Since 1965!
Pictured: Mr. & Mrs. William Bennington
Celebrating over 50 years of dedication to quality products and exceptional service.
William E. Bennington founded Bennington Tobacconist in 1965. With careful consideration, the location was determined in Saint Armand's Circle in Sarasota, Florida. Mr. Bennington had the foresight to institute custom hand mixed tobacco blends and hand rolled cigars. Being a family-operated tobacco shop; his three sons, Jack, Jim and Gary grew up in the business. They learned the meaning of service, quality and hard work.
As the business grew, there was a need to expand the operation. A three year search was conducted for the perfect location, which would represent the image and the market desired. The ultimate location was Boca Raton in Palm Beach County located on the east coast of Florida. An existing tobacco shop was obtained, which had been established for fifteen years in the heart of downtown Boca Raton. The shop was purchased in January 7,1980 and has recently closed in 2015.
To this day, it is still family owned and operated in Sarasota by Jack, Jim and Gary Bennington. They continue to honor their father's philosophy that quality products should be represented in a proper image.
CUSTOM PIPE TOBACCO BLENDING
Pictured: Gary Bennington
Bennington Tobacco has hand blended high quality pipe tobaccos since William E. Bennington, the founder, began the company in the fall of 1965. 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.
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.
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.
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.
For over 50 years, Bennington Tobacconist has remained in the same location and has remained true to honor their fathers philosophy of providing excellent service and quality products.
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 Bennington, Kacy Bennington, Avo Uvezian, Katie Klauber-Moulton, Michael Moulton
Cigar event benefiting United Cerebral Palsy of Sarasota, FL.
Pictured: Carlos Fuente Jr. at Bennington Tobacco
Hours of Operation
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Monday - Saturday: 10AM - 9PM
Sunday: 1PM - 9PM
CLOSED: Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day
Contact Us
- Customer Service: 941-388-1562
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Address: 5 Fillmore Drive, Sarasota, FL 34236
We are located in the "Aqua Quadrant" of the circle; quadrants are identified by color banners on the lampposts. Free Public Parking off of Fillmore Dr. and we are across the street from the Crab and Fin restaurant. See you soon!