Pipe and tobacco shops I have visited

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Sobranie759

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I am not sure this post and the ones that may follow will be of interest. I have visited many a pipe and tobacco shop in the last fifty years.
With the loss of so many shops, I thought it may be of interest to some to recount my experiences in visiting some of the many great shops. A few are still around while others are long gone.
I will start out with a bit of background. I started smoking a pipe at 15 years of age. My Dad smoked a pipe. Many of my friends turned to cigarettes. This was 1964. Of course, I purchased a pack of Lucky Strikes and I was on my way! I did not smoke in front of my parents but they of course knew I was smoking. My Dad sat me down one day and handed me a Kaywoodie with a white finish and pack of London Dock smoking mixture (His blend of choice) . I smoked that pipe, it went to school with me ( no of course no smoking in school ) I learned to enjoy pipe smoking and how not to fry my tongue. Eventually, I switched to Amphora Red. Dad gave me a few more of his pipes and now I was a confirmed pipe smoker and on my way to a career of pipe and tobacco collecting.
My story starts with a visit to Schulte's Pipe Shop in Maplewood New Jersey. It was 1966. I did not drive yet so a friend drove to this shop a few miles from my home. I had passed this store with its bigger than life pipe hanging off the facade of the store. I just had to see what this was all about. I had only viewed pipes and packaged tobaccos at the local drug store.
I walked into the store and my eyes lit up............to be continued............
 
Schulte's Pipe Shop had recently moved from Newark NJ to Maplewood. When I entered, I was welcomed by a very nice gentleman in a blue shop apron. This was Max Schulte. Max walked me around the store. There were walls of pipes with sliding glass panels. So many shapes and sizes I got dizzy just looking at pipes. Max told me to just move the glass panels and get a better look at the pipes. I gazed at the pipes looking for Kaywoodie or other drug store pipe names. When I asked Max he said these were all natural pipes with no paint or varnish. The prices were $5.00 to $30.00 each. Now as a high school kid my funds were very very limited. I told Max the pipes were kind of out of my price range. Well, Max opened a bunch of drawers under the wall mounted pipes and started to pull out these blue speckled boxes that when opened revealed at least 12 or more pipes per box. Max told me to pick out a pipe and he would only charge me $2.50. I found a very nice medium sized apple shape also in the natural finish. Max told me the more I smoked the pipe the darker the wood would become. I handed my find to Max and he walked me over to the other side of the store that was filled with giant jars of tobacco. Max asked me what tobacco I smoked I told him I had been smoking Amphora Red. Max gave a look almost like my Dad would when I said something dumb. Max proceeded to take my new pipe and coat the inside of the pipe with a substance that came from what looked like an old glue jar with a brush. He carefully coated the inside of the pipe this and then proceeded to fill the pipe with a blend labeled "Lord Yale". He handed the pipe back to me and told me to light my new pipe and so I did. What a wonderful taste, it was like smoking honey coated chestnuts. I just stood there smoking my pipe and just grunting " it's good, I really like it "
I spent the next hour in the store smoking my new pipe and sniffing all the jars of tobacco. I was enjoying every minute of my visit to Schulte's. I can't say as much for my friend who couldn't wait to leave. I paid my 2.50 and Max sent me off with a few ounces of Lord Yale and a few pipe cleaners.
As the years passed I made it my business to visit Max and learn more about pipes and tobaccos. Max would take me down to he basement and show me a rotating barrel connected to a what was a washing machine motor. The barrel would rotate and Max would add pre-measured mounds of tobacco. Yes, Max made almost all of his own blends.
Over the years I gravitated to English blends. The more latakia the better. Max had a shop blends that competed with names like Sobranie and Dunhill. I would visit Max when I came home from college and latter on when I was working. The shop is long gone and unfortunately, so is Max. I miss those days and the massive amount of hours I spent in this shop. Yup, I got a real education from a great professor Max Schulte.
If you have read this far, I will continue my story in the next chapter which takes me to Boston and my next adventure at Ehrlich's Pipe Shop.
If you think I am taking up too much space here just let me know. I will continue if you think it appropriate.
 
