Washington’s ‘cigar man’ celebrates USA

Washington may no longer have smoke-filled rooms, but it definitely still has its “cigar man.”

Just ask Jim Nicholson, a former Republican National Committee chairman, ambassador to the Vatican, and Veterans Affairs secretary.

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In a new autobiography from celebrated cigar maker Paul P.K. Garmirian, Nicholson referred to “PG” as “my cigar man.”

In an interview, he said, “I just love the guy.” So much so that he introduced him to former President and cigar smoker George W. Bush and cigar aficionado Arnold Schwarzenegger.

When visiting Garmirian’s McLean, Virginia, outlet and its truck-sized humidor where it’s common to brush elbows with governors, Cabinet members, and movie stars, Nicholson said, “It’s so fun to sit there and smoke a cigar with him and then have him tell you all about that cigar, what the mix is, what the blend is, what the aging has been.”

He’s not alone in praising Garmirian’s sticks. Others have included former President Bill Clinton, the late Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and his colleague Clarence Thomas, Rush Limbaugh and Pierre Salinger, actors Sammy Davis Jr. and George Hamilton, and director Sydney Pollack.

Nicholson, who puffed on Cubans while representing the U.S. in Italy, said the reason is simple. “I like them better.”

Conservative columnist Jed Babbin, who joins with pollster John Zogby to grade President Joe Biden for Secrets in the weekly White House Report Card, agreed. “I’ve been traveling a lot and have tried pretty much every brand of Cuban cigars. PG’s cigars taste better and smoke more smoothly than any Cuban I’ve ever had,” he said.

Garmirian said smoking in Washington has changed since he arrived as a college student from Lebanon, spending weekends at the city’s fabled Georgetown Tobacco. “Politicians used to smoke cigars everywhere, right? And slowly but surely, it dissipated. It was no longer appropriate,” he said.

And he’s good with that. “Cigar smoking is very private. Unless you are with very, very close friends and you’re all smoking the same brand, the same blend,” he said.

Photo courtesy Paul Garmirian.

His memoir, The Road to Cigars, is his second book. It follows his 1990 book The Gourmet Guide to Cigars, which led him to develop his own brand of aged “gourmet” cigars made in the Dominican Republic.

Supported by influential international cigar makers including Zino Davidoff and Hendrik Kelner, and his tiny staff of son Kevork and shop manager Emile Nassar, PG cigars enjoy worldwide popularity despite Garmirian’s ban on advertising.

“My mentor, Davidoff, said a good cigar has to be discovered,” said Garmirian while enjoying one of his own.

Now 80 and considered by his Washington friends to be the ultimate example of a Renaissance man, he penned his memoir as a thank you to his family, notably his parents, and America. “I felt I owed it to America, to my father, and also to all the special people that I’ve met who played a very big part to actualize the beauty of this country and to validate everything this country stands for,” Garmirian told me.

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“It’s the American concept of freedom and freedom of expression. Whether it’s freedom of expression through music, through hard work, through service to the community, in real estate, to teaching future generations. It gets you all pumped up and you do it with joy and pleasure,” he said in a quick review of his life and experiences.

With glee, he wrote in his book that after living in some of the most elegant cities and countries in the world, there is only one place for him.

“America, an accepting society, allows one to be inspired and motivated to achieve and excel in whatever field one chooses. When friends ask me where I am planning to go on vacation, my answer is always the same: Living in America is a vacation,” he wrote.