Features
Evangelista!
Click. She moves. She is slender, radiant; her close-cropped auburn hair sparkles against the bright, starkly white background, shifting ever so gently with the motion. …
America's Palio
In Siena, Italy, there is a horse race each August called the Palio, run for the past four centuries on the Feast of the Assumption. The horses are brought into the churches …
A Winning Off-the-Rack Wardrobe
The Duke of Windsor was a stickler for detail. Fanatical when it came to his clothing, he was precise about the number of buttons on his jacket sleeve and the height of his …
A Passion for Taste
A nervous young man clutching a coffee pot quickly crosses the tiled patio floor and stoops to fill a cup. Stepping back, he waits off to one side, impatiently smoking his …
Havana '59, Richmond, Virginia
It's not an exaggeration to say that Havana '59 is a revolutionary restaurant. Its atmosphere recalls and celebrates the heady first year of the Castro-led revolution in Cuba, …
L'Esperance, St.-Pere-Sous-Vezelay, France
If there is a richer, more voluptuous bite of food anywhere on the planet than Marc Meneau's cromesqui, I have yet to taste it. To make cromesquis, Meneau melts foie gras and …
Quaglino's, London
Quaglino's restaurant in London's West End has not always been everyone's favorite restaurant. Some say it's too glitzy and impersonal. But the prevailing wisdom these days is …
Brandy's Best
As the door closes behind you, it takes a few seconds for your eyes to adjust to the comparative darkness after the brilliant sunshine outside. Immediately, your nostrils prickle …
The Guardian of Liberalism
Sitting in his office at the City University of New York, Arthur Schlesinger judges himself harshly. "I've dissipated too much of my life in doing things which are totally …
Rings of Art
It is a rainy May morning in Frank Stella's cavernous studio in Manhattan's East Village. The click of sprockets on a reel-to-reel projector echoes in the darkened room. The …
Amandari, Kedewatan, Bali
There is no more sublime a place to begin a discovery of Bali's innocence and beauty than at a small hotel in the village of Kedewatan, called Amandari. Sanskrit for "the place of …
La Mamounia, Marrakech, Morocca
Any property that welcomed Winston Churchill as a cherished guest has to appreciate the cigar smoker. La Mamounia in Marrakech, the jewel in the crown of Morocco's many lavish …
The Dorchester, London
All luxury hotels have luxury in common. Where they differ is in their style. The Dorchester, built in the 1930s at the lower end of Park Lane, is a masterpiece of discreet …
By Hand and Foot
It is a remarkably warm and sunny March afternoon in London. Twelve men and one woman are gathered in the cool hush of the temperature-controlled, rust-carpeted humidor room at …
Forbidden Land
There are two dreams that all cigar aficionados eventually share: first, to smoke one of the greatest of the great Cuban cigars, a Cohiba Esplendido, Romeo y Julieta Churchill, …
Comp City
"How much does a guy have to lose in this joint before they start taking care of him?" Max Rubin asks, dumping $3,000 worth of black $100 chips onto one of the MGM Grand Casino's …
Cigar Friendly Life Insurance
John Q. Cigarsmoker, seeking life insurance, buys a $500,000 whole-life policy from insurance company A. Unfortunately, Company A is one of the many that includes the two-a-day …
Fighter Jets for the Home
The fighter plane models that Guillermo Rojas Bazan builds are good; perhaps too good. "I am very impressed with the models in the photographs you sent," a collector wrote. "I …
The 4x4 Equation
Drive into any suburban mall parking lot today and take a look around. Instead of row after row of sleek sedans with virtually the same sloping roof lines, there are bulbous tops …
Audiophilia
High-end audio is its own rarefied world, a community so self-contained that new arrivals are barely noticed, although welcome. It is a club whose access, though democratic, still …
A Gentleman of History
Prior to the First World War, warfare was viewed among English gentlemen as an exciting and gallant activity. As a rite of passage, ambitious military officers eagerly sought …
Cigars
Goodfella
For Dennis Franz of TV's "NYPD Blue," life Is good.
The Time Between
Armed with his usual positive outlook on life, actor Michael Nouri heads for Broadway.
100 Years of Retailing
The year is 1895. Grover Cleveland is in his labor-troubled second term as president. Cuba battles Spain for autonomy. The Lumière brothers make the first movie. Katie Ruth gives …
A Connecticut Leaf in Cuba
Cuba is Growing Hundreds of Acres of Connecticut Seed Tobacco for Shade Wrappers
The Man Who Created Cohiba
It was just another visit to a cigar store in Havana. The newly constructed shop in the Comodoro hotel, one of the city's premier hotels, was overseen by two people, who guided …
Dan Blumenthal
Marvin R. Shanken interviews the man behind Hoyo de Monterrey and Punch.
Ratings from this Issue
Up Front
The President Celebrates With Cigars
President Clinton got it right in May. According to the White House, when Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady was rescued in a daring raid inside Bosnia, National Security adviser …
Out of the Humidor
Dear Marvin, I am a police officer in Southern California. Approximately two years ago, I was forced to shoot and kill a mentally deranged woman who was attacking my …