78
TOBACCO BUSINESS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
trench marketing
BY MICHAEL GELFAND
B
efore tobacco became his bread and butter, Tom
Foster was training at the California Culinary
Academy to become a professional chef. Back then,
he looked forward to the day when he’d have a restaurant of
his own where he could play tastemaker for his customers
and prepare a sensory experience that would exceed their
expectations every time they came in. But dreams and
reality often mix like oil and water, and Foster soon realized
that being a cook meant he would never see the front of the
house—let alone get the opportunity to watch them eat the
food he prepared.
Disillusioned, Foster soured on his dream of professional
cooking and left California to return home to Kansas City,
Fidel’s cigar Shop dug itself
out of an early hole created by a
contentious store name—now
it’s a thriving boutique cigar
hotspot on the kansas city scene.
Facing the Music
