Business Spotlight:

The Cigar Club hopes to capitalize on the ban, which went into effect Nov. 6, by offering a comfortable and legal place for residents to smoke. Officials also increased the scope of the store from a traditional cigar shop and smoking lounge to a nightclub with music five nights a week and sports on Sunday and Monday.

The club’s Nov. 1 grand reopening featured free sushi and a packed room of cigar aficionados and dancers.

“It was a cigar club to begin with,” Williams said. “It’s so much more now.”

Still, the shop has not strayed from its expertise. In the sealed-off, walk-in glass cabinet, where a humidifier keeps the voluminous collection of cigars at 70 degrees and 70% humidity, customers can peruse a wide array of smokes.

The shop stocks cigars of many price ranges, between $5 and $90, and for all types of smokers, Williams said.

The newest trend, aimed mostly at women cigar smokers, is flavored cigars. The club stocks honey, vanilla and a blend of coffee and chocolate-flavored cigars that seem to be having their intended effect.

On a recent night at the shop, where Cuban music blared out onto Brand Boulevard, women slightly outnumbered men, Williams said.

But the shop’s bottom line will be buoyed by regular shoppers — such as Michael Gunn — who work or live in the area and are looking for a legal place to light up.

Gunn, a 55-year-old sales associate at kitchen supply store Sur La Table in the Americana, purchases a $5 cigar as many as three times a week. On Friday, he spent a small portion of his day smoking a cigar, chatting with Williams and enjoying the confines of the redesigned club.

“It’s fantastic. The atmosphere has a lot to do with me coming over here,” said Gunn, adding that the prohibition also plays into this decision.

“The [ban] does drive me here,” Gunn said. “Plus, this is the only place I can get a cigar around here.”