It was a snowy day in Boston during the winter of 1968. Although I went to college in NH, I had friends going to school in Boston. It was a Saturday morning and I got out of bed and I needed coffee real bad. I found my coffee and with cup in hand I just walked and walked . Somehow I ended up on Tremont street. As I was walking past what was probably the oldest cemetery in Boston or anywhere else for that matter, I look up and yup another big pipe hanging off the front of a store. This was David P Ehrlich's. I would call it a tobacco emporium not just a shop like Schulte's. In the front window was a workbench where I understand someone would sit and turn pipes. I entered and it was a large store. There were sales people dressed in shop jackets like you might see in an old time London high end boutique. I walked through the store looking at all the pipes and the abundant number of tobacco tins all private label to the shop. I am transfixed on a pipe in one of the cases. I can't remember what pipe or what brand, but I am sure it was way above my budget I faintly hear a voice " can I help you son? " I look straight ahead and realize the voice is coming from behind me not in front. I turn around and there is a small man with a giant smile on his face. An older gentleman with an Irish brogue that could compete with Barry Fitzgerald. ( I know, who is Barry Fitzgerald?.....look him up on Youtube :) ) Well, in his hand was the biggest meerschaum pipe I have or would ever have seen. This pipe would put Rich Esserman's magnums to shame. It was a big BIG BIG Billard. He held up the pipe an took a puff and a giant plume of smoke would rise up almost covering this leprechaun, I mean gentleman. I was sure this guy was a character actor from an old Universal Sherlock Holmes movie. I asked him what tobacco he was smoking in that so large pipe? He said it was a shop blend called DPE mixture. He told me he smoked that blend all day long and it was his favorite. We talked and I asked questions and he never walked away from me not once. He never tried to sell me anything and I think he enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. I purchased a basket pipe and a 1 1/2 oz packet of DPE mixture. I thanked my new friend for the conversation. I stood in the middle of the emporium watching the sales people helping others with their purchases. I walked out the door giving a final wave to my new friend. It was still snowing but it was one of those non sticking snows. I lit my new pipe with DPE mixture and began walking down Tremont Street toward the Boston Common hoping to find my friends. I smoked many pounds of DPE mixture over many many years. I returned to Ehrlich's every time I got to Boston. I never got to see my friend again. If I knew his name I can not remember. What a great shop, what a great man and what a super blend that DPE. The shop is long gone sad to say and DPE is still sold in Cambridge by Levitt and Pearse. Trust me its not the same.
Boston is a great city, but one of treasures of my pipe smoking journey was yet to be discovered .......LJ Peretii ..........I will get there in my pipe shop stories eventually but first back to New Jersey and New York. Again, stop me if I am breaking a rule or boring you to tears. I have 2 16 oz tins of DPE to console me :)
 
As a high school student my TV production teacher found that I was a fledgling pipe smoker and suggested I stop in Peretti's for a tin of Mac Baren's Virginia No. 1, I was living in Malden, a bus and subway trip to Boston. I stopped in, was overwhelmed by the number of pipes on display, the bulk tobacco bar and the variety of tins stacked behind the register. I bought a tin of Virginia No. 1 and at the suggestion of the person behind the counter a tin of Symphony. I was an occasional customer there for years.

Harvard Square in Cambridge had the best book and magazine stores imaginable and I spent many Saturday afternoons shopping there. That's were Leavitt & Pierce is, right next to the Harvard Coop near a folk café. I was unimpressed with the store, it had pipes and tobacco but they seamed to be second fiddle to game boards and college pastimes.

I started a High School friend on pipe smoking, the first few times he came with me to Peretti's he was interested in buying the cigarettes he saw British Rockers smoking on TV. In college he made the transition to pipe smoking and he was the one who found Ehrlich's.
 
I as well thought that the Leavitt and Pierce shop was geared to gifts and games. I suppose back in the day they stocked many of the branded Ehrlich tobaccos as I believe both stores were related. My visits here were after the Tremont Street store closed and the blends had all been outsourced to many of the other large bulk tobacco companies.
I found out many years latter that some of the house brands of David P Ehrlich were produced by US Tobacco in Richmond VA. My favorite DPE was better know as "white label". In fact DPE was very similar to the original " Barking Dog" before it was farmed out to House of Windsor.
 
