Belicoso Cigars and Cafe Starting our "Getting to know your Retailers" Series! Episode 23
Episode Summary
Episode 23 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast kicks off the "Getting to Know Your Retailers" series with Josh and CJ, the partners behind Belicoso Cigars and Cafe in Winter Park, Florida. Josh grew up in the Tampa cigar world — working in his family's shop (Tampa Sweethearts) and later with Cornelius & Anthony — before original partner Spiro pulled him into opening Belicoso. When Spiro sold out a year and a half in, CJ, a longtime regular with a background in banking/IT consulting, a custom motorcycle shop (Guilty Customs), a "redneck rum" line and his own small cigar brand out of Punta Cana, came aboard as partner.
The conversation is a genuinely useful look at how a tiny brick-and-mortar survives and thrives: a 599-square-foot cabinet-humidor shop with no indoor smoking, built almost entirely around outdoor seating, foot traffic and Winter Park's tourist-heavy "Bougieville" Park Avenue strip. Josh and CJ explain their house blends — made for them by Scott Weeks of Recluse in Connecticut, San Andrés maduro and Brazilian maduro wrappers in Robusto and Toro — plus why a house cigar makes a shop a destination and improves margins. They also detail their Thursday-night event model (roughly two events a month, Spanish guitarist Leo Lopez, bike nights, visits from Willie Herrera), why Thursday beats Friday, staying open past midnight by expanding onto neighboring sidewalks, and reaching customers via Instagram, Facebook and POS-driven text and email blasts.
The heart of the episode is CJ's thesis that Belicoso is "a social hangout that happens to sell cigars" — deliberately welcoming to spouses and women with beer, wine and coffee, seating newcomers with existing groups so "strangers become friends and friends become family," and training part-time staff (Kat, Genesis, Dakota) to give real flavor notes and pairing advice rather than order-taking. Best sellers and favorites discussed include Arturo Fuente, Illusione (Epernay, ECCJ), Warped, La Palina, Corvari (a value pick they hope stays under the radar), Fat Bottom Betty, Partagás Serie D No. 4 and The Leaf by Oscar Connecticut. Josh also recounts his two-year stint as a national sales rep for S&M Brands alongside Courtney Smith, Spence Drake and Todd Vance, and his move into Tampa real estate.
The hosts close with podcast stats (top-performing episodes with Robert Holt of Southern Draw and regular customer Dennis Scully) and their standard rapid-fire questions: Josh would smoke one more cigar with Carlos Fuente and Tony Stark; CJ picks Winston Churchill and Jessica Rabbit.
In This Episode
- 01Launching the Retailer SeriesMike and Mike introduce the new 'Getting to Know Your Retailers' format with Belicoso Cigars and Cafe as the first guinea pigs.
- 02Josh's Tampa Cigar RootsFrom his family's Tampa shop and Tampa Sweethearts to Cornelius & Anthony, and how partner Spiro talked him into opening Belicoso.
- 03CJ's Path to PartnershipA banking and IT consulting career, Guilty Customs motorcycles, a redneck rum line and a Punta Cana cigar brand led CJ from Belicoso regular to co-owner.
- 04Winter Park and the 599 Sq Ft ShopWhy Park Avenue's tourist foot traffic, no indoor smoking and oversized outdoor seating shape the entire business model.
- 05The Belicoso House BlendScott Weeks of Recluse blends their Connecticut, San Andrés maduro and Brazilian maduro house cigars in Robusto and Toro.
- 06Thursday Night Events and MarketingTwo events a month, live music, bike nights and Willie Herrera visits, promoted through Instagram, Facebook and POS text blasts.
- 07Community Over CommoditySeating newcomers with regulars, welcoming spouses with beer, wine and coffee, and training staff on flavor notes instead of order-taking.
- 08Favorites and Rapid-Fire QuestionsFuente, Illusione ECCJ, Warped, La Palina, Corvari, Partagás Serie D No. 4 and The Leaf by Oscar — plus Carlos Fuente, Winston Churchill and Jessica Rabbit.
Brands & Cigars Discussed
Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.
Transcript
Every day I'm hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling, hustling. Every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling, every day I'm hustling. Welcome to a Cigar Hustlers Podcast, where we take a closer look at the people of the cigar industry, with your host, Mike and Mike. Hustle and hustle, hustle and hustle, every day I'm, every day I'm, every day I'm.
So, Mr. Michael. Yes, Michael. I have a couple things to say.
First of all, the fucking day has already turned into chaos. I don't know how it happened. It was looking good. That was a discussion yesterday, too.
I know, but, you know. But today's getting worse than yesterday. Yeah, it just kind of goes to shit. I don't know what happens.
I don't know why we fucking even have employees sometimes. Sometimes it's just like. You don't know what? One and a half?
It's like, fuck it. I don't care, they can say, what are they gonna do? Oh, I slammed the poor young lady yesterday, not thinking, what are they gonna do? What if she listens and goes, what are they gonna do?
Not show up? I mean, you're already doing that, right? Um, so yeah, so, yeah, today's already been fucking chaos, um, between sickness and pretending to be sickness and fucking everything. Exactly, yeah.
And, um, uh, my dear friend, Koi, swung by the house yesterday. Oh. You know, Koi? Yeah, I know, I saw the phone.
Formerly of Romacraft, now of, well, Boutiques Unified. Oh, that's right. Unified. Unified.
So, you know, Nomad, you know your boy Fred, Fred Rui. So we hung out and shit, and that was kind of cool. On his way back out of town? Yeah, he may stop in today.
The problem is, though, like, I want to get him on the podcast, but he's got like this really... He's monotone. fucking slow, low voice that may put you to sleep, so we might have to inject him. He sort of talks in like fables.
I mean, it's... Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what that means, but I'm just gonna agree. Oh.
Yeah, fables. Just nod your head. That wasn't the word I was going for, but yeah, just nod your head. Yeah, so, alright, you ready to get started?
