Cigar lounges come in all shapes and sizes, from strip mall stores with a few couches and chairs to bespoke-built mega lounges spanning thousands of square feet and featuring full bars and multiple levels of membership participation. And then there’s Tampa, Florida’s Grand Cathedral. There’s really nothing quite like it.
Picture a soaring, three-story 1906 brick church, complete with bell tower, stained glass windows, vast public spaces, a spacious, full bar, conversation pits, private member lounges, a grand piano bar and intimate balcony seating—all surrounded by rustic wood-paneled walls covered in artwork and memorabilia, exposed brick and beamed ceilings and flourishing live plants, each area furnished with deep, plush leather seating, and spanning 6,000 square feet of usable space. And that’s just the inside. An additional several thousand square feet of multi-level seating is available on the spacious outdoor patios, surrounded by tall coconut palms and lush greenery.
Grand Cathedral was conceptualized and brought into manifestation by its engaging and enterprising owner Angela Yue. Its grand opening in June of 2021 represented the culmination of Yue’s 11-year journey in the premium cigar business. Prior to opening Grand Cathedral, Yue had worked for, and subsequently held ownership in, several prominent southern California cigar lounges. “I started out as a consumer,” Yue says. “There was a cigar lounge in San Diego’s Gaslamp District, where I would study and do school work. I became a fixture there. When the owners wanted to open a new location they said, ‘Angela, you’re here all the time, you know all the customers, you’re passionate about cigars. Why don’t you work for us part time, when you’re not in school?’ Fifteen years later I’m still working in the same industry and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else!”
Yue’s initial foray into lounge ownership resulted in Escondido, California’s Lord Puffer Cigars. The June, 2018 grand opening was attended by Carlos “Carlito” Fuente, his family members, and Grammy award winner and Fuente compadre Arturo Sandoval. The event was titled “Fuente Fever,” and its enormous success helped to forge the Angela Yue/Arturo Fuente collaboration which endures to this day.
Yue’s move to Florida, and the realization of the Grand Cathedral concept, were precipitated by an unforeseen and consequential event. Yue explains: “Lord Puffer was a store I had ownership in, and was something I was really proud of. I opened it from the ground up. Then Covid happened and we could only sell so many cigars, with limited hours and with no one being able to walk inside the store. But Florida was open and I realized that Florida’s a friendly state when it comes to the longevity of tobacco brick and mortar.”
She continues: “Around the summer of 2020 we were exploring different places we could go to. Florida, particularly Tampa, has so many similarities to San Diego, its lifestyle and climate, and with Tampa being renowned as Cigar City, there was really no other destination. It was always an idea, but when Covid happened it was a trigger to make the move.”
When asked how she came up with a church as a cigar lounge venue, Yue recalls how on a rainy, slow day at Lord Puffer she went online to search available retail spaces in Tampa, “And this 1906 three-story brick cathedral popped up on my screen,” she says. “It’s an aggressive building, and most people wouldn’t even call to see if it was available. But I figured what’s the worst that can happen? So I left a voicemail for the agent which he returned the next day. I explained my concept for a cigar bar, and the first thing he said to me was ‘Will you carry Arturo Fuente?’ I said ‘Absolutely, Tampa’s the home of Arturo Fuente.’ He replied that Arturo Fuente was his and his father’s favorite cigar, and at that point it was a match made in heaven.” Yue adds, “This whole journey of Grand Cathedral, the stars have aligned. It was just destined to happen.”
As with all things Grand Cathedral, the store’s opening was a grand event. In fact, there were two openings. January 23, 2021 witnessed the “soft opening,” which Yue describes as “an open house for close family and friends. That year Tampa Bay was in the Super Bowl and I wanted to make sure we were open so we could have a Super Bowl party.” The Grand Opening was held six months later with about 600 people in attendance. “We did a huge Grand Opening party. A couple hundred people from California flew in, and we had about a dozen cigarmakers and their families” says Yue, name checking, among others, the Fuentes, Newmans, Padróns, Oliva Tobacco, My Father’s Garcia family, Pete Johnson, and Rocky Patel, as well as accessory manufacturers like Daniel Marshall, in addition to the general public. Yue waxes ecstatic, recalling, “As a cigar enthusiast, to see these brands I used to retail here at my grand opening was probably the most special moment of my life!” She adds that the party went late into the night, and that a one-day event turned into an entire weekend.
What makes Grand Cathedral truly unique is the multiplicity of spaces available for groups as well as individuals to enjoy a cigar. Yue points out, “We have six different areas: a members-only lounge, member’s bar, a private room, a large public lounge, balcony bar and piano bar. We’re able to accommodate all different types of groups, no matter what they’re looking for.” A regular night seats around 175 people between indoors and out, and those numbers turn over about three times in the course of an evening. Events usually number between 500 and 600 people.
