Upcoming trip to Raleigh, NC

[B-Dub Cigar Ambassador]

I'M IN RALEIGH!!! [smokin4]

[Mark71GTX]

Met up with Brent in Raleigh Friday afternoon.  We drove over to Empire Cigars (AKA Capital City Cigars) and walked in on a full house!  We had to sit on stools in the corner as all of the leather chairs were occupied.  Nice atmosphere!  Went into the humidor and Brent picked up  a Cusano 59, Cusano Habano, DPG blue label, maybe more, but that is all I recall - I picked up a LFD Cameroon Cabinet corona, 2 Cabiguan's - one w/silver rings on band and one without, and a La Riquieza.  We started smoking and I gave him a fiver of smokes I bought for him - then he buried me in some GREAT smokes!  I will be doing a review on one of these for sure - maybe more!  So until then I'll keep their identity to myself!  I will let you know that I did get several of his trademark FSS Corojos though.  I had a torp on the way home.  We finished our smokes, had a GREAT meal, and called it a night.  We had a blast - it was great and I can't wait to do it again - hopefully we can herf with stogiedad next time as well.  It was great to finally meet a fellow SC member face to face.  It could not have gone better - except for the fact B-Dub was sick - other than that it was awesome!

[B-Dub Cigar Ambassador]

Those darn North Carolina bugs attacked my weak Tennessee body! But we didn't let the flu get in the way of some righteous cigar action! I had a bottle of daytime cold liquid in tow, and a full Cigar Oasis.

Mark showed me a cool cigar shop just 15 minutes from my new office in Raleigh. As we drove into the parking lot, I noticed a Brazilian Steakhouse two doors down from the shop. So, after getting a couple cigars to try and smoking a good stogie, we headed next door for dinner.

For those who have not had the pleasure, the Brazilian Steakhouse concept is too cool. They give you a marker that is green on one side and red on the other. If you give the green light, carvers will continue arriving at your table with different exotic cuts of beef, chicken, pork, sausage, and lamb. You have to flip the marker to red to get them to stop coming over, and that doesn't even work half the time.

There was a "salad bar" table with unique side items to choose from, including rare cheeses, peppers, palm hearts, mushrooms, eggplant, prawns, asparagus, strawberries, and about a million other items. They also bring loaded mashed potatoes, rice, and brown beans to the table.

I selected a nice bottle of Syrah, which went very well with the various meats. And dinner began with a round of Cachaca "Caipirinhas" (Brazil's national drink):

Cut a half lime into small cubes and place in an old-fashioned glass.
Add bar sugar to taste, mash it all with a spoon or pestle.
Fill glass with cracked ice, add 2 oz. Cachaca sugarcane rum.
Stir or shake, shake, shake. Yummmmmmmmmmm!!!

Needless to say, we left the restaurant sated. We both exchanged some cigars to try, and Mark has a very important review to write. We need to be all over Mark's case to get this cigar smoked and reviewed ASAP!

Mark, thanks again for picking a smurf up for a short tour around North Raleigh. That was a great shop and restaurant. I really enjoyed talking with ya, and we'll get some other guys in on the action in the New Year!

[Mark71GTX]

[thumbsup] no problem!  I left Raleigh, loaded up the GTX hauled it to Albemarle and finally hit the hotel by 2am.  Got up Saturday unloaded the car, pulled the 440/727 out, loaded it back up, delivered the car to the paint shop, unloaded over 1000 pounds of blast media, visited my dad, and made it back home about 1am this morning.  Should get the car back in 6-12 months... can't wait!

[madurodave]

good stuff, guys!  And Mark got to see the Dubmister in full EAT ON MODE!!  [lol]

[stogiedad.1]

 It hurt me to know that I could not have been part of the action that you guys had friday evening. I have been working all week, weekend and packing to leave in the morning to go to OH. I am realy looking forward to getting up with ya'll once Brently's move is final after the first of the year. Hope that one or the other took some pic's of some herf action. Hope that the [police] was not called out for disrupting the Peace or other stuff. Glad ya'll had a good time.

AC

[Mark71GTX]

It was great, but too short.  He was sick and I had a late night trip to make.  We discussed how we were wishing you could have made it.  We WILL do this again!