided that it would be physically impossible to safely (or unsafely) push the safe up the narrow ramp into the rental truck. The 5-person team decided to instead push the safe two blocks up the street to its new location - really! An odd sight on a Saturday afternoon to say the least, but not one single person stopped to ask what in the world they were doing. Have you ever seen a safe pushed up a downtown street? Well, the plan worked and no vehicles were damaged during the journey. We all breathed a sigh of relief when it reached its new home.

Sunday brought another steady stream of customers - this time to take a preview peak at the new store. In addition to giving tours, the staff and family spent Sunday unpacking, cleaning, painting, setting out merchandise, and transporting cigars to the new humidor, which had finally achieved the proper humidification level. The Meyers worked late into the night putting the final touches on the new store before its debut on Monday morning.

It's showtime! Our "regulars" arrived one after another on Monday to check out their new tobacco shop, and we received positive reviews from all. There are still a myriad of details to address over the next few weeks, but we're settling in and happy to be in our new home. Many thanks to everyone who helped make the move possible!

To all of our online customers, please make sure to stop by and see us if you ever visit the Roanoke, Virginia, area. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the pictures.

Milan Tobacconists, Inc. Relocating After More Than 50 Years In Its Current Location!
Milan Tobacconists is purchasing the 309 South Jefferson Street Building in Historic Downtown Roanoke, Virginia. We are committed to the continued revitalization of Downtown Roanoke and believe our purchase of the 309 South Jefferson Street Building, just blocks away from the tobacco shop's current location where we have leased space for over 50 years, reflects that commitment. The building purchase also allows us more flexibility and control over the direction of the tobacco shop, which offers a wide variety of premium cigars, pipes, pipe tobacco, and smoking accessories from its physical location and globally through our website and mail order business.

The 309 South Jefferson Building retail space, which previously accommodated a wine shop on the first floor, is well-suited for our 96-year-old tobacco shop, an historical icon itself. We are currently renovating the building and targeting late summer for the relocation, anticipating no interruption in service to our clientele. Plans for a members-only smoking club on the second floor of the building are also in the works and will include billiards, a poker table, and big screen television.

The Roanoke Times recently reported on the store's relocation, which we have reprinted here:  Historic Cigar Shop On The Move

Sincerely,

David and Renée Meyer
Owners
Milan Tobacconists, Inc.

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