Private membership is available in three tiers. Social members have access to the members-only upstairs lounge. Gold membership includes a locker and discounts on cigars and liquor.
Top-tier Platinum is for corporate groups. It offers a larger locker in addition to the other benefits, and is split between four members.
Other perks of membership include access to numerous member-only events. Yue mentions that in April “I’m taking 40 members on a trip to the Dominican Republic for a tour of the Arturo Fuente factory and farms. We also host member nights once a month, so there’s a lot of social activity around our membership.” Yue also points out that many cigar clubs travel to Tampa. Large groups of 10 to 20 cigar club members are frequently accommodated throughout Grand Cathedral’s uniquely themed areas. In addition, many areas can be leased for private events, and the entire space is available as a complete buy-out for weddings and corporate events.
One other feature of Grand Cathedral is their unique events. Vendor events feature a dinner, and include the cigarmakers. GC also puts on festival events and cigar and whiskey collaborative events. But it’s not just cigars and libations, says Yue: “Our festivals are immersive events, with live music, food, dancing, lighting. It’s the whole experience of being here.”
Still, Yue insists that, despite multiple event spaces, “Cigar sales come first,” and she refers to Grand Cathedral as “a tobacconist with alcohol.” As such, Grand Cathedral principally serves the general public. According to Yue, every hour sees a different crowd. There’s an early morning coffee-and-cigars, working-remote crowd; an early evening leaving-work happy hour crowd; an after dinner crowd and a late night bar crowd.
Grand Cathedral is not only a cigar lounge, it is a full-service cigar store as well. Its large and beautifully appointed walk-in humidor is extremely well stocked, with thousands of cigars on display. The selection skews heavily toward brands from Arturo Fuente and J.C. Newman, with many of the rare and hard-to-find offerings in plentiful supply. Around a dozen other brands, notably Padrón, My Father and Tatuaje are offered, all with one theme in common, per Yue: “We carry brands that support brick and mortars, so all of our brands are family-owned. We also have an extra heavy emphasis on Tampa-made products, specifically Arturo Fuente and J.C. Newman. We’re very proud to be in Cigar City, very proud of the heritage of cigars in Tampa. There may be about a dozen brands, but we’re very wide in the brands that we carry.”
Between retail, lounge, bar and coffee service, Grand Cathedral requires a full staff. Yue employees 17 people and she lavishly praises her staff, extolling them as “the heart and soul of Grand Cathedral.”
Yue, however, is the engine that drives the enterprise. She is thoroughly engaged in the day-to-day operations of every facet of the business. When asked if she were taking time from her day off for this interview, she spontaneously launches into what is clearly her business ethos, saying, “When you own a business you have the responsibility of making every day work, no matter what is involved. I work seven days a week. My heart and soul are here at Grand Cathedral. I think as a business owner you have to do whatever it takes to grow, so I don’t believe that owning a business is a set schedule. It could be a 40-hour week, an 80-hour week. It could mean spending the night at the store. And that’s happened several times.”
But it’s not all work for this enthusiastic entrepreneur. She delights in spending social time with her staff as well as her customers. “Our customers become friends and family. We go out to dinner together, we travel together.” And she has immersed herself in the Tampa cigar community, enthusing: “I really love to go out to visit other cigar lounges. My hobby is being a customer in other Tampa-area cigar lounges.”
Yue places great value on her close relationship with the Fuente and Newman families. She underscores, “As a retailer, I’ve always believed in the brands. I enjoy their tobacco, their blends, their story, the Foundation, and everything that family stands behind. Moving to Tampa, the relationship was very natural with Arturo Fuente and J.C. Newman. After getting to know them on a personal level and becoming friends, I just believe so much in what they believe in for the cigar industry and its generations to come.”
Her connection to both families has also led to her commitment to the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation. “The Fuente family believes in people. Our ideologies align well together. Their foundation is something I’m very passionate about, and also very proud, as a cigar consumer, to see how a school and a brand can change the world. What they have done in the Dominican Republic is life-changing for the entire country, and it sets a global example.”
“Grand Cathedral is more than I could ever have imagined,” she says. “This place is so special to me, and to the people who work here. The bonds, the people who connect here, are the most beautiful thing. It’s the people who have made it what it is today.”
To learn more about Grand Cathedral Cigars visit grandcathedralcigars.com.
– Photography by Jenna Duffy Photography. Story by Larry Wagner.