I remember to this day the experience of walking into an authentic tobacconist, David’s Briar Shoppe in the Westroads Mall, Omaha, Nebraska. The smoke from a pipe to this day triggers many fond memories as a child. It was a traditional stop for my grandfather and father when going to the mall. A shoppe heavily focused on briar pipes, pipe tobacco and cigars were a very small portion of their business. I can remember the anticipation of walking into the store and smelling the pipe tobacco smoke, looking at the pipes, accessories and the many pipe tobaccos. The wafting smoke would carry throughout the mall and it’s emanating infectious smell would draw men to their location. Remember this is 1975 and a man could smoke his pipe in the store located inside a shopping mall. How times have changed.

It’s 1981, I am a freshman in college and just having pledged Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a celebration is on my mind. I was attending Simpson College not far from Des Moines, Iowa and I remember that in the Merle Hay Mall an old familiar friend existed, David’s Briar Shoppe. Yes, the same family as previously mentioned. I wasn’t my grandfather or father so, a pipe was not on the menu. A cigar was fitting for this special occasion and not a Swisher Sweet or a Backwoods.

Cigar shops Omaha NE