Dan's Papers - May 23, 2008 - Cigar Bar, Minus the Smoking and Maybe the Drinking

First they took away the ability to smoke a cigar in The Cigar Bar in Sag Harbor. That was just a few years ago, when the smoking ban was enforced on Long Island. There were few complaints about this ban back then, because, after all, smoking could kill you.

I have been going to Cigar Bar for almost five years, and last week's report that local law enforcement and Town officials are voicing an interest to shut down the bar because it's a nuisance got my attention.

The Sag Harbor Village Board and Sag Harbor Police Department have had it with all of the shenanigans that the crowd at Cigar Bar causes, and unanimously voted to recommend to the State Liquor Authority that the bar's liquor license should not be renewed.

They have good reason to be upset and make this recommendation. For whatever reason, in the last couple of years, the bar has attracted people who get arrested. The police are tired of having to deal with the crimes, which range from fistfights outside the bar to larceny inside the bar. Can you blame them for being upset and viewing the Cigar Bar as the problem? Of course not. Police officers have a very difficult job to do. They deal with everything you could possibly imagine (and can't imagine), including disorderly people at Cigar Bar, and they want action to be taken.

I can tell you that unruly people are a small part of the patrons who go to Cigar Bar, which has always drawn a huge mix of people, from young to old, black to white, straight to gay and rich to not so rich. The bar celebrates our differences. It isn't a "local" bar, or a "yuppie" bar or a "college" bar. This bar is an "everybody" bar. And that is something that I've always liked about it.

The owner is Arlene Furer, who can always be spotted at the bar talking to the regulars and enjoying the business. She is angry that there are a few troublemakers at her bar who have been causing such a problem with the Village Board and police. She is completely distraught that the Village is so upset that they want her to shut down the bar. She doesn't want to give up the business that she started over a decade ago. She has a connection with the community of Sag Harbor and wants to work together with the police to stop this problem.

In response to the negative attention received by the Cigar Bar, Furer hired full-time bodyguards who were instructed to enforce a dress code in hopes of keeping criminal behavior out of the bar. The bar still remained popular even with the dress code and incidents still occurred. There is also an issue of use, because the bar originally opened up as cigar retail, but grew into a bar when the smoking ban was enforced. Drinking at the bar was an accessory use, which has generally been overlooked.

The police force is not blaming the few people who can't control themselves, but the bar itself for their behavior, citing that the bar is mismanaged and no longer should have a liquor license. This new view on the bar has many people who really like the establishment and enjoy the atmosphere feeling sad.

"By shutting down the Cigar Bar, they are letting criminals win. We should be intolerant of the criminals, not of the bar itself," says Shannon Flaherty, a former bartender at Cigar Bar who is now settling down in preparation for raising her first child. "It's a popular bar and draws people and money into Sag Harbor."

Furer is asking for a chance to prove herself this season by preventing criminal activity inside her bar through the use of more bouncers, different music and stricter rules.