JUST FOR HIM 'A Unique Gift Shoppe for Men'

On my way back to St. Louis this past Sunday, I took an opportunity to stop into a tobacco shop in Springfield, MO: JUST FOR HIM (click for website). I found this place by surfing the net before I left for my trip to Table Rock Lake.

JFH is located in the major shopping area of Springfield and is only a couple of miles off of HWY 65. The shop is situated in the middle of a strip mall with a huge sign that you absolutely cannot miss. The shop’s layout is half gift shop and half tobacco. The right side of the store is the gift shop for men. It is full of chess boards, home beer and root beer brewing kits, wallets, globes, poker cards and other games, book ends, canes, tie accessories, etc. The back of the right side of the shop is a huge selection of hats. Cool hats! Not baseball or visors or anything commercial. They had fedoras, bowlers, madhatter hats (!), straw hats, Indiana Jones hats (that was the name of the actual hat), derbies, safari and anything else you could think of.

After 15 minutes of browsing through the gift shop side I went to the left side of the shop. It was cut in half…half pipes and half cigars. The pipe section of the shop was probably the biggest selection of them I’ve ever seen. I don’t know much about them, but the selection was cool to look at. The back half of the left side of the shop was all about cigars. Cigar accessories were available, but I didn’t really look at them. The back part of this side was a lounge area (seating for about 5) and a TV. I walked up the step or two and asked the guys what was on TV and they were all friendly. One of them (a long time customer…Jon maybe) took me to the walk in humidor and showed me around. The humidor was of decent size (comparable to Alcorn’s) and had a nice selection. Jon recommended a few of his favorite cigars: Illusione, La Riqueza, El Triunfador, Liga Privada and Padron (obviously he doesn’t mind spending a lot of money on cigars). I chose three cigar brands that I have never had before: an Illusione Epernay Le Grande (6 x46), an Illusione f9 Finesse (6 ¼ x 44) and a Liga Privada Oscuro No. 9 (5 x 52). There was a nice selection of Tatuajes, Don Pepin Garcias and a few other cigars that are not found in every cigar shop.

I chatted with the gentleman that manned the register (don’t recall name) and he said the shop does very well and has been around for over 20 years. He just got back from St. Louis where he met with a few cigar shops in St. Louis to discuss cigars and what is going on in the cigar world. He met with John’s Pipe Shop, Hill Cigar and Town and Country Tobacco. He said they are all excited about the new EP Carrillo Short Run lines coming out (which might be available at JRs already). The price is supposed to be friendlier than the Inaugural blend ($13/cigar) at around $7 per cigar. The ‘short run’ means that there will be enough tobacco for an estimated two year period that will provide consistent a consistent blend. I think I remember him saying that this fall a ‘long run’ will be released for a consistent cigar with enough tobacco to last for 5-7 years.

JUST FOR HIM is worth the detour if you are ever in Springfield, MO. The cigar prices are similar to Alcorn’s in St. Louis and the staff and patrons were very friendly (there was even a little dog running around the shop that was friendly too) and the gift shop was very interesting to look through.

Side note (not worthy of a seperate post)...
I have already smoked the Epernay and the f9. Both cigars looked great had superb construction and burn. The flavors in both were sweet (main stage) and floral (aftertaste and background) and had very smooth draws with ample smoke. The Epernay was VERY mild with just a tiny hint of black pepper here and there. The f9 was more of a medium bodied smoke with more pepper spice to it. The flavors were a little too mild for me, and I kept waiting for the cigars to actually develop into a rich cigar, but they never did. There is a lot of hype around Illusione cigars and for the price ($9-$10 per cigar) I expected a lot more from them. I will smoke more Illusiones if gifted to me, but I will not purchase anymore as the price is not justified. If I had to rate them…I would say a 65/100 for the Epernay and a 79/100 for the f9. The Liga Privada will be smoked this week and after some light internet searching this one should be more full bodied and have a really sweet profile. After the Illusiones, I have high hopes for the Liga Privada.

Take care and see you all this Friday at Growler's-
Joe