There are tobacco places in this world that draw you in like the smells of freshly baked bread. The power of these places isn’t mythical or supernatural, aside from the ethereal swirling of aromatic smoke, but they have a vibe that is much more easily felt than explained. It can’t be manufactured. It can’t be forced. It just feels right. Telford’s Pipe & Cigar in Mill Valley, California, just feels right.
If it’s not the more than 2,000 tobacco SKUs stacked to the ceiling, it may be the museum-level collection of pipe and tobacco memorabilia displayed throughout the 2,800-square-foot shop. If it’s not the genuine welcoming smiles of owners Susie and Brian Telford and their staff as you walk in, perhaps it’s the 40 house-made pipe tobacco blends that will lure you. Whatever it may be, you know you’re in the right place. As Brian describes it, “We tell the story of tobacco, and we let you take it all in.”
“There’s a lot to fill your eyeballs with, which makes it a little bit of a different experience,” says Susie. “It’s warm, it’s homey, we have a fireplace in the back for our members. It’s a home away from home for a lot of people. Even people visiting us for the first time say, ‘Whoa, this feels so nice.’”
To understand Telford’s is to go back more than half a century, when Brian’s father, a CPA with Bank of America, was looking for ways to augment his income (and enjoy some cigars). In 1970, Brian’s mother noticed Larry’s Pipe Shop was for sale and it wasn’t long before Larry’s was replaced by Telford’s, and a family business was born.
At the time of the purchase, Brian was in college and working at a drugstore before being drafted to fight in Vietnam. “I was the guy on TV with the M-16 over my head, walking through jungle streams.” He served one tour and was honorably discharged. “A week after I got out of the army, I was in the tobacco business.” Susie adds, “Literally, Brian’s last job, before 53 years at Telford’s, was a soldier in Vietnam.”
Susie entered the Telford universe in the early ’90s. “I met Brian when we were fixed up on a golfing date with friends,” she says. “I was a much better tennis player and he had seen me on the tennis court, but not such a good golfer. Anyway, I take a swing and the ball winds up somewhere in the woods. Being the kind gentleman that he is, Brian found my ball. I line up for the shot and I take the club back and I hit it. And I hit a shot of a lifetime because it was an exploding golf ball. Everyone was in on the joke but me, and of course I started laughing. We had margaritas, I think, by the fourth hole, cigars on the fifth, and the rest is history.”
Susie’s background is in marketing and she began enhancing the store’s promotional efforts part-time in 1997, eventually moving to full-time in 2000.
The secret to longevity in any endeavor is perseverance, and this is no different for the Telfords. In all, they have opened and closed nine stores in the San Francisco area and one in Reno, Nevada since the ’70s. One of the shops was an original tenant at the iconic Pier 39 in San Francisco. The closures occurred for a variety of reasons, from rent increases (“One store we closed because the landlord raised the rent 325 percent”) to prohibitive local legislation. As Susie puts it, “Nowadays, it’s easier to smoke marijuana than it is to light up a cigar. California can be a very strange atmosphere.”
Brian readily admits he didn’t even smoke tobacco when he started at the shop, but he studied and learned from his father and brother about tobacco, even visiting his brother in college and buying him dinner in exchange for being taught how to properly smoke a pipe. And he believed in the business, riding the inevitable ups and downs of small business growth and expansion.
“I had a 400-square-foot shop, the original location around 1976. I was living behind the shopping center, raising two daughters, and I got a business loan on the merits of what I did,” says Brian. “I didn’t really have any credit when I got started. I just started working hard at getting the business built up.” The hard work eventually paid off.
Their current, and only, shop is just off Highway 101, 12 miles north of downtown San Francisco and four miles from the Golden Gate Bridge. They’ve been there for 18 years. It is the ideal location; the store’s signs, and Christmas lights during the holidays, are clearly visible from the freeway.
“We’re on a freeway corridor, the way of getting to and from the office and the city [a destination on the way to wine country and leaving the city, adds Susie], and when people drive by they see us on the patio,” says Brian. “With traffic slowing to a standstill in the afternoon, drivers can’t help but notice there are people in rocking chairs, enjoying tobacco. And when they still have an hour to drive, we end up seeing new faces come to the store every day. That’s where tourism is wonderful. We’re not a tourist location, but we’re right on the path.”
