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The Texas Pipe Show is next weekend, and I’m hoping to see you there!
THANKS TO OUR PETE GEEK DONORS,
Our table will be overflowing with vintage as well as popular tins,
amazing Petes at all price ranges,
“basket pipes” from $20 and artisan pipes
by our own Fletch Hiner, a Stanwell – S. Bang, and a Torben Dansk – Paul Winslow.
There will even be a Silver Gray NAP 312.  

Doctor of Pipes Mark Berman, Lone Star Briar Works Mark Domingues,
and a cast of rowdies hope you’ll join them for a pre-show breakfast at
DICK’S UPTOWN CAFE, Cedar Hill, at 7:15am.
Check out the menu. Yes, it’s this good.

THE OWL SHOP: SANCTUARY IN THE WILDERNESS

Two weekends ago I visited The Owl Shop in New Haven, Connecticut, one of the historic tobacconists of America. It’s been around since 1934 and been blending the same pipe tobaccos they’ve been making all along. Sitting with my friend Ken Sigel, each of us smoking our Petes, it occurred that we don’t often stop to celebrate the unsung local heroes who craft our tobaccos. You can probably list a few of them if you’re of an age, but when I returned home I thought to ask a man who knows, James Foster CPG, President of the Austin Pipe Club, who works with a coalition across Texas to bring us the Texas Pipe Show.

James was certified as a CST or Certified Salesforce Tobacconist back around 2015 by the Tobacconist University. He said, “As to the retailers who do actual blending [like The Owl Shop]—for the most part they are all just ordering bulk blends and then mixing that.  But about 95% of all retailers just pour blends into a jar and slap their own logos on them, and a good portion of those say “oh, we blend in-house.” When they don’t. There are only a few retailers that I can think of who really do their own in-house blending: Boswell, Country Squire, Bennington Tobacconist (Florida), Edwards, L. J. Peretti, Smoker’s Abbey (Tennessee), Straus Tobacconist, Uhles, Watch City Cigar.”

An original Kapp Bros. tobacco paper from the Peterson Archive (courtesy Kapp & Peterson)

Frederick Kapp in his Dublin shop not only blended tobaccos, as you may recall from The Peterson Pipe, but could create a pipe for you. You could also relax with a game of billiards or just settle in the smoking room.  Seen above is a tobacco paper from the Kapp Bros. era after Frederick’s death. Back then, tobacconists in Ireland and the UK measured tobacco in a scale, then pressed it into a form and wrapped it in a paper like that seen above. Just a few years later, you may recall, I learned my vocation as a pipe smoker with a real tobacconist like Kapp and others James Foster mentions at Ted’s Pipe Shoppe in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ted Kanaley formulated the recipes for all ther tobaccos in the late 1950s and they’re still sold today, comprising over 90% of all Ted’s pipe tobacco sales.

While the Owl has evolved to meet the challenges and changes of New Haven, it is still, as Owlie regular Brandon Hicks told me, a sanctuary. I love the word he chose and all that it connotes: asylum (as in protected refuge)—nature reserve—holy place.

Walking in the front door, I was immediately washed in that sense of sacred space that political refugees can still receive in countries like Germany (as Jonthan Boldt of Hamburg told me) when they walk into a church willing to receive them: The Owl as asylum, refuge, and shelter. There is I know an element of whimsy in making such a claim, but it’s coming straight from Peterson’s own words in the 1955 “Chat with the Smoker” brochure’s “A Champion Piper”:

If you read closely, you see not only an allusion to James M. Barrie’s My Lady Nicotine–the greatest pipe-smoking novel of all time–but also to the joyful sense of a Peterson pipe as censer or thurible and tobacco as the incense itself, something we’re apt to forget:

Ahem. Where was I? Oh yes–On the left as you enter the Owl Shop runs a long bar with coffee, beer, spirits, sandwiches. Refreshment for the journey. On the right runs an impossibly long wall humidor of cigars, and behind that a short pipe tobacco bar with Molina pipes for sale over it. Between them are high tables for two, perfect for that rarest of all things, a quiet tête-à-tête” without the distortions of electronic semaphores. Brandon told me he comes several times week for just this: a refuge where he can commune with his books, read and smoke his cigar in the shelter of sanctuary. Behind the bar and tobacco are a range comfortable leather chairs and sofas separated so that one can be alone or visit with friends.

According to the amazing history of the shop written by Yale student (or “Yalie,” “Eli” or my favorite, “Bulldog”) Casey Van Camp (see below), the Owl was always meant to function poetically as a nature reserve where Owlies can pursue wisdom, intelligence, mystery and knowledge.

