by David Ball
Contributing Writer
There are plenty of different pipes at The Tobacco Shop at 17 N. Ocean St. There are simple ones, ones made of artist-grade woods and stones and even large “Sherlock” ones that look like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
They’re all for sale, with prices ranging from $10 to $180. But in another case on the other side of the shop sit some pipes in a whole different league — and no amount of money can take them away from shop owners Thomas Spencer and his daughter, Natasha.
“This is from my aunt’s private collection. They are definitely not for sale,” said Thomas Spencer. “You can’t find pipes like these anywhere else.”
His aunt is Gwen Martino, who began working at the store when she was 16 and eventually purchased it from the original owners in 1982. The store was first opened in the 1950s and is the oldest continually operating tobacco store in Northeast Florida, according to Spencer.
Today, the shop is part tobacco retailer and part tobacco museum. There are of course different varieties of hand-blended pipe tobacco, a walk-in humidor with 50-60 brands of domestic and imported find cigars and a wide selection of cigarettes and rolling tobacco. But in the glass cases and on the shelves sit antique box humidors, pipe stands, cigar ashtrays and other antique smoking paraphernalia, some that date back to the store’s opening in the 1950s. Old tobacco advertisements hang on the wall and there’s even an antique cash register and a few rotary telephones.
You could spend an entire afternoon just gazing at the merchandise or playing a game of chess with a regular while sampling a new pipe tobacco blend. And that’s the idea, said Natasha Spencer.
“This is really a blend of the old school and the new school,” said Spencer, who has a marketing and communications background and carefully follows the latest industry trends. Spencer and her father took over the store in 2001 when Martino died.
However, her loyal customer base has stayed with the Spencers.
“Our customers are the most eclectic group of people, and they’re really like an extended family,” said Natasha Spencer. “I’d say 85 to 90 percent of our sales are from regulars who have been patronizing the store from the beginning.”
Their biggest seller is still their custom pipe tobacco blends they create at the store from various tobaccos from Connecticut to the Dominican Republic to Cameroon. The two favorites, Oceans (6) and Centennial, are the reason they stay in business, Thomas Spencer said.
To expand the store’s appeal, Natasha Spencer has been organizing game nights where smokers and non-smokers can come and play board or card games, listen to music and talk. The next one is scheduled for Friday.
Spencer said she hopes people aren’t turned off by the idea of hanging out at a smoke shop. In fact, she said she wants to recreate the romanticism that pipes and cigars once had in American culture.
“Smoking cigars or pipes is not about addiction, it’s about the lifestyle,” she said. “It’s called the good life. Who wouldn’t want to sit back, talk politics or other topics and enjoy a good cigar, good friends and just enjoy the good life?”
The Tobacco Shop is open 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday–Friday and 11 a.m.–2 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, call 355-9319.