I continue my somewhat chronological adventure of pipe shops I have visited
During the summer of 1969 I worked for my Dad who operated a services business. I discovered a number of local ( to me ) pipe and tobacco shops . In East Orange New Jersey I discovered The Brick Church Pipe Shop. This was different than Schulte's as this store carried mostly name brand pipes. I am not sure about the house blends but I was fairly certain that many of their blends were from the bulk tobacco houses. I remember purchasing an english blend that was full but it had been mixed with a rum based tobacco. It was very tasty although expensive for a college kid. I enjoyed the many bulk blends as I started to grow fond of full non aromatic blends. So I am visiting this store late one afternoon looking through the latest pipes that had been "on sale". I see a gentleman go up to the tobacco counter, he is greated by one of the sales guys who says "Hey Doc, the usual?". The guys gives a nod and the next thing I see is the sales guy goes into the back of the store and returns with 2 cans of tobacco. I work my way toward the counter to see what Doc was getting. The sales guy opens am 8oz tin of Balkan Sobranie and an 8oz tin of Amphora Red . He proceeds to pour the contents into a very large wooden mixing bowl. He then by hand combines the blends. He spent nearly five minutes blending the two mixtures together. The contents were placed into a one pound plastic bag and Doc was out the door. I believe I heard the price to be $12.00. I spoke to the guy that mixed up the blend and he said that Doc was indeed an MD. He loved smoking Sobranie but his nurses were always complaining of the smell coming from his pipe. I guess this solved the problem. I had never heard of Sobranie but of course, my education was just beginning. This was a great shop with a vast assortment of pipes. On another occasion, I am looking through some new pipes the store just got in. I asked one of the sales guys, "Hey I see this pipe is from Italy". The sales guy comes over looks at the pipe and says " Yea I think we got a bunch of these in and personally I think they are crap". Stick with the English pipes. You won't like these. I kept turning the pipe over in my hand. I decided to put it back. The last thing I needed was a crappy pipe. The name on the pipe was CASTELLO ...........go figure !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Although Schulte's was my go to shop when I was home, I had visited Jelling Pipe Shop in Newark as well as Schoenleber's Pipe Shop also in Newark.
Jelling had a nice assortment of pipes many with private label stamps. Some were standard shapes and many of the higher priced pieces had a Danish flair.
I thought these looked like "Jarl" pipes or at least very similar . Their tobaccos were hand blended in the back of the store where you could see the tobacconist behind a glass wall blending. Many of their blends were composted of tobaccos from Bloch Brothers of Virginia. These blends were very well made and the quality could rival the old Dunhill Blends...sort of :) . Jelling was well known for their cigars. The clientele of the shop were from the legal profession. If you hang around places and ask questions you learn stuff. STUFF!!!
Schoenleber's shop sold private label pipes and old Luis did repairs. It was a tiny shop but it had a very old time pipe shop feel. New Jersey had some great shops unfortunately, they are all gone.
My parting comment for this entry, I loved visiting pipe shops! The internet has served the pipe community very well. I don't blame the internet for the demise of the pipe shop. As they said in The Godfather, "It's not personal Sonny, it's just business". The guys at Esoterica most be enjoying seeing a $35.00 package of Penzance sell for 300-500 dollars.
I will continue recounting my adventures. Again, if this holds little interest, let me know. I will continue otherwise.
 
A quick Balkan Sobranie story and my first encounter with this blend.