Well, wait, you want an update? No. Oh, you want to start first? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, you're ready. Do that later. One, two, three, go. Hi, I'm Mike.
And I'm Mike, too. And this is a Cigar Hustlers Go Fuck Yourself podcast. I'm not doing it this time. You want to do it again?
No, it's too late now. We're already running. It's gone. It's gone.
It's in unison, but it's getting a little old. It's getting old for you. For me. It doesn't get old for me.
Well, I do episodes by myself when you're not here. Oh, yeah? Yeah, and I just play them back for myself later. Do you keep your pants on?
Of course not. Why would I do that by myself? Yeah. Do you guys need time alone?
No. We prefer an audience, and we prefer someone to hold a camera. Oh, okay. So we're glad you're here.
We have Josh and CJ of Bellicoso Cigars in Bougieville Winter Park. Say hello, guys. Hello, guys. Oh, they did it in unison.
So this is, yeah, very nice, nicely done. Thank you very much. So, you know, this is kind of unique because we always talked about bringing on retailers and talking about having them come on the show and kind of their origin and where they came from. And we're your first trials.
Yeah, you are. Yes, you guys are the guinea pigs. We're up for the task. We were trying to figure out how we could go to your location, but you can see all our massive equipment would be quite the undertaking.
It's kind of difficult, right? So, I mean, for one, for you to come out here, we truly appreciate it, but I don't want to get to the thank yous yet. Let's see how this podcast goes. That might be the worst decision we ever made.
Right, exactly. But I am a big believer in, you know, if you want to come on the show, I don't want to fucking Skype anybody in or anything like that, or, you know, if they're out of state, you know, "Hey, if you're going to take the time, fucking come out, let's do it," you know? With that being said, I'll probably be eating crow within like a year or two, and we'll have somebody on via fucking Skype or something. But whatever.
Right now, at this very moment, fuck that. We've had a couple offers to people that want to Skype in, and I've turned them down. Good, good. Good for you.
Mike, he's all about the live in person. You're an excellent producer. Thank you, sir. I tried to do a good job for my huge paycheck.
So, every retail shop's a little different. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your shop? How would we start there? Well, I'll let Josh do it.
He was actually one of the first... The founding? One of the founding fathers, the Cuban variant. Yeah, we started...
It was a thought process for my first partner, Spiro. We go way back when I was working for my family's cigar shop in Tampa. He started at six. I was seven years old.
Eight years old, I had my first cigar. But it came out of an idea... So you started late, all right? Check.
Lay bloomer. Lay bloomer on cigars. But it came out of the idea, I was still working in the cigar industry, I was working, just getting out of my family's business and working with Cornelius Anthony, which is still going on, I'm sure strong. Right.
" He's like, "I want to do a cigar shop. " We do the ordering and everything else. So, you know, three years now goes by. A year and a half into it, Spiro sells out, literally sells out to a big corporate job, and then we got CJ, who's been an awesome partner.
Sorry, Spiro, but CJ has been absolutely awesome. How did you know Spiro? Because I believe he's a graphic artist? Graphic Artists?
Graphic Artists, he owned Graphics in Tampa, part owned of that, and he used to come to my family shop all the time. Oh, okay, so you knew him from Tampa, because I don't think he actually lived on this side of the state. No, I live in Tampa still. He's a phenomenal cigar guy.
Great palate. Great palate. Yeah, I've met him several times, he's a very nice man. So, explain to everybody what Winter Park is.
You know, I don't think, it's, not a lot of people understand the demographics. Bougieville? Explain the Bougieville. Bougieville, actually, that kind of sums it up, actually.
It totally is, right? It's the Central Florida Boca. Right. Oh, it's very well put.
Yeah, that's what it is. It's just landlocked. But I mean, it's known, it's a historic city. They do have a train, though.
It has a sunrail. It has a sunrail, yeah. It goes right to the airport, and then there's a slum. We're right over the tracks there.
We're right on the good side of the tracks. Yeah, but it's like a good, it's a place where everybody goes as far as like the weekends, right? Yeah, it's a mile strip of retail stores and restaurants and a cigar shop. And again, and the whole town was started from, you know, a bunch of wealthy northerners coming down wanting a place to vacation, have their summer homes.
Oh, no kidding. Yeah, that's what Winter Park really was, and now it's just blown up to. Well, we still get a lot, we still get a lot of tourists that come in the area and, you know, every day, and that's kind of actually key to our business model, There's a lot of foot traffic that walks by there every day. I forgot what the numbers were for the amount of tourists that came into Florida last year, but we get a certain percentage of that just because of the name of Winter Park.
Yeah, it's got to be staggering to some degree, because whenever I'm down there, I can't find a fucking place to park. Oh, there's no parking. And the streets are filled with people, always. It doesn't matter if it's a Wednesday, I don't know if there's college night or some shit going on or whatever, It's Bellicosa night, every night.
Oh, Bellicosa night, very nice. So, you have your own cigar as well, right? Correct. So you do a house blend, which is really kind of common with a lot of retailers?
A lot of retailers do that. It's a house blend that Scott Weeks creates for us. We do it in two sizes. From Recluse?
From Recluse, yep. And we do a Connecticut, Havana, San Andreas Maludu, and a Brazilian Maludu. So core sizes of Robusto and Toro. People tend to love it.
It's actually going crazy. I'm already out of the Connecticut. I like how he throws in like the Maduro. Maduro.
Maduro. Maduro. I was going to mention that. Why does everybody learn Spanish, dammit?
Be more white, dammit. His arms roll like crazy. Maduro. Well, that was part of one of our whole things, long-term, was to actually have a house blend.
Not just one, but actually a variety of them. And then, again, as a business model, as well as a revenue stream, it just actually works better for us to have something And it's nice to have something that's a house blend that actually gets known. Right. You guys are smoking them now, so.
Yep. Of course, that makes a huge difference, you know, because it kind of makes your shop a little more destination. Yeah. Right.
Something you can only get there. Right, gives it a little more of its own identity. Yeah. Which is pretty cool.
