By Dale North
One of the many reasons that London is one of the greatest cities in the world is its many impressive and inviting cigar lounges. Even if I am only passing through London, I will make a point of enjoying a cigar at one of its cigar ‘sampling rooms’.
While anti-smoking laws in London have increased in scope and severity, the ability for cigars shops to maintain rooms for sampling the merchandise has ensured that many cigar lounges endure. I have my favourites, but I also like to try new ones and on a trip to Yemen in April 2025, I found myself with about eight hours in London and decided to try a new place: Tomtom Cigars & Coffee. Just reading the name filled me with happiness. Is there a happier marriage of two words than cigars and coffee?
Tomtom might have been new to me, but it was not new, having opened in 1997. It is situated in Belgravia, particularly upscale neighbourhood where everything is rather pretty. All bricks with Union Jack flags strung up and every door festooned with colourful flowers. It was a charming neighbourhood. It seemed that every second window had delectable looking pastries and the weather was just nice enough that people were starting to sit outside. But Tomtom was my destination.
It is a small shop with a little patio and a couple of tables out front for people watching with your cigar. Inside is a small retail area with cigar accessories and a narrow walk-in humidor behind a glass door. The humidor in Tomtom is a bit odd. It is small and rather than having open boxes of cigars from which to choose, the cigars are displayed on wooden shelves in one or two at a time, so they must replenish them after each purchase. It is an unusually minimalist way of displaying the cigars.
The selection is excellent though – if you like Cubans. (No issue for me.) There is very little apart from Habanos; just some Davidoffs at the time. But there was an excellent section of Cubans, more or less organized from mild to full bodied ‘ordinary’ Cubans on one wall and all of the super premium Cubans on the other: reservas, grand reservas, limited edition, aged, et cetera. (I stuck with the ordinary Cubans and bought a Ramon Allones No.3.)
Had I not known that they had a cigar lounge, I would not have discovered it on my own. When I asked them if I could smoke ‘in the lounge’ (letting them know casually that I did already know there was a lounge, in case they were not going to offer it to me), they did not hesitate to say yes. There is an additional fee for smoking in the lounge, which I didn’t mind, though I note that there are plenty of lounges in London that do not charge you extra for the pleasure of sitting inside. But I wanted to have the full experience.
They led me through a slightly hidden door at the back of the humidor, and I went down a flight of stairs into the basement. This cigar lounge is cool. It’s stylish and has a little bit of a 1970s flavour. Unfortunately, I was the only one in there when I went so it was a bit strange to have it all to myself, but I appreciated the time to relax and enjoy my cigar. It would have been nice to have had a buddy or a book with me, but it was a great room; well-appointed and with good ventilation. And yes, I did have a coffee.
I finished my cigar and began my meandering back to the airport.
I would definitely visit Tomtom again if I was in the neighbourhood, but I don’t know that a repeat visit is a priority, compared with some of the other lounges; still, smoking there was good experience.