It was 1970 and my girlfriend was coming up to my college for a visit. I went to town ( the big city ) which had a Rexall Drug store. I thought I may need what guys carried in their wallets, so I proceed to get a pack of gum, and a package of Half and Half. This would give me enough courage to ask the druggist to assist me with my true reason to be in the drug store to begin with. Before I had a chance to ask he says "anything else?" I almost said " no thank you" but before I could answer he glared at me and said I will be right back. I thought for a second just walk out and don't look back. For some reason I waited and it was too late to run. The druggist puts a few boxes on the counter I point to one and he puts it in a bag. He then proceeds to ask if I really want the gum and Half and Half? I tell him " not really". He asks if I really do smoke a pipe? I said "sometimes"
He comes around the front of the counter and takes a tin of Balkan Sobranie off the shelf ( yes it was sold in a drugstore ) He said this is great tobacco and you will really like it!!
I see the price its like $2.50 hey its 1970!!. I read the tin and I wonder why would this be 10X the price of anything else. I told the guy this is too expensive for me. He looks me in the eye and says, "give me $1.50." I know you will be back for more........tobacco"......with a big grin. I pay for what's in the bag and the tin of tobacco and head back to my apartment. Hey I was a 3rd year college guy, no more dorms for me.
I sit on the couch after I stashed the bag and I look at the Sobranie tin. There is a metal top on the tin, but I could not figure out how to open the tin. After awhile I see a sharp point on the inside of the tin. I gently slide it town the center of the lid. I push the lid back on the tin and i hear a hiss come from the tin. I take off the lid and see a small hole in the top. I place the lid back in place and turn the lid. It was like a can opener. I went around twice, took off the lid and removed the metal seal. The aroma of the blackish tobacco wafted through the air. It was a full smell and a rich smell. I did what every pipe smoker does, I stick my nose right into the tin almost cutting myself. As I take in the aroma I picture Baker Street with Sherlock and Dr Watson smoking their pipes. This was the smell of great tobacco. I fill a Schulte pipe a little more than half way and I sit back and bring match to tobacco. A few gentle puffs, a tamp and I was in another place, another dimension . Boy was it rich and full. The smoke hung in the air like a London fog. I was in love......with a tobacco. Is that possible? I remember reading " a woman is a woman but a cigar is a smoke " . I think it pertained to pipes as well.
In 1971 I got married. I was 21. My wife and I knew each other since we were 8 and 9 years old. We rented an apartment and I happily smoked my pipes inside the apartment. I think I got away with that for 10 years not the marriage, we will be married 53 years next April. Smoking in the house.!!!
In closing I get this magazine can't remember where , its about pipes, I can't recall the name. As I am reading through the magazine I come across an article on a pipe shop in NYC called Connoisseur Pipe Shop.
My bride and I traveled to New York City where not only did I discover this store but I found the mother load of pipe shops, many right on Madison Avenue
More to come........
 
NYC was a treasure trove of pipe shops. One of the most unusual shops I visited was Connoisseur Pipe Shop. As I remember, all of the pipes were natural. There were traditional shapes as well as many that were signature pieces of this shop. Although the pipes were unique, many had flaws in the briar. The prices did not reflect the quality of the pipes. As Ed ( The owner ) said , the marks in the briar are due to the natural state of the wood and would not reflect on the smoking quality of the pipes. Ed was correct. The pipes all smoked very well. Over the years I purchased many of his pipes and I enjoyed them all. Ed also sold tobacco under the store name. My favorite was "Turkish Black". This was very close to the look and taste of Sobranie. I went through pounds of this blend. I will refer back to this shop latter, as I made some discoveries in my pipe journey that may clear up some questions about these pipes and the shop. All in all, a great shop and I enjoyed all my purchases no matter.
At number 400 Madison avenue resided The Wilke Pipe Shop. I walked into this shop one sunny Saturday morning and was greated by Louise Wilke one of the daughters of Ed Wilke. The other daughter being Anna. Louise was kind and very knowledgable. I looked over her pipes also many many natural unstained pipes some that were traditional shapes and others that were oversized and unique, many with beautiful grain. Louise asked me my preference in pipe tobacco. When I told her my interest was English blends she suggested I try Wilke Blend #400. Louise said it was an old blend and the recipe has never changed. I purchased 4oz and kept sniffing the bag all the way back to New Jersey. The smell of the tobacco in the bag was overwhelming. The tatste was full with loads of latakia and perique. What a blend, what a store, what a lady. I will never forget that day. By the time I returned to that store Louise and her sister were gone. The tobacco and pipes continued. The business changed hands and eventually Wilke was purhcased by Elliot Nachwalter . More about the Wilke story latter. As I strolled down Madison Avenue I walked into Wally Frank. Wow, this store has everything. So many brands of pipes and tobaccos I got dizzy looking at everything in the store. Wally Frank had a super catalogue for customers. Many of the pipes were from Italy. I believe Wally Frank was the importer of Castello through their wholesale company. I could be wrong here. A fine shop with a giant assortment of pipes and tobaccos. The guys that worked there sure knew their pipes .
My NYC visits also included "Pipe and Pouch" "Barkley Rex" and "Arnolds" ( some very high end pieces in this shop from Dunhill and Castello) "Nat Sherman" "De La Concha" ( now Davidoff) . Let's not forget Dunhill across from St Patricks. A side note about the Dunhill store. In the early 70's this was a magnificent store. In those days it was pipes, cigars and tobacco. I remember one of the sales guys a small man who's name was Fred he had an accent if I remember. He sold me a hand blended tin of tobacco by the name of 11010A. This could compete with Pirate Kake, although it did not contain any burley. The tobaccos were from Lane Ltd . I never got to know the recipe but I believe it contained a fair portion of BS005 plus I don't know what. This was right up my alley. Yes for years I smoked through 8oz tins and boy did it stink good. There were so many NYC stores I am sure I missed some here but I visited all of them. My bride went with me. Such adventure!!
Moving on, my early work years 1971-1975 and more pipe shops...........
 
