Tasting Room | Cigar Friendly, Wisconsin

Located just outside Wisconsin’s capital, Madison, lies the town of Monona. In the lakeside town of Monona, there is a cigar lounge called the Tasting Room. In all of your travels, you may never find such a beautiful, elegant cigar lounge! Think of your favorite luxury car, and then expand it into a lounge with a plentiful liquor selection and a humidor of great distinction due to its beauty. There is a two-way linear fireplace visible from inside and outside of the building, and an all-glass back bar that provides a full view of their 400+ square foot humidor. Let us also not forget plentiful indoor seating in luxurious leather chairs. In addition to a beautiful interior, the Tasting Room boasts a large outside sitting area with two gas fire pits, four fire tables, and two 17 foot long overhead gas heaters to remove the chill of Wisconsin’s winters all year long. There is a view of the boat-filled channel which leads to the lakes on which the Madison area was built! This is The Tasting Room!

When you meet lounge’s owner, Jason Smith, you instantly understand the magnificence of the Tasting Room. A Wisconsin native who has worked hard and achieved great success, Jason completely understands the “work hard, play hard” concept and it can be seen throughout his establishment. Jessica Smith, spouse of Jason and co-owner of Tasting Room, is the mastermind behind the interior design. Raise a glass in her name if the ambiance of the lounge vibes with your soul! Along with the store’s general manager, Adam Bruner, the Smiths lead patrons into a bonafide lap of luxury which can be seen and experienced in the caliber of libations, the decor of the lounge, the bounty of the humidor, and the beautiful outside patio that is a mecca in the summer, and is still accessible in the winter thanks to their outdoor heaters. There is also an air purification system that sucks every last bit of cigar smoke out of the lounge and reroutes it to the top of the five story building in which Tasting Room is attached. The efficiency of this mechanism cannot be understated, as it includes UV light filtration and exchanges the air an astonishing 15 times every hour. Once the smoke leaves your lips, it absolutely vanishes!

When in this part of the country, you need to do yourself a favor and enjoy everything that this lounge has to offer. When I left, I promised myself I would be back to the Madison area just so that I could enjoy the ambiance of this one-of-a-kind cigar lounge and bask in its opulence. It was amazing in the winter…and now I can’t wait to see it in the summer!