A Visit to the Nat Sherman Townhouse

Opened in 2007, the latest location for Nat Sherman’s retail tobacco shop is located on 42nd Street off of Fifth Avenue in New York City around the corner from the New York Public Library. It is an impressive looking shop, with three levels: the first floor is completely taken up by a member’s only lounge and private humidors, the second floor is where the main shop and the humidor is, while the third floor holds various offices and meeting rooms.

The entrance to the Nat Sherman Townhouse, New York, New York.

The downstairs member’s lounge at the Nat Sherman Townhouse.

Humidor in the Nat Sherman Townhouse. Previously, the room was used for billiards.

The piano overlooking the store.

View from the upstairs of the Nat Sherman Townhouse.

The front of the Nat Sherman Townhouse, including the registers and accessories.

While photographing the building, I was struck not by the history of this specific building, but by the history of the brand itself, which has been around since 1930. Old photographs showing various celebrities enjoying Nat Sherman cigars cover the walls, along with framed orders from people like Frank Sinatra. There is a grand piano in an alcove above the entrance to the store, and I love the fact that a red neon sign that says “Cigars” was brought over from the store at 5th Avenue and hung above the main cash register. The humidor is quite large and includes an extensive range of cigars from various brands and manufacturers, including obviously Nat Sherman.

The entire space is dedicated to the idea that we should slow down and savor the moment with a cigar, of course, and I was relaxed from the moment I left the busy streets of New York and stepped into the store. Honestly, it will be one of my first stops the next time I visit New York.

Brooks Whittington

I have worn many hats in my life up to this point: I started out as a photojournalist for the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, then transitioned to photographing weddings—both internationally and in the U.S.—for more than a decade. After realizing that there was a need for a cigar website containing better photographs and more in-depth information about each release, I founded my first cigar blog, SmokingStogie, in 2008. SmokingStogie quickly became one of the more influential cigar blogs on the internet, known for reviewing preproduction, prerelease, rare, extremely hard-to-find and expensive cigars, and it was one of the predecessors to halfwheel, which I co-founded.