Telford’s had their best year to date in 2023, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges, especially when conducting tobacco business in the Golden State. Restrictions, flavor bans, taxation and stigma all create a demanding business environment.
“It’s very difficult in California,” shares Susie. “We have invited representatives to the store, we write to them and we get an acknowledgment, but it’s such an anti-tobacco state. We’ve even had a representative say, ‘Oh, we love your store. We love what you do for the community, you’re an iconic anchor to our town,’ but then they vote against us. So we do what we think we can, but with it being such a large state … Southern California doesn’t have the same concerns as Northern California, and often the two do not meet.”
Over the years, attempts have been made to create a California Tobacco Association, but echoing Susie’s insights, corralling the goals and agendas of tobacconists in a state larger than the United Kingdom is challenging. To counteract these challenges, the Telfords have dug in, and thrived, with much of the credit pointing toward their respect and love for each other.
“Brian and I try to complement each other and divide responsibilities based on our strengths and weaknesses,” shares Susie. “Brian operates the day-to-day complexities in the store and I use my marketing experience to make sure our social media, website and events create top-of-mind awareness for new and established customers.
“Life in retail can be very fast-paced, so we’ve found it vital to take couple time and personal time. Brian finds his release on a tennis court, while I enjoy Pilates, Zumba and Pickleball. Something we always look forward to is our worldwide trips where we speak the universal language that is tobacco. We have found ourselves in other countries, experiencing the hospitality of other fellow mom-and-pop tobacconists, picking up some trade secrets along the way. Brian and I don’t always agree, but on this adage, we do: The trials and triumphs can make you closer. We’re always amazed at what we can accomplish as a team.”
And they emphasize what draws so many people toward premium tobacco. “We can’t compete with states that have little or no tobacco tax. However, we live in a fairly wealthy area. And people might balk, they might go to the internet, but by and large, we are a place where people can come, feel it, smell it, taste it, enjoy it, and they have kept supporting us, thank goodness,” says Susie.
“Yeah, we’re definitely old school,” adds Brian.
“We are old school, with the emphasis on old,” says Susie.
We can argue that “old” is a relative term, particularly for the vibrantly energetic Telfords, but it does bring to mind plans of succession, something many small business owners wrestle with near retirement. For the Telfords, however, it has been as seamless as Susie’s golf swing. Theresa Telford, Brian’s daughter and Susie’s stepdaughter, has been a fixture at the shop since she was 10, and started working full-time in 2019. With a background in accounting, her skillset has added another layer of expertise to the business.
“Growing up around the shop and being able to work whenever I wanted to make a little extra money was always a plus. My dad taught me every aspect of the business, including the books, and I’m certain that is where I realized my love of math and making things balance to the penny,” says Theresa. “When I graduated from college with a degree in managerial economics, my dad and stepmom encouraged me to go out into the world to see what opportunities there might be, other than working at the shop. It was only after returning to the shop full-time that I realized how much I appreciated the advice they gave me and how I could use the skills I had learned in the accounting world to help the shop run better.”
And while there’s some natural trepidation to fully taking the reins, Theresa is excited about the future. “I am very excited and also nervous about carrying on the business in the years to come,” she says. “I know this business more than anything else in my life and truly enjoy working at the shop every day. I think I can handle almost any situation that occurs in the day-to-day running of the shop, but I’m a little nervous about completely running it on my own. Hopefully, my dad and Susie will be around for many more years to consult with about issues or to give advice on things that come up along the way. I hope to continue on the same path of success as my dad and Susan have, in the running of this business, so that the legacy of Telford’s lives on. And maybe the way to go down that path is to build a team of my own in the future.”
Brian and Susie have no doubt. “It’s the next generation,” says Susie. “We have tobacco in our veins.”
– Photography by Shelby Fero. Story by Greg Girard.
This story first appeared in PCA The Magazine, Volume 1, 2024. To receive a copy of this magazine you must be a current member of PCA. Join or renew today at premiumcigars.org/membership.