And, you know, we have a pretty diverse selection, anyway, of cigars in the shop, even though we're really a small shop. Right. The space in Winter Park, you know, as far as retail is concerned, nothing is really big, right? So, how many square foot is your shop?
599. Right. On the dot. On the dot.
Yeah, 600 was too much for us. Yeah, but we have a tall ceiling. And can you smoke inside your shop? We cannot.
We cannot. So, everybody kind of hangs out out front? Yep. Right?
Every time I drive by there, out front is always packed. I mean, there's always somebody, you know, you always got a good group of guys. Oh, they're sitting on their planters and everything. Any place you can find.
And like, I was told that you couldn't have tables and chairs, but you fucking did it anyways, right? Well, you know, I'm of the philosophy that you ask forgiveness, not permission. Right. So I think the city's got us at, what, 12 outdoor seatings and we're at 20-something now.
Yeah. You know, we're just a little over that edge. So, you know. And it's, you know, it's probably still hard to...
Accommodate everybody. Yeah, exactly. It is. Particularly on event nights.
We'll bring in a Spanish guitarist, Leo Lopez, or the Puerto Rican band, we at least have music once or twice a month, so that draws and all of a sudden you've ballooned up to 60, 80, 100 people, it gets a little compressed there at 9, 10 o'clock at night. I'm sure, man, for sure. That's one of the reasons why we actually kind of changed our hours to stay open later, because the other shops are closed so that we can expand into their footprint, into their sidewalks, So it allows us to stay open until 12, 1 o'clock some nights. And if you're with the City of Winter Park, you do not hear that.
Disregard the entire network. Turn it off now. We almost got that out. So how many events do you do a month?
Average around two. And my events are only on Thursday nights, unless there's something really bizarre, like the Cinco de Mayo, the Cinco Saturday we had. Most of our events are on Thursday nights. They'll start at 7 and go until we close.
It's good to have that structure. People know that Thursdays tend to be our event nights. So what made you pick Thursdays? It wasn't Friday.
Okay. Alright. Is that because that concludes the podcast? Thanks for listening today.
Now, Thursdays, you know, people go out and have dinner on Friday nights, they have date night or whatever, But when you have a Thursday night, it's actually just an additional night for them to be able to get out. And we're not competing with other events that usually happen on Friday nights. So it actually has worked out really well for us to say Thursday nights are our event nights. Kind of jam some people up, you know, like musicians or cigar reps or whatever.
But most of the time, we have good success with people coming into the shop and having an extra event during the week. Right. I mean, like, if I'm a rep or, you know, an owner or brand owner or manufacturer that's, you know, out and about in a specific area, that would be great, in my opinion, because, you know, you can hit more than one event on a trip, right? Well, that was like with Willie.
Willie came in a couple weeks ago. Willie Herrera came in and he came up specifically for it because it was Thursday night. KD said he couldn't get him, remember? Oh yeah, that's right.
When I wanted him on the podcast. He's like, "Oh, bro, I just saw this. " He's over at Bella Costa. You're right up the street.
20 miles down the street. Call us up, we know people. It's like, what the fuck? Okay, so you do events on Thursdays, and I'm assuming at this point you've kind of groomed your consumers to know that Thursdays are your events.
Yep. How do you reach out to them? Do you do email blasts or anything like that? We do a fairly consistent social media outreach, which is either on Instagram or Facebook, and then, of course, we use a new POS system that actually we can direct email and/or direct text.
Text message, which I think Mike's probably on one, too, where we'll either do promotions or updates on events that are happening the upcoming week or promotions that are happening during that week. That's pretty awesome. , so everybody that's got a wife. Yeah, I really enjoy that.
Thank you. Who's that? Who's that, honey? Oh, damn it, it's Bellacoso again.
It's Josh and CJ, honey, I scream. Yeah, Bellacoso just pinged me again. He sounds hideous. Yeah.
So what about regulars? I could tell you in this shop we have two or three regulars that kind of stand out. Is there a regular that you have that you're just like? I think the uniqueness of our shop is that we have a community.
We're not a typical cigar shop. I don't think of us as a tobacconist, as a cigar shop. We are a social hangout that happens to sell cigars. Beer and wine, stuff like that, coffee, which is amazing, the best coffee on the avenue.
Coffee is very good. Coffee is very good. Fantastic. But our customers, our regulars, they're family, and I would say our regulars is probably, what, 30, 40, easy?
Easy, yeah. But like, who's the one? There's like one or two that really kind of stands out. Oh, God.
I'm telling you. Now you're asking the parent who's their favorite child. Yeah. Well, I wouldn't say he's a favorite child, because, I mean, I could tell you that I got a couple here that are a complete pain in my fucking ass.
And I will gladly tell them that. You looked at Mike. You know? He's definitely not paying my ass.
He opens the store. Oh, OK. Good. He's got a key in everything.
In terms of-- I can't-- honestly, I can't tell you. I look at the numbers. I'm the numbers guy, and I-- in terms of locker members and everybody, everybody really is-- Well, you've got Mimi and Gus, and then you've got, you know, Jerry, Jerry, and then you've got, you know, Tully, and, you know, you've got Andrew, and, you know, I mean, literally, there's 25, 30, got a TC. And they're consistent.
The ATC who was here this morning when we left the shop, and so you get these regulars that they come in every day, it's daily, and this is intentional, this was part of when Josh and I joined up, one of the things that I was noticing in the cigar community was that most cigar places are not really family oriented, what I mean by that is most guys don't bring their wives, or girlfriends, or whatever. That's part of the reason why we have a, you know, of course we're out, we have outdoor smoking, but we allow when we have that wine/beer option, the coffee options and so on, because a lot of females will come and they don't like the smoke and they don't like setting in a male-dominated environment, but, you know, part of what we've tried to do is build it where spouses are welcome, yeah. They feel welcome, I mean, they come smoke cigars. There's ladies that have never smoked before, now smoke cigars.
