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New England Cigar Expo
y2pascoe
Posts: 1,727 ✭✭
So I attended the 1st annual New England Cigar Expo up in Providence, RI yesterday. While I had a good time with my buddy I have to say overall it was kind of a disappointing experience. Like I said, this was the first time the convention center in Providence had hosted an event like this, and the logistics just weren't that well thought out.
The convention center is a public building so smoking indoors is prohibited, so all the cigar venders and smoking was located on the sidewalk outside the building. There was a lot of bumping elbows going on.
Second gripe was the selection of cigars. Each vendor that was there, was only carrying one line of there brand. For instance, La Flor Dominicana was only handing out the Double Ligero. Drew Estate, which I has excited about because I figured maybe they'd be sampling Liga's or Undercrowns, was giving out nothing but Naturals! Oh and on a side note, Drew Estate had a couple of d-bags representing them yesterday. I asked how the Undercrowns were, and one of them wasted no time telling me how great they are, and then his partner pulled a band out of his pocket and said, "Well, here's what the band looks like, and if you wanna closer look at a nub it's on the ground here next to my foot", to which they looked at each other and giggled. Real customer friendly. Drew Estate may want to take a closer look at some of the hipster jack-offs representing them at these events.
My final complaint being how they handed out the cigar samples. Depending on how much you spent on tickets dictated how many samples you got. I got my tickets through Groupon, so I got 10 samples. Others got 20. I was given a punch card numbered 1 through 10. Now I assumed I could get any 10 samples I wanted. When I saw table handing out Camacho's and went over to get one, the rep told me sorry, these cigars were only avaible to the people with 1 through 20 on their punch card. See, every cigar sample was labled 1 through 20. When you grabbed one, the rep punched the corresponding number on your card. So I was S.O.L. on everything numbered 11 and above. Although, the AJ Fernandez rep that was handing out San Lotanos must have pitied me, because he gave me an Oval (which are great by the way).
Final gripe: No cigar sales!
Aside from all that. It was a good time. I got a La Aurora 1495, a Casa Magna, and a Rocky Patel Renaissance I'm looking forward to trying. There were also a lot of free liquor samples, and that's never a bad thing. Also, Federico Castelluccio, who played Furio on the Sopranos was there (which reminds me, 80% of the celebs that were on the guest bill weren't there), and my buddy and I got a picture with him
I'm the guy on the left. Anyway, we had a good time, but I don't think I'll go again next year. I just didn't feel like it was quite worth the ticket price.
The convention center is a public building so smoking indoors is prohibited, so all the cigar venders and smoking was located on the sidewalk outside the building. There was a lot of bumping elbows going on.
Second gripe was the selection of cigars. Each vendor that was there, was only carrying one line of there brand. For instance, La Flor Dominicana was only handing out the Double Ligero. Drew Estate, which I has excited about because I figured maybe they'd be sampling Liga's or Undercrowns, was giving out nothing but Naturals! Oh and on a side note, Drew Estate had a couple of d-bags representing them yesterday. I asked how the Undercrowns were, and one of them wasted no time telling me how great they are, and then his partner pulled a band out of his pocket and said, "Well, here's what the band looks like, and if you wanna closer look at a nub it's on the ground here next to my foot", to which they looked at each other and giggled. Real customer friendly. Drew Estate may want to take a closer look at some of the hipster jack-offs representing them at these events.
My final complaint being how they handed out the cigar samples. Depending on how much you spent on tickets dictated how many samples you got. I got my tickets through Groupon, so I got 10 samples. Others got 20. I was given a punch card numbered 1 through 10. Now I assumed I could get any 10 samples I wanted. When I saw table handing out Camacho's and went over to get one, the rep told me sorry, these cigars were only avaible to the people with 1 through 20 on their punch card. See, every cigar sample was labled 1 through 20. When you grabbed one, the rep punched the corresponding number on your card. So I was S.O.L. on everything numbered 11 and above. Although, the AJ Fernandez rep that was handing out San Lotanos must have pitied me, because he gave me an Oval (which are great by the way).
Final gripe: No cigar sales!
Aside from all that. It was a good time. I got a La Aurora 1495, a Casa Magna, and a Rocky Patel Renaissance I'm looking forward to trying. There were also a lot of free liquor samples, and that's never a bad thing. Also, Federico Castelluccio, who played Furio on the Sopranos was there (which reminds me, 80% of the celebs that were on the guest bill weren't there), and my buddy and I got a picture with him
I'm the guy on the left. Anyway, we had a good time, but I don't think I'll go again next year. I just didn't feel like it was quite worth the ticket price.
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