My first real job required me to visit prospective clients to review their financial statements in order for my company to grant them a line of credit
One one occasion, I found myself in Brooklyn New York visiting such a client to be.
For some reason I remembered that there was a briar pipe manufacturer in Brooklyn. There was no internet in those days so I guess I looked through the phone book. I found the address and name of The Arlington Briar Pipe Company. It just so happened that I was a 15 minute walk from their address. Now, I had thought that I would open a shop of my own one day and it would be interesting to see if I could understand more about the making of pipes. Max Schulte would teach me many things regarding pipes and tobaccos, but here was a chance to visit a real pipe production facility.
If my memory serves me, I go to the address and I see a sign on a door "Arlington Briar Pipe Co" I open the door and I find myself in a small elevator. The sign said 2nd floor, so I push the button the elevator creaked and jumped and slowly got me to the second floor. The door opens to the sound of machines whirling and making so much noise. I step onto the shop floor and a kind looking gentleman says "Can I help you?" I could hardly hear him over the racket. I told the man of my desire to one day open a pipe shop. I told him I wanted to learn about pipe making and perhaps understand about briar and the various qualities of this wood. As I remember he walked me through the entire factory floor which was very large. Many people were working on the machines that cut the briar into pipes. It was almost like copying a key at the hardware store. There was briar dust and shavings everywhere. I will spare you the details of the shop, however when my tour was done, I asked the gentleman "could I buy a few sample pipes?" " Of course he says, why not " He hands me a blue speckled cardboard box and tells me to pick from the bins of finished pipes . I walk around the bins picking an assortment of pipes. I always favored larger pipes and before I knew it I had 12 pipes . Each one a beauty in its natural unvarnished state. I ask the man "well I guess I will take these if they are not too expensive " " How much are they ?" He turns to me and says $12.00. I use my college education to calculate $144.00. I turn to him and I say "I'm sorry I can only afford one pipe at 12.00. He says " the dozen pipes are 12.00". Holly S. $12.00 for 12 pipes, again my education shinned through that's $1.00 per pipe!!! I hand the man $12.00. The last time I felt this giddy was at Howard Johnson's ( That was a restaurant chain back in the day ) I was with my friends at college. We see a sign on HoJo's ( Howard Johnson's get it ? :)) It says fried chicken dinner all you can eat $1.25. Three big guys sit down and after two hours the manager begged us to leave. If we would leave he would not charge us anything. Yes we left and laughed all the way back to school.
Back to the story.....so I now ask my new best friend what grade are these pipes. He proceeds to tell me I decide on what grade I think they are. They just sell the pipes in quantity, I then find out that Arlington had stamps for many pipe shops and they would stamp the name on the pipe as if it came from that particular store. So I discovered a secret, pricing is done at the store on what the store wanted to sell the pipe for based on grain and or flaws or whatever. Now this was an education. I knew my Dad did not waste his money on college.
Oh, by the way the blue speckled box from Arlington was the same exact box Max Schulte pulled out in my earlier story.
The pipes were all great smokers. Arlington made pipes for many many shops as did Weber and a few others. I will discuss a few of those in future posts.
Have you ever heard of Jack Weinberger? You may know his pipes as JHW.......to be continued ............
 
