2019 PCA Magazine

PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG JULY-AUGUST 2019 | PCA The Magazine 33 operating Lord Puffer, the two partners were eager to extend the reach of their enterprise. “We’ve had plans to expand for quite some time now,” she says. “Let’s just say it will be in the historical cigar capital of the world. We anticipate the opening to be the summer of 2020.” As to why anyone would want to operate a second location 3,000miles away, Yue gives a compelling reason: “The second location was love at first sight. The building was incredibly unique, and impossible to pass up.” This is no exaggeration, as the two-story building is a beautiful andmassive former church. It is constructed of brick and stone, with a bell tower and soaring ceilings. What Yue left unmentioned is that she and her partner have a knack for envisioning and executing plans for a successful business, be it retail, wholesale or manufacturing. As such, they felt capable of launching a new location. And there’s a plan for the long distance conundrum. “Fortunately, I have the flexibility of moving at any given notice,” says Yue. “My partner will be responsible for the build-out of the store and once the store is done, I’ll move to Florida tomanage the store whilemy partner manages our San Diego location.” That’s a hard plan to argue with, and given Lord Puffer’s startling success in such a short amount of time, the odds are that their willingness to gamble on a second store clear across the country will pay off. Three hours and 130miles to the north of Escondido, Sam Atalah was happy operating a cigar lounge he owned in the San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles. In 2007, the store was in its second year when he drove with some friends for a visit to Santa Barbara, the scenic Mediterranean-styled enclave on the central California coast. Exiting the freeway into a leafy neighborhood just north of the center of town, Atalah saw a handwritten “For Lease” sign in one of the retail buildings. “My friend wanted me to call but it was a Sunday and I didn’t want to bother the owner,” he says. But Atalah did call, the landlord was available and he had no objections to leasing to a cigar store. A deal was made shortly after and before Atalah knew it, he was commuting an hour and a half fromLA to Santa Barbara. Although he had help in the original store, it became difficult running the two businesses, and by the end of 2008 he had closed the LA store to focus solely on Cigar Empire Santa Barbara. Fast forward to 2010 and MoisesMedina, a realtor fromLA, moved back to Santa Barbara and was looking for the right place to purchase and smoke his beloved puros. A friend recommended Cigar Empire andMedina was soon a regular of the store. He and Atalah became friendly and started hanging out together, to the point where he felt comfortable asking Atalah if had considered opening another location in town. Thememories of trying to juggle two stores reminded Atalah of some of the reasons he sold his original LA location—he simply can’t be in