Well, part of what we were doing, you know, and this is something really simple for me, which is, you know, if we have someone that's new, that's never been in before, I don't take them and plop them down in a table by themselves, I take them and put them into a group that's already sitting there, and then introduce them. Right. Say, hey, this is, you know, Joe Schmo, whatever, and introduce them, that way they're already integrated into that community, and they'll start talking. " Oh, very nice.
And that's really where we, that's our, that's my sweet spot, is trying to figure out how we as a retailer, a brick-and-mortar, can actually build that community. Because it is more, as Josh said, it's, Bellicoso is more than just cigars. Right. It is that community.
Whether, you know, Jerry Clausen is taking Andrew and Jessica out deep sea fishing, or they take, you know, some guys, or we have a lot of law enforcement that come to the shop and, you know, take other customers or other patrons that come in, they take them to the firing range and teach them self, you know, self-protection and personal protection and stuff, so there is that family component to it, you know, and Mike's been there a couple times, he's, you know, he's seen that. It's a great place, and since it's outside, it doesn't get smoky, so you don't have that problem where your wife's going, "Oh, I can't breathe, my eyes are burning," you know? Fortunately, my wife smokes, but a lot of guys don't. You just went there for a bike night.
Yeah, we just had a bike night there last week. Yeah, it went really well. Great turnout. Fantastic turnout.
Thank you for that. Oh, you're welcome. So, other than your house blend, and this constantly changes, right? It constantly evolves almost monthly, but what is currently your number one seller?
What's your favorite cigar other than your current house blends? Oh, look at the numbers on that. It all depends. " Jesus Christ.
" I gave you a big plug. Well, the Fuentes are doing it, they're consistent, so. I think what CJ and I have really done, and CJ has really focused us on more this year, is that we want, We have a cabinet, because we're cabinets, we don't walk in humidor, that's specifically set aside for new arrivals, and every four to six weeks, we've got new product, and not just ones that you see. You guys get a tremendous amount of new stuff, considering the size of your shop.
There's always something new when you go in. You know, we do pretty good with Warped. Warped is a good product from us. Fuente's always selling.
God, it's just so hard to, Drew is a big, you know, we've got a... Corvary is the newest one. I think that one's been on the radar for a long time. People need to get on that.
Don't get on it too soon, retailers, because we like the price point. Yeah, we like the price point. Don't screw us on that. Yeah, it's a really good stick that makes some really good cigars, for sure.
And Lucien has always been one of my favorites. And Lucien's, it was one of my triumphs when we first opened the shop, was, when you open a shop, you know the ins and outs of it, I grew up in the industry, is, you know, they're going to tell you, oh, you can't open an account, this person's got this, this person's got that, and that was like one of the first battles I won, was, for me, getting the Lucien. Fuente was not a problem, you know, I have relations to the Fuente family in Tampa, but I wanted a Lucian, I really liked the product, and I was like, that's the cigar I can get behind. Right.
What's your favorite one? Oh God, anything Epernay, the ECCJs. I mean, I've got boxes of ECCJs that I've like just cataloged in my humidor at home. You told me you didn't have any more.
I've been looking for some. I have a whole box now. It's in the last humidor. Busted.
Josh is going to find a new partner. He's holding that on me already. So, CJ, let's talk a little bit about your origin and what you kind of did before you got into the cigar industry. It says here that you were a Director of Resource Development for Compass Tech.
Oh, man, that's a long time ago. Oh, we're going all the way back. Don't look at my notes. Man, you're digging way back there, dude.
I have an excellent producer. An excellent producer. Oh, my God. I'm going to build a wall here so you can't see my shit.
Yeah, that was a consultant kind of... Well, that was for a couple of years at least, right? '98, 2000. It went back further than the nose, I ran out of room in the cart.
Oh my God. I think going all the way back to '98 is good. Geez, I had just started, I think I was like seven then. Yeah?
Geez. You've aged well. Yeah. I actually had a white-collar career, executive career in the banking world and financial world.
Consulting, I did a lot of consulting in the IT section for years with Bank of America. And then when they made me an offer I couldn't refuse, I took an early out, and from then it's been small businesses, and had a custom motorcycle shop for a while, Guilty Customs, Guilty Customs, and then when I moved out of the country, had a Redneck Rum line, and of course I had my own cigar line as well, based out of Punta Cana. Do you still have both of those today? S.
yet, so we'll see if that is on the radar in the next couple of years. That would be pretty cool, man. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's a get drunk rum.
Yeah? Yeah. Wow, sounds perfect. It's not one of those high, you know, it's not a top shelf rum.
It's not a high-end sipping rum, it's a guzzling rum. Yeah, it's a guzzling rum. So, you know, get shit-faced rum. Very nice.
Well, I mean, hence the redneck. Exactly. He did an episode of House Hunters, also. Really?
House Hunters International, yeah. My wife is still in the corporate world, so we moved to the Bahamas with her gig there for about five years. And when we moved back, that's actually how I got involved with Josh. Really?
I was a customer at Bellacoso. He was still single at the time. I was still a virgin. And that's actually how I got to know Bellicoso.
Right. And when we moved back in the States, I was looking to put some roots down and get more involved in the community. I like this place. I think I'll buy it.
Right? " Just take it and leave me alone. Leave me the hell alone. That's pretty crazy.
I mean, you know, because that was going to be my next question, is how the hell did you get suckered into the cigar industry? You know? Yeah. Yeah.
Well, yeah. Good looks and his humility. Right. Back when he was single.
Back when he was single. Back when he was single. Yeah. So...
That's the whole knee pad story they mention. Oh, Jesus. Bring that back up. Yeah.
Bring that back up. Yeah. Now, producing my own cigar, but only really a very small niche in the market, I was looking I was just looking to get out from that production side into the brick-and-mortar side of it, and two, you know, I'm at that age now where I'm looking to really set down some roots, and I didn't want to go back and do consulting, I didn't want to get back into something that I didn't know, or I just was not happy with, and I wanted to get into retail, and I'd been a regular customer at Bellacoso every time I'd come back in the country, so, you know, it was just… Sold them to Goldies. So in the Goldies, man, yeah.