We had purchased our first house in 1973. My pipe and tobacco collection fit in 4 shoe boxes. Anyway my Father in-law was an accountant and an attorney. He work for the IRS ( Yup ) well, he a friend who was also an attorney. He comes over the house one day and says " I have a friend that carves pipes". "If you would like to meet him I can set something up for you". It was a fall evening and I was in the car driving to West Caldwell New Jersey to meet Jack Weinberger. Jack greeted me at the front door and quickly walked me through the house to a lower den area that was converted to a workshop. As a hobby Jack mades pipes under the JHW name. Now these were just not your run of the mill shapes. These were unique pieces some were novelty pieces . You old timers may remember some very large pipes that were carved into a giant tooth or other crazy shapes. Nat Sherman in NY carried Jack's pipes. Many pieces were oversized but unique. Jack gave me a few pipes before I left, one was a larger Canadian shape but the bowl had a rough top and was almost dublin shaped. I did say different. Again unstained and natural pipes. Jack was an interesting guy who told me his favorite bkend came from a shop in New York that was inside a Pharmacy. The blender was also a Pharmacist.
Jack walks me out to my car and says I have a couple of guys that do a lot of the carving you should come back when they are here. I stick my head out the window before I drive off and I ask who his carvers were. The only name I could remember was Mark. I latter found out that the Mark, was Mark Tinsky. Mark went off on his own and built American Smoking Pipe Company. You can see him online and buy his pipes directly or through Smokingpipes.com. I eventually became a customer of Mark's and I have owned many of his pipes. I ran into Mark at the Newark New Jersey pipe show many times and we talked about Jack. Mark, if you see this I always wondered if the other carver was Kurt.

Work takes me on a business trip to Idaho. I go to a meeting with a guy that manages a factory. As we are sitting together he takes out a pipe and a large can of tobacco and lights up. ( try doing that today ). The aroma from his pipe was great I ask him what he is smoking, and he hands me the tin. The tin says.... I think " Pure Pleasure". I pop the lid and it looks a lot like Barking Dog or DPE. The name of the shop is Smoker's Haven in Columbus Ohio. I never heard of that shop but I was soon to meet the owner Joe Zieve......more to com
 
Funny to say that is my Pipe smoking days I have only visited two pipe shops. One is here in my city of San Jose, CA called Mission Pipe shop. He sells pipes from his distributor and also does some tobacco blending. The other pipe shop I have visited is Boswell's in Chambersburg Pennsylvania. I happen to do Civil War reenacting and was visiting the Gettysburg Battlefield. I had hear about Mr. Boswell and knew someone who had some of his pipes. So I happened to go into the shop and came out with some tobacco and two pipes. I have since then managed to obtain five of his pipes. They are made by him and all of them are extremely nice smokers.
 
Rudy

It is unfortunate that so many great pipe shops are now history.

I have visited Boswells fine shop many times and I have enjoyed their pipes and house blends. I like Railroad Station which is a very nice medium light english. I do know of Mission Pipe Shop but unfortunately when I was last in San Jose I thought ...next time I will stop in. Well, its been years....someday :)
 
To clarify, I really never made it out to Columbus to visit Smoker's Haven. I can't tell you how much I regret not going. Upon my return to NJ after the factory manager handed me his tin of "Pure Pleasure" I called Smoker's Haven. I was curious as to the other house blends they offered as well as their pipes for sale.. Lucky for me I get to speak to Joe Zieve the owner. We stayed on the phone the better part of an hour. Joe recanted his story that SH began around 1940 ( I think ). Joe was in the service during WWII and while he was in England he built a realtionship with GBD and latter Sobranie. Joe was set in his ways and no one made a better pipe than the english. I am not sure if Joe ever carried the Italian brands, perhaps latter on he did. Joe told me he was the largest importer of GBD pipes in the US. All of Joe's English mixtures were produced by Sobranie. His tobacco stable included " Our Best Blend" "Exotique" " In-Between" " "Select" " Cognac" and Krumble Kake".( I may have missed one) All produced for the shop by Sobranie. Joe learns of my love for latakia blends and sends me a sample of Our Best Blend and Exotique. When I got the first package of many, there was a letter included written on an old typewriter a full page single spaced from Joe to me. If you remember the old typewriters some of the letter would not align correctly so you had flying "A"'s and "Y"'s
Probably an Underwood typewriter as my Dad had one and it typed the same. Also included with the letter and the samples of tobacco was a brochure of sorts that was folded over and over. When you opened it ( it was giant ) you could see stories and pictures of pipes and tobaccos that Joe carried. This was way before the word "internet ",but Joe was ahead of the times a visionary and marketing genius. Joe and his brother in law Sid ran the shop with a staff of others. Joe liked to refer to them as "pipe nuts". I understand that when you were on the selling floor you had to be smoking a pipe.
Joe and I would write and call on a regular basis. Joe got to understand what pipes I liked and every few months I would get two or three GBD's in the mail with a letter and the prices of the pipes. I was instructed to keep what I wanted and return what I was not interested in and only pay for what I kept. Joe knew his customer and grew his business out of trust and building relationships.
A few times when a tin of Best Blend was opened inside the seal was an inner seal with the Balkan Sobranie logo. Oh yea this was Sobranie alright. Exotique was Sobranie 759 . These were great blends and wonderful pipes. Joe Zieve was the kindest, most knowledgable man I never got to meet in person. I smoked tons of these blends and I amassed a collection of GBD pipes. I regret never getting to the shop, but I wish I could have met Joe in person to thank him for his concern and friendship.

