Above, a chandelier shapes 12 petals of a lotus in bloom, bathing the room in warm light; below, shorn slabs of nero marquina and crema marfil cut eight points of a rose compass, encircled by five faux-leather chairs, three windows, three portraits, and a fireplace. On the remaining wall, a smoker’s benediction:
“The world we have created—or that has been created for us—is a much more hectic place to live than it ever has been before, filled with stress and problems with our lives, our jobs, the economy, and the environment. We are all looking for a haven, a fortress where we can be free—even momentarily—from the dragons and demons that we must fight daily. The cigar has become that fortress, a sanctified place where we can regroup our internal forces. With just a single cigar, we can escape from the cares of the world, if only for an hour or so. That is the beauty of cigar smoking. That is the legacy we have inherited, and the secret to the enjoyment of life.”
One portrait features Sir Winston Churchill, the ‘puro’ jutting from his lip keeping his infamous “black dog” of bipolar disorder at bay, if only for a time. Opposite Churchill gazes Julius “Groucho” Marx, his expression clear of vaudevillian hokum, eyes pensive and probing above a smoldering Dunhill. In this hallowed space, all seem privy to “the secret to the enjoyment of life.” It’s a secret the man pictured in the third, smaller frame is keen to share—and why, after 22 years, his dream of a personal “Grand Havana Room” was revived.
“When people come in here I say, ‘Which of these three photos doesn’t belong?’ That one!” quipped Jay Lerner, his self-portrait above the mantel appearing to grin an acknowledgement. “My wife made me put it up there…”
Bashfulness aside, Lerner fully credits his wife, Bobette, in conjunction with Stan How of Stanley J. How Architects, for the backyard cabana’s magnetic appeal. At just under 800 square feet, walls of unadorned limestone belie the splendor within—in fact, the pull might even be too strong at times.
“Somebody said, ‘Why don’t you put in a shower?’ I said, ‘Guys stay too long now!’” he laughed.
Growing up in Milwaukee, Lerner comes from a long line of cigar enthusiasts. From his grandfather’s vegetable market to his father’s grocery store, he also carried family tradition by pursuing a career in the supermarket industry. In time, Lerner’s purview would expand to commercial development, brokerage, leasing, and management, all of which would come to fall under the umbrella of Omaha-based The Lerner Company, which he founded in 1985.
As Lerner’s success grew, so did his appetite for rare cigars. Indeed, though his smoking room may be “free from dragons,” there is treasure to be found in the coils of smoke. The Grand Havana Room sports a fully stocked bar—wherein premium whiskey sparkles on every shelf—and of course a humidor rife with coveted blends and wrappers, including limited releases.
“Over the years, they’ll come out with special reserves, like this one,” Lerner said, the patina of polished wood and gold lettering (“Heaven and Earth—Opus22”) one of just 500 boxes released in 2020 by Dominican producer, Arturo Fuente. “I tell people, ‘I don’t have a cigar smoking fetish, I have a cigar collecting fetish.”
Based on this confession alone, one might assume Lerner’s decision to build his Grand Havana Room in 2021 was born of a collector’s fever and a need to expand beyond the humidor in his residence proper. In truth, the interceding decades were an exercise in self-control—not a lack of it.
“When I was going to build it [in 1999], it was going to be on the other side of my house; three exterior walls and one common wall connected to the garage. And then I had a hallway that was going to come out of the garage into [the smoking room],” Lerner explained. “And then I figured, ‘I’m going to spend every night of my life smoking cigars and drinking scotch.’ So, at the last minute I took it off the plan and removed it.
“Twenty-two years later, and I said, ‘I’ve got a lot more self-discipline, so…it’s going back!’”
The addition has proved wildly popular with friends, family, and even the media. A lifelong subscriber, Lerner was honored to be featured in last year’s July/August edition of Cigar Aficionado magazine, a national publication. Still, while the intimacy and convenience of the Grand Havana Room is unmatched, Lerner continues to frequent area cigar lounges.
“We got a group called the ‘Havana Garage Mafia’ that meets every Thursday at Havana Garage downtown, and I go to Safari [Cigars and Lounge in West Omaha] too,” Lerner said. “It’s fun being with more people sometimes. If there’s a game on and everybody’s yelling around, I like doing that.”
Lerner returned to the quote on his wall, titled “I Love My Cigar” and transcribed from “The Ultimate Cigar Book” by Richard Carleton Hacker for guests to see. Though there’s much to absorb and to marvel at, he finds this passage an indispensable feature of the Grand Havana Room. It reminds visitors—and himself, from time to time—what it’s really all about: that the cigar is the sanctuary.
“I swear to God, you smoke a cigar with a bunch of guys or even with a big group, you forget about everything,” Lerner affirmed. “For an hour and a half—if you’ve got financial problems, or you’ve got a family issue, or business [issues]—for an hour and a half, you sit there and it disappears.
“You’re looking at it, you’re puffing on it, you’re smelling it—and for me, that’s escape.”
This article originally appeared in the June/July 2024 issue of B2B Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
