MBWorld.org Forums - My Tour of the Padron Cigar Store in Miami

During my last visit to Miami I had the opportunity to be given a tour of
the Padron Store by Jeff Padron whom I met a few months ago through
my boss Jav. For those that don't know Jeff he is a
hilarious guy who is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about his
families craft and he's a car guy like us currently driving often a
modified C63 coupe. He took time out of his Saturday to give my wife and I
and a handful of others a tour of their facility.

We parked in the back and entered through the family/employee entrance
right into the rear which was pretty awesome. You can just feel the
history and passion just walking around and seeing everything. There are
numerous pictures of family in this area and clearly tons of Padron
Cigars!! Here is where they package many of the special cigars and handle
various areas of the business. There is of course a giant humidifier to
keep things fresh. You can see they are all handmade!

Of course we got to smoke a lovely Padron 1926 series while taking the
tour. We asked Jeff "hey there are no ashtrays what do we do??" and he
replies "dude, its a cigar company, we just drop the ash on the floor"
:lol::lol:. It felt weird doing it the first time and each time but hey
thats tradition!

I'm a history guy and I really liked this old school foil stamper they
still use. It must be decades old but its still quite effective and surely
adds a soulful touch. All Padron cigar boxes are made in-house as well!
Everything felt full of the highest quality and passion with tradition.

We then are taken to the actual storefront by Jeff which is an incredible
lounge area with their products and special items they want to showcase.
There is great attention to detail like the wood is the same wood from
Nicaragua as well as identical floors chosen from the same supplier as the
ones used at Mr. Jose Padron's home. There is a wall of fame with
celebrities and also an area showing how the cigars are created from start
to finish with pictures. The furniture was fabulous and the numerous
awards on the wall were a reminder this was a family that prided itself on
creating arguably the best cigars around.

Jeff was extremely detailed in all answers to our questions and you could
feel he was happy to share his "home" with us. My wife was very touched
hearing the story of his grandfather coming to America and how he started
the company with the "hammer". Its one thing to read the story as I did in
the past but to hear it from a family member in person was really
something special that I won't forget.

We walked back to the rear to work on some "exclusively made for
Vossen":bow1: Jeff was working on. We hear a noise and to our surprise Mr.
Jose Padron HIMSELF was sitting at his desk!:clap: I think a few of us
kind of stood there for a second shocked. Jeff introduced us to him and he
was extremely nice to us. Mr. Padron is 86 and still works day to day!
What a tour of the Padron store and what an honor!

I just wanted to share my visit with cigar enthusiasts and please enjoy
the iPhone pics.

Thanks again Jeff!
http://www.padron.com/

Mike

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