Tobacco Business

these cigar stores and lounges and developed a deeper connection and understanding of the cigar business, they began to talk about what it would be like to own and run their own cigar lounge. At each lounge, they made an effort to talk to the owner and also to any cigar reps that were present, and each conversation they had made them fall more in love with the idea of becoming lounge owners. The arc of wanting to open a cigar lounge and actually making it happen was a process that Brandon refers to as being humbling. As they started to go through the process, the family encountered many unexpected obstacles and roadblocks. Brandon describes Frisco as being very family orientated, meaning that building and opening a cigar lounge in the city was easier said than done. The Frakes family quickly became very familiar with the many regulations and ordinances that stood in the way of them opening a lounge within the city. Their establishment was going to have to have two separate AC units. They were going to have to invest in a good HVAC system to ensure their lounge always had clean air. There were even construction challenges that required the help of an experienced general contractor. The Frakes family didn’t let any of these challenges stop them, however. They did what was necessary and even tried to look for opportunities to get the community invested in their establishment before it was open. “Every Wednesday, we would do hardhat tours,” says Brandon. “This was almost by accident. We had a neighbor that had a sign that read ‘Coming Soon—Open February 2.’ What I learned from them is that you never say when you think you’re going to be open until you actually open. So we started doing these tours. We’d have people in the area asking, ‘When are you going to be open?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know. Show up on Wednesday. We’ve got cigars for you, you can come in, and we’ll do a tour. Bring your friends!’ And so we started doing these tours, and it was cool because we allowed our soon-to-be members, customers and regulars to literally mark their names and write their names on the studs behind the wall. We got to make them part of the process. It just allowed us to be a steward for what their future experience would be.” During these hardhat tours, the Frakes used these unique opportunities to get to know their members and get their feedback on everything from the store’s potential membership program and its perks to what the lounge would actually look like. This enabled the Frakes family to build a cigar lounge that had mass appeal long before it officially opened its doors to the public. Before Industrial Cigar Co.’s soft opening in September 2017, the store had a wait list for its membership program and a good idea of what the community was looking for from their new business: a lounge with a strong cigar culture built into it. Staying Connected A trip to Nicaragua in 2014 inspired the name for the Frakes’ cigar lounge and store, Industrial Cigar Co. While in Nicaragua, the family visited the Joya de Nicaragua factory, an experience that left a positive impression on each of them. When the family returned to their home in Frisco and began looking at locations for their lounge, they came across a location within an industrial park. Thinking back to their visit to Joya de Nicaragua’s factory, which they felt had a strong industrial vibe to it, the name not only fit the location of their future lounge but Industrial Cigar Co. houses two lounges; one is open to the public, the other is a private Atabey-branded lounge. [ 86 ] TOBACCO BUSINESS [ MAY / JUNE | 21 ]