A new addition to downtown Columbia is expected to fill a unique niche in the community: boutique cigars.

Mike Macik, owner of Havana Fine Cigars at 115 E. Whiteside Street, spoke about his goals for the upcoming cigar lounge.

Macik said he’s originally from Munster, Ind., a suburb of Chicago. After graduating from high school, he joined the Navy and spent four years deployed on the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

After his time in the Navy, where he was able to get some experience in various parts of the world, Macik went to college to study geography and earth science.

Having moved back to Chicago, he found himself in St. Louis in 2003 working for Esri, a geography-related software company focusing on mapping and analytics.

Macik eventually made his way to Columbia in 2011 and has lived in the community ever since.

He explained that he’s long had a deep interest in cigars – an interest that was reawakened somewhat recently – prompting the desire to start up Havana Fine Cigars.

“I had smoked cigars a little bit in the Navy and then when I deployed with work,” Macik said. “When my daughter was born, I had completely stopped. I didn’t want to have the smell of cigar smoke on me… It was a crisp fall day, and I said ‘I think I have an old cigar laying around somewhere.’ So I found it, had a cigar and that’s all it took to bring me back in.”

With that fateful cigar and his interest reignited, Macik explained his past work and geography passion helped him gain a newfound appreciation for the culture surrounding cigars.

He described the place that boutique cigar shops have as well as the unique position of smaller producers and distributors who often get absorbed and bought out by large, more well-known companies.

Macik especially delved into his interest in the production and origins of certain cigars, specifically in regard to how different flavors come from different countries – Latin American countries in particular.

“I really wanted to learn more about it, where are they made, what makes the blend and how they blend it, where does the tobacco come from and all that,” Macik said. “So the geographer in me did that, and as I was researching this I said, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be cool to have your own cigar and brand your own?’”

His research eventually led him to find Yanko Maceda, owner of a Tampa, Fla., company called Tabanero Cigars.

Macik said he wrote Maceda a letter at one point. Maceda responded, offering his phone number, and the two proceeded to speak for hours about their shared love for cigars and Macik’s interest in starting a business.

Maceda, Macik said, offered quite a bit of encouragement and advice.

“He’s like ‘I can sense your passion,” Macik said. “‘It’s not a matter of if and maybe and probably. You need to get in that mind set and it will.’ He’s like, ‘You will do it. I have faith in you. You will do it, and you will be successful.’ And that encouragement really helped me move things along. And a lot of this moved along much faster than I expected.”

That push from Maceda helped Macik get Havana Fine Cigars where it currently is. The business has operated as a pop-up shop in Columbia for some time, with an online presence at havanafinecigars.com as well.

Getting a permanent location for a cigar lounge seemed to be largely a matter of luck, as Macik said space for the shop was newly available in the spot of what used to be a saltwater fish store.

This particular spot has turned out to be quite useful for Macik, as he explained the Smoke Free Illinois Act along with the state’s Clean Air Act place specific regulations on such an establishment.

“If you really want it to be a cigar lounge, it has to be in a freestanding building, it has to have a sole occupant as the person running the shop,” Macik said. “And my intent was to take it really slow and build a presence, so I’ve been operating out of Sunset Overlook doing cigar pop-ups.”

Macik further discussed his passion for cigars and the ultimate reason for wanting to set up a cigar lounge.

Cigars, he said, have offered him a certain peace and relaxation, and he hopes to offer a welcome space for the similarly interested to relax.

“I found that it was almost a sense of wellness for me,” Macik said. “It gave me – and this is a quote from Yanko Maceda… His saying is, ‘Smoking a cigar is a moment to stop time, reflect on the past and plan for the future.’ And that’s essentially what I was doing. In my sense of wellness, I found that a cigar gave me the time to relax and unwind.”

He also gave more of an idea of what he’s going for with this particular lounge.

Currently, the space is filled with a number of comfortable chairs and couches with plants dotted around. Along one wall is a display case for the shop’s stock of cigars, while elsewhere is set up a stand for various        other products and cigar memorabilia.

Ventilation and a number of air purifiers, Macik said, should also help keep the space from getting too overwhelmingly smoky.

Macik explained he’s going for a particular vibe, specifically harkening to the Latin American culture he’s so fond of rather than what many might think of when they hear about a cigar lounge.

“It’s either kind of convenience store-ish, bright, lots of shelves, or it’s gonna be dark and kind of speakeasy-ish,” Macik said. “That’s where we wanted to distinguish ourselves. When you think of Latin America, the culture, things are bright and vibrant and people are just having a good time, enjoying each other’s company… People are always happy. People are always festive.”

Along with his vision for the lounge, Macik noted that rather than stocking thousands of various cigars, he hopes to truly fill the niche of a boutique cigar shop and instead offer a smaller collection of premium offerings.

Looking ahead, Macik said he hopes to have some form of live entertainment in the space, and he’s currently attempting to get the city to allow a BYOB setup for patrons hoping to enjoy their cigar with a drink.

For now, Macik anticipates a decent reception within the community. The business has received something of a spike in interest on Facebook, and he also suspects a number of folks from outside Columbia might take an interest as they did for Milo’s Tobacco Road, a recently closed Edwardsville shop.

“I’m really just asking for people to, if you have a chance, come check us out,” Macik said. “Stop by. If you’re passionate about cigars or just an occasional cigar smoker, stop on by and say hi.”

Havana Fine Cigars will hold a soft opening this Saturday, April 15, with operating hours from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.

A grand opening is being planned for sometime in May.