So you were the regular that I was trying to reference earlier. Yeah, I was a regular when I was, you know, I'd come back about every, well, I'd probably come back every two months and sit out there for six, eight hours at a time and, you know, bullshit with Spy and anybody else that was out there too, so. Right. But that was a good segue for me to get back into the market on the retailer side and, but I knew that there was something that Bellicoso could do that would be different, That would have an appeal to a broader base of people.
Right. So, you know, it's kind of like when you see that opportunity and you engage what it is you think needs to be done. Yeah. And then you just, you know.
And you kept Josh anyway, and he's still here. Yeah, yeah. Even though Sparrow told me not to, but no, I'm just kidding. So, you know, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, let me, I'm gonna, I am gonna, I'm gonna give a plug for, for Josh.
You know, he, he does a lot of the, most of the heavy lifting anyway. Right. Of this because he's run the back numbers, he knows the reps, he knows the manufacturers, he understands that industry, which I don't, you know, that's not my strong suit. So, his ability to do that back office stuff and my focus being on the marketing and brand development and the retail experience, it balances out well.
Right. And you can't say that for a lot of partnerships. For sure. It's a nice pairing.
And my coffee is better than his too, so we balance off, you know, bring out the coffee. But when you have a partner that you're able to depend on, and that has a lot stronger area of focus than you are, you balance out and the benefit is to the business and to the consumer. So how often are you at the shop? Pretty much every day.
You know, we're closed on Mondays, but, you know, we open 11, we've got a full-time girl that opens up, Kat, cat that she's great everybody loves her you know they hug her they don't hug us but and um but cat's there she opens up and then i'll usually come in around two and then work till close she's their mic she's their mic yeah she's got her own camera come in at two and you know stroll in two like i got nothing going on yeah come in at two leave at three for lunch you know yeah do it that way The end of another grueling day. The end of another grueling day. The end of another grueling day. The end of another grueling day.
Except she gets paid. Still not paying you? Yeah. No, we don't pay him anything.
He was a, you know. I got two cigars on grouper today, so, you know. Yeah, technically speaking, he's not supposed to, like, do the register or anything like that, unless we ask him. So, um, that hasn't happened as, lately, because we've- You had enough employees.
Yeah. But we're fucked now. Until today. Yeah.
So go ahead and clock in. Go ahead and clock in. And we won't pay you anything. This attrition rate here is not that great.
Well, I mean, I think that, no, you know, we have a couple of guys that see it, see the vision, and they stick it out, you know, I think that the bigger issue with employees here is that, for one, we've got a lot going on, and if they're not really excited about the cigar industry, then that's not going to be a fit for them. Well, and that's, and it has to be a passion part, and that's, you know, we, we have what, three part-time people, you know, three part-time people, and, you know, what we do is we spend a lot of time with these people, not, not just the part of selling, but actually the educational part of, of that, this type of, this type of business, you know, you can go, all of us have been into shops where you ask, you know, a clerk or whatever, what about the cigar, and they kind of shrug their shoulders and go, you know, it just sells really well. I sold one yesterday. A lot of people like it.
Exactly. And our focus at Bellicoso is to actually say give them the flavor notes, give them the pairing components, what will go well with that cigar, find out what they have smoked in the past or what they're currently smoking, find out whether it's either earth tones or spices, all those components, so that when you do have either a novice or an experienced smoker come in, those people can come off as somewhat of an authority on cigars, even though they may not. Right. Have 8, 10, 15 years of experience in the business, but they can educate and they can kind of walk people towards a good selection.
Right. Yeah, for sure. So Kat is big into the cigar industry? Kat has gotten into it, and she was one of our first hires, me and Spiro, as a part-time.
She worked one day a week. And when CJ came on last year, he really tasked her of, "Listen, we're not order takers here. " And she has taken the most initiative. She took a deep dive.
Yeah. We get a brand in, and I'll see her sitting down writing notes, detailed notes on each line. We brought La Polina in, we brought them about, you know, eight, ten facings. And she went through every single line and drafted out everything about the tobacco, the origin, everything about that, even flavor notes that she found.
Even as far as the rating cards, you know, just to remember what that number is. Patrick Viva, though, he's relentless. That fucker. God, that guy.
He's going to have been in every shop in the state in the last two weeks. Yeah, well, I mean, ours is in like a week. Yeah, but Blue Torch has one tonight. Oh, yeah?
Yeah. Yeah, so, hey, I mean, he's a hell of a rep. A hell of a salesman. Yeah.
They do well by us. Does Kat smoke? I've never seen her smoke a cigar. Actually, she did.
It's funny. She was smoking a Fat Bottom Betty the other day. Fat Ass Betty? Yeah.
No, Fat Bottom Betty. No. We have customers that call it Fat Ass Betty. And she was actually saying, you know, this thing, the more I smoke it, the more I like it.
Yeah, it kind of grows on her. But she's also smoked the house one and, you know, the Corteau and, you know, a couple other ones. So she's developing her palate. And so, not only her, but also whether it's Dakota or Genesis or any of the other part-timers that we have, any time they're in the shop.
Do any of them have normal names? No, actually no. And we also have a height requirement that you have to be under, you know, under five foot. All our females are under five foot.
Unique name. Yeah, unique name. Check. Unique name and under five foot.
We're good. Fantastic. So wait a second. The analytical side of me, the business side of me, I'm going, oh God.
There's a legal ramification here somewhere. It's a funny joke. So Cat, Genesis, and what was the other one? Dakota.
Dakota. Dakota, yep. Jeez. Just about all car names.
We have an Aubrey. Yeah. If you actually don't have a really cool name, we'll give you one, we'll just give you nicknames, everybody's got nicknames. That's pretty common, you know.
Hey Puffer. Mine? Asshole. That's the term of impairment.
