Sadly, we do not have a cigar lounge however, we are just walking distance from one of the finest beaches on the Gulf Coast of Florida, Lido Key Beach!   Google it, and you'll be convinced; a definite addition to your "Things to Do" list whilst in Sarasota..."1) smoke most excellent cigar on Lido Beach...check!".   So, when you're finally here, stop to have breakfast, lunch or dinner on St. Armands Circle; soon afterwards, enjoy yourself a fine cigar as you stroll around the island shopping center (cigar friendly...high five!) or sink your tired feet in the soft sands of Lido Key Beach...nature's own #1 cigar lounge in Sarasota.


 

The St. Armands Circle Association sponsors events all year long, see why our customers keep coming back over and over and over again.


 

Custom Pipe Tobacco Blends

Mr. Bennington was an avid pipe smoker and recognized the opportunity in the lack of high quality pipe tobacco brands in the U.S. market at that time. There were plenty of domestic "drug store" brands, but few imported brands of the calibers of Dunhill, Erinmore or Rattray's for example.
Bennington Blends No. 10 and No. 24 are two such blends and are still popular today. Blend No. 15 is patterned after the famed "Balkan Sobranie White Label," which was very popular back then. In those days, the tobacco manufacturers sold the basic blending ingredients, i.e., Burleys, Virginias, Latakia, Perique, Maryland, and Turkish tobaccos, directly to the tobacconist and offered "formulas" as a general guide, which could be tweaked in order to create custom blends.
Mr. Bennington spent a good part of an evening with tweezers and a scale separating eight ounces of Balkan Sobranie into its component parts of Turkish, Latakia, and Virginia to determine the ratios of the blend. He then refined it to his taste and introduced Blend No. 15 in 1966. Blend No. 33 is another original and is still quite popular. Blend No. 33 is patterned after Murray's Erinmore Flake.
At Bennington’s we still prefer the original method of buying the basic tobacco component ingredients and creating unique blends from them.

Bennington Through the Years

Pictured left to right: Jim Bennington, William Bennington, Zino Davidoff, Jone Judelson, Raymond Scheurer, Mrs. Davidoff, Mrs. Scheurer, Mrs. Edelman.

Pictured left to right: Jack Bennington, Jorge Padron, William Bennington, Gary Bennington.Cigar Event benefiting Easter Seals Sarasota, FL

Pictured left to right: Jack and Kacy Bennington, Avo Uvezian, Katie Klauber-Moulton, Michael MoultonCigar event benefiting United Cerebral Palsy of Sarasota, FL.