Serving Our Customers With Cigars From Around the World Since 1965
In 1965, our cigar shop was founded by William E. Bennington. With careful consideration, the location was determined in Saint Armand's Circle in Sarasota. As the business grew, there was a need to expand the operation. A three year search was conducted for the perfect location, which would represent the image and the market desired. The ultimate location was Boca Raton in Palm Beach County located on the east coast of Florida. An existing tobacco shop was obtained, which had been established for fifteen years in the heart of downtown Boca Raton. The shop was purchased in January 7,1980 and has recently closed in 2015.
To this day, it is still family-owned and operated in Sarasota by Jack, Jim, and Gary Bennington. They continue to honor their father's philosophy that quality products should be represented in a proper image.
Mr. & Mrs. William Bennington in 1965
Custom Pipe Tobacco Blends
Mr. Bennington was an avid pipe smoker and recognized the opportunity in the lack of high quality pipe tobacco brands in the U.S. market at that time. There were plenty of domestic "drug store" brands, but few imported brands of the calibers of Dunhill, Erinmore or Rattray's for example.
Bennington Blends No. 10 and No. 24 are two such blends and are still popular today. Blend No. 15 is patterned after the famed "Balkan Sobranie White Label," which was very popular back then. In those days, the tobacco manufacturers sold the basic blending ingredients, i.e., Burleys, Virginias, Latakia, Perique, Maryland, and Turkish tobaccos, directly to the tobacconist and offered "formulas" as a general guide, which could be tweaked in order to create custom blends.
Mr. Bennington spent a good part of an evening with tweezers and a scale separating eight ounces of Balkan Sobranie into its component parts of Turkish, Latakia, and Virginia to determine the ratios of the blend. He then refined it to his taste and introduced Blend No. 15 in 1966. Blend No. 33 is another original and is still quite popular. Blend No. 33 is patterned after Murray's Erinmore Flake.
At Bennington’s we still prefer the original method of buying the basic tobacco component ingredients and creating unique blends from them.
Bennington Through the Years
Learn more about our cigar shop when you visit, or call 941-388-1562!