It's probably just Cigar Hustler, you know, I mean, more often than not, that's usually what I'm referred to, that's what people call me. call me. Oh, Josh, this is Guido. Guido.
Guido. Guido. That's the funny thing, you know, just pull off everything. Yeah, Maduro.
Maduro. Maduro. Maduro. Oh, my God.
So, Josh, what's S&M Brands? We need to know. We need to learn. I mean, you already mentioned.
So, my brief foray into cigar sales rep for about two years, I was reached out by Stephen Bailey from S&M Brands. Great name, Stephen. It requires whips and chains and stuff? Were you talking to Spence Drake not too long ago?
Did he talk about S&M Brands at all? I mean, I always talk to Spence Drake, but Spencer comes up in almost every conversation. He's like a fucking, that's fantastic. He's, you know, it's like, it's like Kevin Bacon, you know?
It's like seven degrees of separation. Yeah, exactly. Spencer Drake. So, S&M Brands, they reached out to me, I'm still working for the family business in Tampa, and they said-- The family?
Yeah. They're still working for the family? Well, it's Tampa. Air quotes, family.
Family air notes. Well, you're at Tampa Sweethearts. Tampa Sweethearts, correct. And they reached out to me and said they're looking for somebody to help out with, you know, sales, national sales.
I was like, alright, not a problem. I don't mind getting on the road. And it was, it was a challenging time. I'm not gonna lie, it was not, the company was lost and trying to figure out what they were.
I came in and they already had products made and the products were, weren't the best, I'm just gonna be honest on that, but they brought in Courtney, Courtney Smith, Spence at some point, and then Todd Vance. Todd Vance, I think he's the name of Todd Vance, I always think Todd Vance Refrigeration from the office, but, you know, it lasted for about two years and they went independent, so it was a good break for me, I had this shop at the same time, so it was focused on the shop, and then I was trying to figure out what else I wanted to do, so then I got into real estate in the Tampa market as well, so, it's another business. At Berkshire Hathaway? Actually, Keller Williams now.
Well, yeah, but, well, I'm going like a timeline here, chronological order. Yeah, I joined Berkshire Hathaway, I like the name, I have investments in Berkshire Hathaway, I thought that would be a good... good foray into real estate. Sounds very fancy.
It did sound very fancy. It wasn't a good fit brokerage-wise, so I decided to take my route somewhere else, and I went to KW, which has been a good change for me. The lingo. The KW.
The KW. Plus, it gets nice-looking business cards. Yeah, they're really sharp. Oh, with your picture on them?
Yeah. Not a picture. Oh. I don't like the picture on my card.
I don't even know who I am. Are you on a bus bench anywhere? What's that? Yeah, people sit on my face all the time.
That's fantastic. He has a face for radio. Face for radio? Face for radio.
I got you though. So how the hell did you find yourself at Melicosics? Back to any bits, back to any bits. Well, going back to the days of Spiro, I was, Spiro came to me in 2015, or 2014, and in 2015 we decided to do it in February, it was on the lease.
That's right. Yeah. So. Keep up with your notes, man.
You know, we already talked about that. But I just want to, I'm just like, at this point I'm just kind of pegging off everything that's on here. I didn't check that one off, so here you go, I'll check it off now. Done.
All right, so, Michael? Questions? Ready for the questions? Do you want to give the update?
I don't even know if you're fucking dying to give the update. We are top two on Spotify for cigar-related targets. Who's number one? Congratulations.
I don't know, I didn't write the down. Well, whoever you are, we're gonna fucking get you. But Robert Holt is our number one show on Spotify. Southern draw But Dennis is number three Dennis is a fucking fantastic story Dennis Scully is a regular here at the shop He's an older gentleman He's got dialysis three days a week We brought him in a couple of weeks ago And interviewed him for like two hours I mean he just went on and on He's one of those pain in the ass regulars That I was talking to you about He's lived a fascinating life for sure And it's kind of remarkable to see Different people's perspectives I think that's kind of indicative of when you have a good cigar shop where you actually do get to find out about people's history and their life story, because they spend that amount of time with you, and you're able to - they get comfortable with you.
They kind of unfold things and parts of their life that make, like you said, make who they are. Yeah. I mean, like, I've known Dennis for fucking ever since we opened. Yeah, I think he was here when you bought the shop.
Yeah, he probably came with it. Sitting in a chair outside, waked on somebody. And like, I knew a lot about him. I knew, you know, like some of his origin story, like what he did and all that other stuff.
But one day he came in, fired up after a dialysis, like he was rejuvenated. And he just kind of rattled off his story to somebody and I'm like, dude, that is a fucking fascinating story, we gotta get you in here, you know? So we got him in here on a day where he did pretty well. Yeah, he was rescheduled several times because of dialysis.
Yeah, the problem is that like he came in loops, like he would be super excited and then all of a sudden you could hear him kind of fade. So we did our best to kind of make it so that it sounded well, you know, but I think it was a fantastic podcast. Yeah. Yeah.
So now, when you get to the-- Well, now that you get to your low, though, you've got us on, you got Bellicoso on the show now. We're running out of people. We need a solid 10. We need a solid 10.
At the bottom of the list. It's damn near impossible to run out of people in the cigar industry. True. I was going with a joke.
You just can't-- Yeah, I know, but I'm just simply saying. No, there's always somebody that pops in or something. Right. There's always a new rep or broker or brand or retail shop or, I mean, you know, we could probably I'll probably do this until I die, which at this rate might be tomorrow.
It's like November? Yeah, yeah, I mean, thank you for being so gracious of giving me until November. But wait, is that the only update you have? You already flipped the page.
No, no, on PodBeam we are number five in cigar relating, Michael Rosales is our number one show on that one, and then Steve Sock and Mike McKinney. Some reason on iTunes we're slipping, I don't know, we're number 23, we're 18. Damn it, where are we? I think that shit's a lie.
They don't fuckin' know. They don't give out much information either. It's hard to find on there. The popularity on them, they don't make sense to me either.
