Let's go to the Frohnau district!
First the bad news: this great store is not exactly in the city center. But what is in this big city with the many "centers" already the city center...?
Anyway - to Hemmy Garcia and his store Hemmy's Finest Cigars & More you have to drive a bit into the north of Berlin, but with the S 1 it's actually easy and fast and their terminus spits you out almost in front of Hemmy's store.
The good news is that the trip is worth it, and very much so.
Not only do regular customers from the surrounding districts come here, but some customers travel from far away especially for Hemmy and his assortment.
Hemmy Garcia's offer is composed of three pillars: Habanos cigars, Davidoff cigars and his own brand Hemmy's.
Hemmy's is available as a Maduro version or with a light Jalapa wrapper from Nicaragua - in four formats in each case. The Limited Edition, on the other hand, comes in just two formats. Hemmy's own brand is manufactured at the ABAM factory (where all Villiger Dominican products are made) in the Dominican factory; none other than Manuel Garcia (Hemmy's father), former Habanos vice president, Cuban exile and now a consultant at ABAM, oversees production there. "With the now long-standing delivery problems of other brands, I'm glad to have my own brand," Hemmy tells me. Incidentally, he spent a year in Cuba at the H. Upmann factory going through all the stages of cigar production, and later spent instructive years at Villiger and finally at Zigarren-Herzog in Berlin. Hemmy not only has tobacco in his blood as a half-Cuban, but also has a great deal of expertise and at the same time an immense passion that is very contagious.
In 2008 Hemmy started his own business and after some initial jerks, the store is now running smoothly.
12 lounge seats are available, which, when I'm there, are also actively used. There is a fun, almost familiy atmosphere.
In the store you find, in addition to the cigars, a wide range of rum, Hemmy has specialized in. And to my great joy, the Cigar Journal available there, too!
I say goodbye to Hemmy and recommend this place to hang out with like-minded people for an afternoon in Berlin. You will feel right at home...
Now I'm hungry and from previous visits to Berlin I know that apart from curry sausage you can eat Korean food in Berlin quite excellently.
And that's right: in Gokan, in Berlin-Schöneberg we get a place and eat excellent, e.g. a Korean pancake! The place is a bit run down, but in a charming way, and the staff is really super nice.
Until tomorrow, we see each other then briefly on art trails and then at StarkeZigarren and then I take you to a brilliant perfume store.
Infos:
Hemmy's Finest Cigars & More
Welfenallee 6
13465 Berlin
Germany
Gokan
Leberstraße 9
10829 Berlin
Germany
www.gokanberlin.de