Overview
By Chris Lukic
This sophisticated wine and cigarette bar is one of only 5 places in the city exempt from the 2003 smoking ban.
History
New name, still smoking, serious ventilation
Lee Ringelheim opened Circa Tabac on Watts Street in 1998 as a place for various forms of smoking, particularly cigarettes1. Our old review called it a sophisticated wine and cigarette bar, one of the few places in the city exempt from the smoking ban. In 2014 he closed briefly to renovate, put in a state-of-the-art ventilation system and reopened as Soho Cigar Bar2. Its art deco touches take after the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, a black-and-white photo of Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra hangs on one wall, and in March 2024 the bar threw itself a party for a quarter century in business1, 3, 4.
Sources
Researched October 2026.