What shows are like crazy high? No, even on Podbean, we have more followers but less episodes, so that seems to make a difference. Right. It's weird how they rate them over there.
Alright. But then the top countries were: USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Jordan is number four still. It's just past the Dominican Republic. We don't speak any Jordan, whatever that language is.
I don't speak Jordan. I don't speak Jordanese. But David Blanco did yell out something in whatever language they speak there. He speaks Jive.
Excuse me, stewardess, I speak Jive. Well, that might bring us to the next one. Number 11 country, as we mentioned, is Djibouti in Africa. You really like saying it.
I do. I like saying Djibouti. You got another one, you got a new one, other than Djibouti, something else? Well, Mexico, we have one listener in Mexico.
Hey! Hola! Hola, Mexico! Hola!
One amigo in Mexico. Yay! I'm jealous of the Mexican. I just want that one guy just to comment somewhere on something.
Yay! I'm here. Yeah, I'm here. Hola, amigo!
Or he just kind of fucked up and downloaded it. He's like, what the hell? And he couldn't turn it off. Can't figure out the unsubscribe button.
Son of a bitch! I have to have my son look at this. Hola, no habla inglés. So, how do you want to do the questions?
Because here's the problem. Let me tell you how this is going to break down. Because Josh is going to give you... Hey, no other questions?
CJ is going to give you the real deal, right? He's going to tell you exactly his opinion for the questions. Josh is going to give you some fucking... Political correctness.
tap dance-y, fucking soft response. Because that's how this podcast has gone. I'm totally putting you on blast. Um, so, now with that being said, you could lead with CJ.
Go every other? You could mix it up. It's up to you. I mean, you know, you're going to give Josh...
I'm doing your curveballs now. Either way, you know, if you go CJ first, then you give Josh time to develop his politically correctness fucking yada yada. Oh, I got you. Or ask him the first question first, and then ask him the second question first.
Like, I think that if you give CJ a little more time to develop, you're just going to get more honesty out of him. You know? Well, let's just hit Josh with the questions first. That's not going to happen.
Yeah, so what's your number one cigar in the show? Well, you know, I mean, La Polina does well, Puente does well, Lugion does well. I mean, yeah, you know, you're not going to bullshit us at all. Oh, the cigars, they're all so fucking great.
Oh, they're all so great. Like, tell me the one that's terrible. I didn't ask you that question. Oh, we should add that question in.
Yeah, so what sucks in the store? What's your least favorite cigar? Oh, do not ask me that. Oh, no.
I feel bad for this guy. Oh, my God. That's awesome. He's too sweet of a man to do that too.
That you have that answer. We're giving away too much. Alright, we'll start with Josh. We're giving away too much.
We'll start with Josh. What one person, living or dead, would you like to share a cigar with? You've heard the show, so you must have heard these questions. Aside from Mike and Mike.
That I haven't met before? He's probably turned it off. No, no, one person living or dead. He turned it off for the questions.
I'd love to have one more cigar with Carlos Fuente. Yeah. Oh, that's very nice. I'd love to have one more cigar with him.
That's a good, see that, see? That's a good answer. He's listening to the show. Can we have a hug?
I'm going to need it. He's tearing up a little bit over there. See what I did there? That worked out well.
That was a low one. How about you, CJ? Good job. Winston Churchill.
Yeah? Very popular man this week. I love having to stick with that guy, man. He'd be great.
All right, CJ, best piece of advice anyone ever gave you? Don't look down. Don't look? Who told you that?
Some guy on a... That's my proctologist, I think. We're going to turn around. It's not like we can make any contact.
Don't tense up. Don't look down. Oh, God. All right.
We can go with that. All right, Mr. Guido. No, there's actually a deeper meaning to that.
Okay, go ahead. Yeah, I get the metaphor. There's a metaphor there. Yeah.
Thank you. There's a metaphor for that. Well, explain it. Always look up.
Always look up for potential. Never look down. All right. All you see is your feet.
See, so that's... As long as you see your feet, they're still doing good. As long as you see your feet, they're good. That's pretty fantastic.
We should be right knees down. I thought about that yesterday. We have them on tape. You have it recorded.
Yeah, I know. Pearls of wisdom. These are pearls of wisdom. Right.
Josh? All right, Josh. Same question. Same question.
Repeat the question. What's the best piece of advice anybody ever gave you? What's the best piece of advice? He had that look on his face where he couldn't be going.
I know. What? They're running in stereo. I thought we were hitting Josh first every time.
You're mixing it up? He's mixing it up. He's mixing it up. He's mixing it up.
Because Josh has heard the show before, because he's referenced to me several episodes that he's listened to. Right. You're welcome. Well, that was number two follower.
I just want to like that three. Were you in Mexico any time? Yeah, he was. He was actually in Mexico at the time.
I was using a VPN. Jibouti? Were you in Jibouti? God, Jibouti.
Small African country on the Horn of Africa. The best advice, and I'm sorry that it's going to sound like Fuente this, Fuente that, but it was always, Over having a cigar is always think about your next step. Yeah. Something I heard from Carlos, he always said, you know, the reason why you have that cigar is you take time, you think about it, you contemplate your day, and you move forward, always moving forward.
So that's where I always think about it. Especially in the morning. Sometimes, now that we have a baby, I don't do this ritual, but I used to wake up in the morning and have a cigar and plan out my week. Right.
It doesn't happen anymore with the baby, but... Well, now the baby has a cigar. And tells you how your week is going to go. We're going to have a shitty diaper today, Dad, it's going to be awesome, you'll love it.
How was your baby? Concrete. Eight months. Eight months.
Little girl, I'm a Sophia. Good for you, man. She rules me. Yeah.
It's over, game over for me. Okay, next question, Josh, what's your favorite cigar? Damn. I'm going to sound like a Fuente fanboy.
Let me just write down Fuente for all your answers. Yeah, Fuente this, Fuente that. Not Fuente. Non Fuente.
