Picture this: You’re in Nashville, where there’s no shortage of entertainment. You’ve sauntered over to Broadway to catch an intimate concert, perhaps at Honky Tonk Central, because why not? Or, if you’re like me, your liver magnetically pulls you to Almost Friday Sporting Club to watch the day’s best action. Either way, you’re going to want to light up a stogie at some point.
And that’s where The Ariston comes in.
Conveniently located in the heart of downtown Nashville, The Ariston sits just across the river from Nissan Stadium, perfect if you’re in town to catch the Tennessee Titans or a stadium concert. The Ariston is home to the nation’s second Private Byron Lounge, a second-floor space with a conference table, lounge chairs, and the right ambiance for you and 14 of your closest friends. You can book this Byron Cigars-branded lounge, stocked with wine, beer, 8th & Roast coffee drinks, pure cane soda, and a specialty cocktail menu, featuring a private bartender. Byron Cigars’ first branded lounge is in Schaumburg, Illinois.
Downstairs, cigar puffers can smoke with comfort, knowing the joint is fitted with a state-of-the-art ventilation system that cycles the room’s air every 10 minutes, along with ample space, expertly crafted cocktails at the bar, and a sizable humidor offering premium cigars. In fact, The Ariston is one of the area’s few Davidoff-Appointed Merchants. This is all to say that Paul Pearse and Alex Howard, who founded The Ariston, have curated a space for intentional social connection and conversation; a lounge that offers a slower-paced environment where guests can meet new people from all walks of life. An inclusive space, if you will.
Pearse tells me that The Ariston is exactly the kind of space where you can expect to relieve your stress and enjoy a quality cigar.
“People are at their calmest and most relaxed while smoking a cigar,” he says. “So it inherently creates a place where the outside world — full of stress and anxiety — dissipates, and community can take over again.”
As I’ve written before, smoking a cigar means that for those 45 minutes to an hour, time slows down for me, allowing for reflection, planning, and soothing conversations. I wholeheartedly believe cigar lounges like The Ariston are the last bastions of productive, meaningful dialogue, where one can agree to disagree with a modicum of civility while also enjoying the taste and aroma of a decadent Connecticut wrapper.
The Ariston embodies that exact notion. And Pearse agrees.
“A cigar lounge is one of the last places you can go alone and actually sit down with strangers to have a conversation; coffee shops and restaurants are almost too individualized these days,” he tells me. “At a lounge, everyone is there for an extended period of time, and there is an openness to the space: most people drop their guards a little bit while smoking a cigar, and it’s a place where all walks of life can sit together and have common ground. So, the more laid-back atmosphere helps create that sense of community because you can actually have real, in-depth conversations with strangers that you probably never would have imagined meeting.”
It’s true.
I was at Jake’s Cigar Bar earlier this year while on assignment in Lexington, Kentucky, where I met an insurance executive in his 50s. He overheard me talking about my trip to South Africa, which he had recently visited. We chatted for the next three hours or so. We kept in touch long after we said our goodbyes, and he later filled me in on his trip to the San Fermín Festival in Pamplona, Spain, for the running of the bulls, which he participated in and, thankfully, came away unscathed.
The magic of a conversation over cigars.
“[Cigar lounges are] a place where enthusiasts, casual consumers, and first timers can all sit down and enjoy,” Pearse adds. “I’ve always said the cigars are awesome, and you’ll learn to know all about them, but it’s not what gets people to come back right away — it’s the people, the community, and the culture around it that makes people fall in love with this industry.”
A peek inside The Byron Lounge
The Ariston’s exclusive purple Toro Cigar with Sans Pareil
Earlier this year, The Ariston launched its exclusive “The Ariston” Purple Toro Cigar with Sans Pareil. Created as part of a collaborative effort between Pearse and Sans Pareil founder David Swinburne, this super-premium 6” x 52 toro cigar is meticulously crafted using an Ecuadorian Sumatra wrapper and a Dominican Piloto Elite selection filler, with tobaccos aged for more than a decade.
“This project is 10 years in the making. We have been huge supporters of the brand since its inception because of the attention to detail and commitment to quality in every product they release,” Pearse says. “The Purple Toro Ariston Exclusive is a project that aligns both brands with our efforts in raising the bar in this industry. The purple blend is not only our best-selling blend, but also my personal favorite — it’s my go-to choice for almost every occasion. This exclusive size offers a much more delicate and refined experience than the other lines due to its lower-priming wrapper and six years of aging post-rolling.”
The Ariston’s exclusive cigar is sold in a box of 10 ($328) or individually ($39), with each cigar adorned with a purple primary band and a second band bearing The Ariston logo and “Nashville Exclusive.”
“Collaborating with Ariston on this exclusive cigar has been an honor,” says David Swinburne, founder and CEO of Sans Pareil Cigars. “From the beginning, our goal was to create something that felt refined, distinctive, and worthy of The Ariston name. This cigar reflects the craftsmanship Sans Pareil is known for, while also celebrating the spirit of partnership and exclusivity that made this project so special.”