The shop eventually sold as Joe retired and like many things the business was never the same. You see the second time it sold after Joe it was sold to Premal Chheda's father ( sorry Premal I forgot his name ) This was the true rebirth of Smoker's Haven. I will speak about this shop latter but I want to tell you about another friend I made in the pipe world and how I was introduced to Mel Feldman and The Smoker in Albany New York. I will tell you about Barry Levin who basically started the estate pipe business on a large scale ( I could be wrong) but it was some business and he did it all from his home in Vermont ....stay tuned if you are interested that is ........:)
 
Before I discuss Barry Levin, I wanted to take you on a side trip to Chicago and Iwan Reis. It was the mid 70's and when I visited this great old shop, I was again in wonder of all the pipes in this store. The pipes on display were all beautiful and the owner Mr Levin was very knowledgable. I did get a pipe when I was there it was an import, Danish I think. The tobacco selection of 3 star blends was amazing. They had a vast assortment of blends that were all great. As a confirmed latakia lover, for some reason I changed course and walked out of the store with 3 Star Blue and Royal. Both had some latakia but they were great aromatic smokes. These blends are available today from Iwan Reis. Over the years I tried all of their house blends and i can honestly say, not a bad one in the crowd. Blue is their largest selling blend. and I think it still is. Smoke it slowly and it will reward you with a wonderful experience. I enjoyed this shop and I must have returned 4-5 times to date.

It was 1976, I was back in Boston. I stopped into Ehrlich's and purchased 2 one pound tins of DPE mixture. My friend at Ehrlich"s had retired. I walked down Tremont street toward the Boston Common. I was searching for 2 1/2 Park Square another old tobacco shop. This was LJ Peretti. I walked in and looked around. Some nice Dunhill pipes and other high end pieces. Mr Peretti is behind the counter discussing cigars with this guy. I keep looking at the small worksop in the front of this small store and as I eyed the tobacco bar I see that Mr Peretti is free. I go up to him and ask about his english blends . He opens some jars for me and I sick my nose in and inhale. Every blend had a distinctive smell of leather and spice. I made my choice and went with British Blend as Mr Peretti said it was in the same vain as some of the Dunhill blends. I purchased an 8oz tin and bid farwell to Mr Peretti who was already helping someone else. I had a shopping bag with 2 1/2 pounds of tobacco.. I found another jewel of a blend. I have been back in person and virtually to LJ Peretti dozens of times. I have graduated to smoking Omega from this shop. Its a full on english with a nic hit. I love it and I have a number of tins wating to be popped. By the way the tins are paint cans with a lever lids. The same tins that Ehrlich used for DPE .

I will get to Barry Levin soon, but I did miss my trip to London in 1973 so forgive me for jumping around. The London England pipe and tobacco shops in 1973... OH MY.............stay tuned
 
Sobranie759 said:
LJ Peretti dozens of times. I have graduated to smoking Omega
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I liked Omega but I find Tashkent to be more unique and interesting, it's an Oriental and Latakia only blend. Boston's Best Cavendish is a honey topped Virginia Cavendish that's not overly sweetened. Their shop brand pipes have always become great smokers, I don't know who makes them.
 
Peretti I understand makes pipes downstairs I would guess some of their pipes are made elsewhere. Tashkent is wonderful and I alternate between Omega, Tashkent and #8 Slices . Cambridge Flake is still a good smoke but I enjoyed it more when it was made by McClellands.
Peretti's is a great shop.
 
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