Bruton’s Cigar Shop officially became the newest addition to downtown Plant City with its grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony on July 14.
Situated at the intersection of Reynolds Street and Collins Street, the establishment offers a bar area as well as a room with shelves that neatly display various cigars of different tastes.
Renovating the already existing structure was a long time in the making for the shop’s owner, David Verner.
“I have wanted to open a tobacco shop/pub for most of my life,” he said. “I’ve always been obsessed with it from old movies like “The Quiet Man” with John Wayne. I love pubs. I love tobacco shops. I love the old western saloons. I love the idea of owning a gentlemen’s club.”
In January 2021, he had the building stripped and made a layout of how he envisioned the interior to look.
It took a month to create the blueprint of how he wanted it to be reconstructed.
From the outside, the windows are not clear or see through but only shows reflections.
When entering, a register stands straights ahead and numerous items are displayed within a counter. On top of the counter can be found a case with several shelves for cigars, and a row of smoking pipes are also on the tabletop, among other things.
Further back on the wall hang framed newspaper clippings, photos of people and historic buildings. To the left is the room that holds many organized and boxed cigars for purchase.
Verner has smoked each kind and is able to distinguish between them, he said. They are placed in columns of shelves that line the three walls of the room.
Further left is the bar with a countertop and stools placed underneath. The bar gives an unconventional but social atmosphere with couches.
A spiral staircase leads to the balcony that also holds couches and multiple tables and chairs. It also offers a view that overlooks both Reynolds Street and Collins Street as well as part of downtown.
“This was the perfect location in downtown,” Verner said. “This section of downtown Plant City hasn’t seen new growth for bars or anything like that on Evers Street, so it was the perfect way to bring foot traffic from that side of downtown all the way over here.”
The shop has a history that goes back decades and was perhaps built as early as 1926, Verner said.
It was originally used for Sinclair’s kerosene and oil station, and in 1947 it became a Shell gas station.
It was there for 30 years until 1977 when one of the gas tanks burst underground.
It was purchased by Verner’s family in the 1990s and used as offices spaces. Dan Snyder then operated his sign company there, before the building was bought out by Chris Black for the use of Black’s Insurance company. Then in November 2020, the building was put up for sale and was purchased by Verner’s family again.
“When my family acquired this building back, there was a question of whether or not to reconvert it back to standard retail office space like we had done back in the 90s, or for new ideas to come to light,” he said.
It was Verner’s opportunity to build his dream establishment and have it constructed in a certain fashion.
“I had a rough estimate of what the aesthetics should look like,” Verner said. “We were working under the pretense originally of Winston Churchill’s library.”
He credits social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as his official website in helping to get the word around about his new establishment.
Bruce Wright was one of the visitors who attended the event. Several days prior to the grand opening he spotted the shop sign when driving by and decided to attend the special occasion. Wright has smoked cigars for 40 years and can make a distinction between each as well, he said.
The three components of a cigar are the filler tobacco, binder tobacco and the wrapper.
“They say that 75% of the flavor is in the wrapper, but what distinguishes this whole humidor, one cigar to another ,is the combination of those three items,” Wright said. “You can have a binder from Ecuador, a filler from Nicaragua, and a wrapper from the Dominican Republic.”
Verner hopes that the community can also be as well-versed with cigars when they step inside.
For more information on Bruton’s, or to give a rating, visit:
https://www.restaurantji.com/fl/plant-city/brutons-cigar-shop-/