the cloud palace

All cigar smokers know that our passion for the leaf is as much about the overall experience as it is is about the cigar itself. While out last night with some friends after a great dinner at an exclusive steak house, we decided to try The Cloud Palace in Salem, NH to watch the game over a few cocktails and some fine premium cigars.Our fun, night with close friends took a drastic and profound turn for the worse when we entered the Cloud Palace.As we entered we found a modern, well decorated upscale decor but very few patrons considering it was a Saturday night. The majority of the 10 to 15 people that were scattered through the large room were smoking hookah as opposed to cigars.As we were there to celebrate our friendship and some recent good fortune, we had all previously agreed to enjoyed the very finest premium cigars on this night (between $ 20 to $30 per cigar).When we entered the humidor, the first thing we noticed was that the room was so humid that all of the cellophane wrappers on the cigars there had considerable condensation on them. To make matters worse, within just a minute or so of entering the walk-in humidor, a foreign sounding man (who purported himself to be the owner of The Cloud Palace) barged into the room and ostracized us and telling us that we cannot touch the cigars. Please keep in-mind that cigars we may have pursued were cellophane wrapped and we had only been in the room for appropriately one minute. In my many years of smoking cigars, and in the numerous walk-in humidors I have surveyed, I have never been told that cigars could not be touched. In any case, this person could have been more diplomatic and respectful and less caustic in his approach. Then to exacerbate the situation, this same person began to pick up several cigars while he was in the humidor with us. When we asked why that was OK for him to do he told us "he washes his hands regularly" (apparently implying we were in some way less clean than he was).This man stood over us while in the humidor selecting our cigars, not assisting us in any way but instead monitoring and watching us as though we were unsavory children in a candy store. We all felt significantly disrespected, demeaned. and highly unappreciated as customers.Because of this uncomfortable experience, we hastily selected less expensive cigars than we had originally intended to purchase (mine was $ 16.00), this man followed us to the cocktail lounge to ensure that he himself told the waitress waitress what each of our cigars cost. which made us even more uncomfortable.As we sat down in a far corner of the nearly empty room to watch the game, the cocktail waitress told us that we were required to move to another table with much more confined seating. Please imaging sitting in a wide open nearly empty room, with an array of empty open seating, in a small love seat couch with your friend's side uncomfortable pressed against yours while trying to enjoy a good cigar.Needless to say, we decided to cut our cigars and head several miles to another cigar bar where we would be treated with respect and dignity and welcomed as valued customers (that review will follow).Please, DO NOT allow yourself to be fooled by the nice pictures and make the same mistake as we did only to be treated with hostility, distrust and disrespect at The Cloud Palace. Now I fully understand why there were suspiciously few patrons in this place.I do hope that whomever takes this place over after if inevitably fails will be more welcoming and hospitable to its customers than the rude, impolite proprietors of The Cloud Palace

When I first arrived, I had a great experance. The staff was very friendly. As my group sat down for our first hookah, the owners and staff started their own hookah and started drinking. About an hour later, the owner and staff's friends entered the bar. At this point the staff only catered to the owners friends. It took my group 45 minutes to flag down our waitress for a second round. We did not receive our drinks for another 30 minutes. As the night progressed, the owners friends got rowdy. At the end of the night, the owners friends and a server was dancing ontop of the bar. The music was was turned up so loud that I could not hear the person next to me. Overall, a bad experience. I will never be returning to this bar ever again.

Dobre miejsce aby sobie posiedzieć na dużych kanapach i sie wyluzować. Cloud Palace to jakby to nazwać "Huka Bar". Mają różnego rodzaju tytoń, mają klimatyzowany pokój z cygarami oraz bar. Drinki dobre tylko trochę drogie. Obsługa niezła ale z lekka niedoświadczona. Atmosfera bardzo przyjemna. Jest nawet cicho melancholicznie i pełno dymu :) którym jak np. się delektuje. Polecam na luzacki wieczorek.