What drew me to strike up a conversation with Brandon and invite him back to sit with us, in fact, was a tall stack of books on his table. He was reading and enjoying his cigar, and I kept making covert glances to see if I could read the titles on his book jacket spines. I saw one about Mozart but couldn’t read the others.

In Greek mythology, of course, an owl was the sacred companion of Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom, warfare and crafts—viz., of  three virtues worth acquiring, whether conceived literally, poetically, or spiritually.

We quickly settled ourselves in the smoker’s lounge at the back of the shop for a a repast of cheese toasties. From this vantage you can see Owlie Member Lockers on the right, where they keep their personal humidors and smoker’s accessories. Membership is around $190 a year, I was told.

After “revitalizing the tissues” as Wodehouse’s Psmith would say, I had to pursue my quest for what I had to actually walk into the shop to obtain—a street blend known as “Mystical Black Magic.”

Two-thirds of the street blend: Black Magic.

Ken was inducted into this mystery by a fellow Owlie and send me a generous portion to try for myself. Hence part of  rationale for my visit from Texas to the shores of the Atlantic—this stuff is like nothing I can remember smoking.  I don’t partake of what are commonly referred to as “aromatics,” and while this is in some sense an aro, it’s anything but common.

Genna Bestmann of The Owl

Genna Bestmann, technically Bar Manager but in reality the High Priestess of the establishment, helped us during the entirety of our visit and it was straight to her that I went to ask for the MBM.

As she weighed out my supply on the shop’s original, now quite antique scale (“it’s never been out of calibration since the shop opened,” she told me), I asked her how much pipe tobacco they sell during an average week. “About 15 pounds, she said, half on site and half through the mail. It’s blended by Jim and his wife Aygen Richards using, of course, the original recipes.” This saddened me a little (only 15 pounds?), and when I told her a little about my connection with Peterson as amateur historian, she said there’s actually been an uptick of interest in pipes and pipe tobaccos, so maybe when Jim reads this he’ll consider expanding their selection of pipes and include–of course–some Petes.

The mixing is done in the shop’s work humidor behind the smoker’s lounge. I asked if we could go back so I could point to an important souvenir I hoped to obtain: my very own Owl Shop Tobacco Carton–you can see them on the lower shelf at the right of the picture, with various jarred house blends above them.

The component recipes for MBM were created by Owl Shop legend Joe Lentine, a student employee who upon finishing his master’s degree in 1964 was asked to come work full time and didn’t leave until his death in the late 1990s. What makes Mystical Black Magic a street blend of course is that the shop doesn’t sell it as a mixture. There is a great review, however, on Tobaccoreviews.com, that explains why it’s become an underground classic:

“The concoction I am reviewing here is *not* precisely the Owl Shop’s Black Magic blend. It is the street version of Black Magic sometimes known as Mystical Black Magic. That’s a mouth full for basically two parts Black Magic and one part Mystique. Both blends have been in rotation at the owl shop since the 1930’s. One look at the 1920’s style Art Deco box these impeccable smokes come shipped in tells you that you’ve just stepped into the Twilight Zone. . . . The street concoction is for hardcore patrons of the Owl Shop who can’t get enough of either smoke. This is easy enough to do if you live in New Haven, because all you have to do is ask them. But if you live far away this can get kinda expensive: two boxes in my rotation to mix is about give or take $160 every 3 months or so. But as my other review for Mystique tried to emphasize, this is worth it. It is without a doubt one of the most nuanced, expertly blended tobacco savailable anywhere in the US.

“Why the mixing of the two famous blends one might ask? By so doing one picks up the nicotine in Mystique, because Black Magic has little if any nicotine effect. Black magic is a gentle smoke, a deep black, earthy cavendish with a hint of mild Virginia. Smoked by itself, it’s is a relaxing dreamer’s smoke. Now in walks the Mystique, which adds a hint of hazelnut to it all but something else as well. Nobody knows really what that something else is: some say it’s some kind of experimental fig, spice, tea or straw mixed into the tobacco. Whatever it is, Mystique alone can be a little bit too strong. Mixed with Black Magic, we embark on a voyage, a real celebration of all the mystery pipe smoking can be.”

Here endeth the lesson.

New Haven’s Owl Shop: The Evolution of a Tradition
by Casey L. Verkamp (2009)

Stepping into the Owl Shop, located at 268 College Street, feels in many ways like stepping into the past. Sweet tobacco smoke (almost never encountered in public places anymore) fills a room in which slow-turning fans hang from a tin ceiling and music from the 1950s plays. The shop has been in New Haven since 1934, and while it feels like not much has changed since that time, underneath the Owl Shop’s traditional atmosphere lie many evolutions that have been essential to the shop’s continued success.