Okay, non Fuente, it's got a Lucian ECCJ, Churchill. Alright. Love that cigar. CJ?
CJ's making faces that you don't think he likes that cigar. You mean... He just can't believe that it's still happening in my human world. It's a damn lie.
And I'm not sharing it. And he's not sharing it with me, exactly. Oh, I'm getting the cigars you don't share. Son of a bitch.
Holding out. What are you smoking right now, by the way? I'm smoking a Fuente. What is it though?
It was because you gave it to me. Smoking an Irish shirt. Oh, is this what it was? I love it!
It just had a Flinta tag on it. That's all. Yeah, this looks good. Cut this for me.
Cut this for me. Cut this for me. Yeah. Actually, you're asking me mine.
Yes. If it's Cuban, it's Partica Series D No. 4. Oh, that's my favorite Cuban cigar.
That's, that's mine. And then the other one would be, actually, I love The Leaf by Oscar. By Oscar. Which blend?
The, um, actually, the Connecticut is, I mean, it's a mild cigar, but, you know, there's, It's just so consistent. Right. And that's kind of my go-to. It's mild but it still has a lot of flavors to it.
Yeah. It's got some undertones of spice and stuff. Yeah. So it's a nice little cigar.
So I'll kind of bounce between those. That and the Happy Tampas, right? Actually, the White Owl. The White Owl.
Remember the White Owls? The peach. The peach one? Yeah.
You really enjoy splicing and just smoking the outer wrapper. Yeah. We just end up, you know, taking the outer wrapper and putting blunts in the back of it. So we're fine.
Come to Bellicoso! We have short people in blunts. Come to Bellicoso! Drunk short people with lunch.
You don't have that many followers, right? Only 23, just three. Okay, okay, good. Well, if you're one of them, 22.
Okay, good. Okay, Josh, fictional character you'd like to share a cigar with? Fictional. Fictional.
Book, movie, TV show. Book, movie, TV show, cartoon, we've got cartoon characters. Oh, yeah, let's do Tony Stark. Tony Stark.
I do believe RDJ is a cigar smoker too. That would be a good smoke. He's one of my favorite actors of all time. Very nice.
CJ, it doesn't have to be a cigar smoker. Jessica Rabbit. Jessica Rabbit. Nice.
You want a totally different direction now. That's fantastic. I love that question because it's so diverse. Because it could be anything.
What's been the wackiest so far? I have no idea. Jessica Rabbit. John Kearney.
John Kearney. I'm terrible with names. John Kearney was a cartoon character off his father's old business's sign called the, what's it, Beefeater or something like that? Yeah, something like that.
Something like that, yeah. Okay, then you guys want to give out your social medias, how to get ahold of you? CJ. How to find your...
Social media, Facebook, Bellicoso Cigars and Cafe on Facebook. And then on Instagram, it's bellicoso_cafe_cigars_cafe, and Twitter, it's just bellicoso_cigars_cafe. Very nice. Is it that nice?
Is it really that nice? Yeah, I really like the underscore one. Underscore underscore underscore underscore. Underscore, backslash, semicolon.
Hashtag. You can also find us on backdoor. Right? Right.
Right. I didn't see that come up on the research. Yeah, I mean, that wasn't found, producer. There's no backdoor.
Sorry. God damn it. Some things, they're my friends. Some things I try to, you know, keep quiet.
Keep separate. If anyone throw it out there. Josh is open now. Josh is open.
I mean, we really broke the seal going on the questions and, you know, he came flat out. Gave us a real deal. He did. I did.
Which is nice. I told you I wasn't going to BS you guys on that one. All right. That's a first.
Right? You got to deal with him every day. I don't know. That's why I'm glad he lives in Tampa.
Yeah. The long-distance relationship works great. Yeah, how often are you at the shop? I'm there every Thursday.
Right. And then in spirit throughout the week. Oh, very nice. Or via the cell phone or Slack or anything else in the back end.
So you're there for every event? Yeah. That's why I planned all the events on Thursday. Oh, on Thursday.
That was it. So then he gets to partake in the benefits of it. You don't want me to feel left out. Yeah.
It's all about family, man. That's pretty sweet. Excellent, excellent strategy. Can we hug?
Huh? Can we hug? Give him a hug. All right, sorry.
Strong grip. Well, you know, we're- Okay. We did, Mike, you were red. It was something in my eye.
I don't know what it is. I think it's like constantly red. When I laugh, I turn red. Well, we appreciate you guys coming out.
Yeah, taking the trip over here, you know. Thank you guys for having us over. It's been a really good time. It's been fun.
And yeah, I think that concludes it. You guys got some cigars we can buy here? Yeah, one or two. All right, a couple.
We're fresh out. We carry a La Polina and Buente. You got Buente? Good.
That one allusion that you like, we'll give some to CJ. We don't have those though. All right, that's it. All right, bye.
That's it folks, show's over! If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can leave them on our Facebook page of Cigar Hustlers Podcast. You can follow the show on Instagram at Cigar Hustlers Podcast. You can follow Mikey at Cigar Hustler.
And you can follow myself at FloridaCigarClub_Mike on Instagram. Make sure to rate, comment, and subscribe on whatever provider you listen to the show at. Thanks for listening.
Show Notes
This week we start a new series "Getting to Know your Retailer". We will have various shop owners from the State of Florida in on the show and learn how they too became Cigar Industry participants!
First up Josh Fabelo and Carl Hanlon from Belicoso Cafe and Cigars in Winter Park. Listen in and discover how this unusual pair has turned a small shop in Winter Park to the best place to sit, smoke and have a great cup of coffee on the Avenue!!
As always we welcome your comments, suggestions and guest request on our FB page "A Cigar Hustlers Podcast". You can follow the show on IG @cigarhustlerspodcast, Mikey @cigarhustler and Mike @floridacigarclub_Mike.
We would appreciate you rateing, reviewing and subscribing to the show on whatever provider you listen to us on!!