If you want a place to sit down with a cigar and watch a game rather than just pick up a box, Waterwheel Cigar on First Coast Highway was built for exactly that. Founder Tom Miller, a Northeast Florida native, writes on the shop's History page that the idea hit him on a rainy July morning in 2011 while he watched the British Open indoors at the Amelia Island Plantation and wished there were a cigar lounge within a reasonable drive. Heading north on A1A for lunch, he spotted a for-sale sign on the old Waterwheel Art Gallery building, bought it by the end of that year, and gutted it down to the slab, columns and roof.
The rebuild reused the building's antique cypress for the interior walls and added a 1,500-square-foot smoking lounge with leather seating, flat-screen TVs and lockers. Miller also put in heavy HVAC and smoke-removal equipment, which he says means you can smoke a cigar and walk out not smelling like one. It opened Memorial Day weekend 2012.
What's in the store:
- A walk-in humidor with more than 500 cigar facings, plus two standalone humidors for Davidoff and Opus X
- Full lines of Davidoff, Padron, Fuente and Ashton
- Cutters, lighters and humidors from Xikar, Vertigo, Vector, Savoy and Davidoff
- Five big-screen TVs, free WiFi and outdoor seating
It's also a bottle club, so you can bring your own drinks with no corking fee. The shop sits at 5047 First Coast Highway, next to the historic Vaughan-Scott Cemetery and a short drive south of The Plantation Shop at Palmetto Walk. If you're planning a long evening with a bottle you brought, transportation coordination can line up the ride home.