In 1934 John Arabolos and Joseph Ioannides, both of Greek descent (Ioannides immigrated to America in 1925 from Greece), opened the Owl Shop at 84 ½ Wall Street, between what is today Phil’s Barber Shop (which was there by the late 1930s as well) and Naples Pizza (Directory, History). An advertisement in the 1936-37 Eli Book, the [Yale] Freshman Handbook of old, bills the shop as “The Ideal Students’ Store” and lists its specialties: imported furnishings, the largest display of imported pipes in the state, sporting goods, stationery, novelties, and radios. The Wall Street location is described in the advertisement as “Opposite Van Sheff’ (145).

A volume entitled Maps of Yale and the Sheffield Scientific School from 1931 illuminates this last reference and helps to contextualize the Owl Shop’s original location.

The building directly across from 84 ½ Wall was the “Vanderbilt Scientific Hall No.1,” a dormitory. Also in the quadrangle containing this dormitory were the buildings of the Sheffield Scientific School, hence the ‘Van Sheff’ colloquialism. Today, Silliman College occupies this site.

One of the most exciting discoveries of my research was that just down Wall Street from The Owl Shop was a restaurant called George and Harry’s, which opened in 1922. Alfred Dana wrote in his Collection that George Boulas was still in charge of the restaurant in 1944. I mused as I was looking through the Collection that John Arabolos and Joseph loannides must have been friends with the restaurateur with whom they shared Wall, particularly because Boulas is a name that also indicates Greek roots. I next looked up Joseph loannides in the 1934 New Haven City Directory and found, much to my surprise, that his home address was 90 Wall Street-the same as George and Harry’s Restaurant!

Joseph Ioannides must have lived above the eatery, which means that the photo displaying the restaurant from the Dana Collection also serves as a photo of the one-time residence of the owner of the Owl Shop. Catherine, Mr. Ioannides’ wife, says of the founding of the shop, ”Joe was 22 then, and I was 17. It really began as a bookstore. My husband was straight out of Rutgers, and he thought he knew all about books. It was like a mini-Yale Coop: typewriters, shoes, stationery, everything. But from the beginning, he was selling tobacco and mixing his own blends. He loved to smoke” (Beach). In 1937 Mr. Ioannides apparently acted on that passion. He and Arabolos opened a second branch of the Owl Shop at 86 College Street specializing in fine cigars, tobacco blends, cigarettes, and gentlemen’s gifts; the 84 ½ Wall Street store remained a stationer (Eli Book, Directory).

The Owl Shop took on the image for which it is best known today in 1940, when the pair closed the Wall Street location and made tobacco their focus, with the 86 College Street location as their home (Directory). Accordingly, the Owl Shop’s advertising reflects this change; instead of projecting the “mini-Yale Co-op” image of 1934, by 1939 the shop had branded itself “New England’s Finest Pipe Shop.” It is clear that while its merchandise was more specific, the shop’s scope was broader by the fourth decade of the twentieth century: geographically, it aimed to appeal far beyond New Haven, and demographically, it was no longer just for students.

An advertisement from the Eli Book of 1951 [the Freshman Handbook]–
the first instance of the shop using this logo, which it uses to this day.

Catherine explains that the shop continued to expand after 1940, operating five stores at its peak. In 1951, however, the tobacconists decided to consolidate all of their merchandise under one roof and to relocate to the space at 268 College Street, where the shop has been ever since.

Amidst all of these shifts in location and merchandise, some interesting personal changes can also be unearthed. First, by 194 7 Greek immigrant Joseph loannides had become Joseph St. John. According to (now) Catherine St. John (also of Greek descent), after her husband became a citizen, he decided he was tired of hearing people mispronounce his name, so he changed it (Beach). Second, after 1947 Joseph St. John became the sole proprietor of the Owl Shop. His former partner, John Arabolos opened up Johnny’s Pipe Center just a short distance away from the Owl Shop in that same year (Directory). Calling his store “Yale’s Favorite Tobacconist” and still claiming the legacy of the original Owl Shop, Mr. Arabolos’ advertising declares, “Serving Yale Men Since 1934.” Joe Lentine, who began working for Mr. St.John in 1964 at the age of 19, and who is today an institution in his own right, recalls that Mr. St. John did not fight in World War II (due to a back problem), but believes Mr. Arabolos did. In some way, the force of this circumstance, and not any animosity, may have contributed to the dissolution of Arabolos and St. John’s partnership (Lentine).

The legendary Joe Lentine

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Owl Shop flourished and was known as one of the foremost tobacconists in the country, doing a large volume of mail-order business that included, for example, shipping its custom-blended tobaccos like “Harkness Tower Blend,” to all fifty states (Beach).

