Mystique and Camaraderie of Cigars Fuels ‘The Merchant’

publication date: Jul 7, 2008

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author/source: Tim Altork / STAFF

By Tim Altork / STAFF

David Witte, owner of the Cigar Merchant in Alpharetta, poses with one of his most loyal customers.

To the people who frequent the place, it’s known simply as the “the Merchant.” For those who understand the verbal shorthand, the name evokes visions of middle-aged men basking in a communal shower of smoke and bonding over one of the most basic, yet complex, leisure items known to man – the cigar.

“The Merchant” is the Cigar Merchant, which has three stores in the northern suburbs of Atlanta. And to walk into the store at the intersection of Old Alabama and Nesbit Ferry Road is to be hit with the unmistakable pungency of years of set-in cigar smoke and the now-odd juxtaposition of people smoking indoors.

“What’s nice about our store is we still provide an area to come in, sit down, watch TV, play cards with the guys,” said owner David Witte. “We open at nine o’clock Monday through Saturday. And every day I’ve got a group of five guys that come in here. They sit down, they open their laptops, they start making conference calls, answering e-mails and have their morning cigar and coffee.”

The Merchant regulars are a fraternal sort of group, but Witte (pronounced Witt-ee) gives his assurances that the door – to his shop and the “fraternity” – is always open to the newcomer. It’s not uncommon to see a completely new face come into the store, open up his laptop and light up a cigar.

“What’s nice is, they overhear a conversation and they’ll jump in on it,” Witte said. “And the next thing you know they’re fully engaged in the conversation. When it boils down to it, there’s really not an intimidation in here. When guys come in here, they’re like-minded people.”

But Witte serves the spectrum of cigar buyers, from the monthly customer who stocks up and goes home to the first-time smoker intrigued by the world of cigars.

The latter is one of Witte’s favorite groups, the seeking man ready to be converted by the gospel of cigar smoking. Witte teaches them the difference between mild, medium and full-bodied cigars and the vast array of flavor profiles that are out there and sets them up with something they’ll be able to handle on their first go-round.

“We don’t want to start them off with something so strong they’re going to go out in the parking lot and take a knee,” Witte said, laughing. “You’re halfway through that cigar and you don’t remember your phone number. We don’t want to do that.”

Witte bought the Cigar Merchant store in Alpharetta in 2006 and got the naming rights with it. So while there are two other stores with the name (one in Roswell, another in Dunwoody) they are only loosely affiliated with each other.

“The other two Cigar Merchants pay me a yearly fee to use the name,” Witte said. “There’s 14 years of marketing behind the name, so it’s an advantage to them to keep the name.”

His store has been open for 14 years, but it’s only been under his guidance since he sold an investment property that he owned in Cartersville and bought out the original owner. It was a major career change for a man who had spent 20 years in the construction business.

“I just basically got burned out,” he said. “There were several times where I wanted to get into something different. I always wanted to have like a little sporting goods store or some kind of a bar restaurant, a place where you’re going to have people come in and there’s going to be groups, camaraderie, good times, sit around and chit-chat – you know, that social environment.”

He found that environment at the Merchant, but his place is much more than a smoke-filled frat house. He has one of the widest selections of cigars in the area and is an appointed merchant for Davidoff of Geneva, “the Louis Vuitton of cigars,” as he describes it. His is one of just three such stores in Georgia and approximately 200 in the country. He also features La Flor Dominicana and Ashton’s exclusive VSG line.

He augments his business through outside accounts, supplying golf courses and country clubs throughout the northern suburbs with their full selection of cigars. (A representative of the Country Club of the South came in and stocked up the day the Beacon was there.)

But his bread and butter is the walk-in customers and the regulars that thrive on his supply of cigars and the haven that he provides for them to smoke them.

“Even if a guy goes to work and has a super crappy day, he’s going to get off work. He’s going to come over here. He’s going to buy a cigar. He’s going to sit down and relax. He’s going to smoke the cigar, talk to the guys and just unwind from the day and kind of just leave everything out at the curb,” Witte said.

“It’s unlike if I ran a hardware store,” he continued. “Everybody that comes in [there] is ticked off because they’ve got to buy a part because they’ve got to fix the toilet that’s been broken for two weeks. But they come in here and they automatically get in a good mood. They see it as a sanctuary.”