A Cigar Smoker's Paradise - IN THE CORNHUSKER STATE

Jay Lerner of Omaha built a lavish smoking room to match his vast inventory of fine cigars

- GARRETT RUTLEDGE

To have a cigar room, to not have a cigar room? That is the question Jay Lerner of Omaha, Nebraska, contemplated for nearly 20 years. When he was building a new house in 1999, a cigar room was part of the original plans until the very last minute, when he scratched the idea. “I thought ‘I’m gonna spend every night of my life smoking cigars and drinking Scotch and that’s probably not smart,’ ” he says. But 22 years later (“and at 22 times the cost,” he jokes) he went back to his original plan. Now, he finally has what he’s wanted for so long, a smoking room all his own. Lerner’s luxurious “Grand Havana Room’’ was finished in 2021, and the final product is a smoking spot any aficionado can admire.

Lerner’s cigar room is just off the side of his house and resembles a miniaturized version of his main residence. Both are made out of Indiana Limestone with matching roofs. The interior design of the cigar room was spearheaded by Lerner’s wife, Bobette. “If she didn’t head it up, it wouldn’t look this nice,” says Lerner in praise. “And it wouldn’t have cost as much either,” he adds with a smile.

The project took eight months to build. The room, just shy of 800 square feet, is octagonal and includes three windows that face the backyard. The eight-sided hideout can comfortably sit six smokers, but as Lerner has found out, the problem isn’t getting people in, but getting them out. “There’s only one bad thing about the room,” he says with a laugh. “When guys come over I can’t get ’em to leave.”