An advertisement from the 1941-42 Eli Book that highlights both the tradition of providing Yale seniors with custom pipes upon graduation and the Owl Shop’s famous “Harkness Tower” blend of tobacco. [Note: Reviewers compare this favorably with Balkan Sobranie.]

Additionally, the Shubert Theater, called “the birthplace of the nation’s hits,” brought much glamour to New Haven – and business to the Owl Shop. One might have seen Edward Robinson, Vincent Price, Van Johnson, Alec Guinness, Rex Harrison, Olivia de Havilland, or Helen Hayes visiting the tobacconist (History).

In 1977, however, the Shubert closed and in that same year Mr. St. John passed away. He left behind quite a legacy, though, through his shop and those upon whom he exerted influence, like Joe Lentine, who continue to pass on his values. According to Mrs. St. John, “[Her husband] got along with all kinds: the high, the mighty, and the low.” Joe Lentine echoes these values in 2008, saying that tobacco is a “great equalizer,” and that the purpose of the Owl Shop has always been, ” .. . to be a place where people from all walks of life can come in, relax, and enjoy” (Beach, Lentine).

An advertisement from the Hartford Courant of November 28, 1954.

In addition to the closing of the Shubert and passing of Mr. St.John, by the second half of the twentieth century, the health consequences of smoking were becoming more apparent; Americans would only grow increasingly health-conscious from this time on. Thus, the Owl Shop, like any strong institution, had to adapt. In 1998 Glen Greenberg bought the business from Mrs. St. John and soon acquired a liquor license with the hopes of turning the shop into something slightly different. Despite the protests of some, Mr. Greenberg went ahead with his plans to revamp the smoke shop (Savona). Today, it features a richly appointed smoking lounge and fully-stocked bar and stays open late at night, while maintaining its reputation as one of the last, best, quality tobacco shops in the country (History). As an additional draw, following the 2004 Connecticut smoking ban, from which the shop was immune due to a grandfather clause, the Owl Shop is now the only place in the state where one can both smoke and drink (Lentine, Savona).

More recently, the Owl Shop has added another distinct nod to the future with an upscale coffee bar in the front comer of the store. Mr. Lentine says they plan to begin serving sandwiches as well. The same individuals who yelped at the prospect of a bar in the Owl Shop might run screaming from the possibility of paninis, but these changes – like the original change of the Owl Shop from stationer to tobacconist, which gave the shop its identity – all seem to be part of a necessary evolutionary process in the life-cycle of this Yale and New Haven institution. I can personally attest to the fact that despite the changes made, the shop retains the traditional feel with which it must have been imbued ever since Mr. St. John opened his doors in 1934. I believe that the Owl Shop will continue to be a vibrant business as it changes to match the evolving marketplace, and hope that the unique, traditional atmosphere that defines it will always remain.

Bibliography

 Beach, Randall. “Pipes with a Past.” Yale Alumni Magazine Nov. 1990: 26-29.
Dana, Arnold G., comp. The Dana Collection. New Haven Historical Society. Feb. 2008.
The Eli Book. New Haven: Associated Student Agencies with the Cooperation of the University Administration, 1936-1963.
“History.” The Owl Shop. 2008. Feb. 2008 <http://owlshopcigars.com/history.htm>.
Lentine, Joe. Personal interview. 5 Feb. 2008.
Maps of Yale and the Sheffield Scientific School. New Haven, 1931. New Haven Historical Society. Feb. 2008.
New Haven City Directory, 1934-87. (New Haven: Price and Lee Company’s CityDirectory, 1934-87).
“Owl Shop – Display Ad 252.” The Hartford Courant (1923-1984) [Hartford, Conn.] 28 Nov. 1954, B7a.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers Hartford Courant (1764 – 1984).
ProQuest. Yale University Library, New Haven, CT. 11 Feb. 2008 <http:/ /www.proquest.com/>.
Savona, David. “A Smoker’s Last Refuge.” Cigar Aficionado Oct. 2007.

Undated photo with Joe Lentine on phone, before the conversion to coffee and spirits bar.
Note the photo of celebrity George Burns.

Nota bene. As the reviewer at Tobaccoreviews.com said, you actually can order the components of Mystical Black Magic—the recipe being 1/3 part Mystique and 2/3 parts Black Magic—and then mix them up yourself simply by phoning Genna Bestmann or Jim Richards at 203 624 3250.

Special thanks to
Genna Bestmann for her hospitality
to James Foster CPG of the Texas Pipe Show
and to Ken Sigel for introducing me to the Owl.
Photos by C. Mundungus and courtesy The Owl Shop.
Materials also reproduced from the Owl Shop Press.

The Great Horned Owl, perched next to the Ranger Station at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone.
(photo courtesy Chas. Mundungus)