‘‘I’d say best case scenario we have another year,” said Bethesda Tobacco owner Mike Copperman. ‘‘...I’ll be really upset to lose this place because it’s nice, but we’re looking for new locations.”
He’s looked at more than 30 different locations for the new shop, almost exclusively in downtown Bethesda.
Copperman, 40, bought the shop in 2001, changing the name from J.B. Sims Fine Tobacco to Bethesda Tobacco.
The building was built in 1915, according to tax records, and the inside shows its age. A first floor covered in faux-brick wallpaper leads to cracking plaster on the stairwell, with the original brick poking through. The waning interior only adds to the place’s charm. The shop has the air of a clubhouse, with leather furniture facing a flat-screen television upstairs, and jokes about male-enhancement pills mixing with cigar smoke downstairs.
While the shop will survive a move, the historic nature of its surroundings may not. Bethesda Tobacco is a step back in time, despite the fact it’s only been open since the mid-1990s.
Patrons of the shop are flocking to its aid.
Mark Kochan, 38, of Silver Spring, said all the regulars — between 40 and 50 people according to store manager Will Dawson—-have been brainstorming ways to help Copperman with the move.
‘‘We’re all putting our minds together to try to come up with something,” Kochan said while puffing on a Camacho cigar. ‘‘It has a kind of clubhouse feel we’re going to miss.”
Kochan and Vondas both said they are helping Copperman with whatever he needs; Kochan owns a remodeling company and has offered to help renovate the new space at cost, while Vondas, who works in real estate, said he has helped Copperman look for new spaces.
All who spend any time at the shop recognize how unique the place is.
Cigar boxes clutter the bottom of the staircase, and Dawson and Copperman greet most customers by name. The outdoor patio on Saint Elmo Avenue is full most afternoons and weekends, and the upstairs lounge fills up for sporting events.
Dawson said the shop sees 40 to 50 customers during the week, and up to 75 on weekends. Cigars range from $2.68 to $38, and the humidor is always stocked.
But the camaraderie doesn’t stop at the shop’s doors. Kochan said the guys at the shop get together once a week to play basketball, or the occasional touch football game at Bethesda Elementary School down the block. Whenever a soldier returning from Iraq comes into the shop, Vondas said, one of the guys will pay for his cigar in appreciation of his service.
‘‘The shop attracts lots of kinds of people: construction workers, businessmen, all types,” said Bill Murray, who lives in Fort Valley, Va., but works in Bethesda. ‘‘So as long as [Copperman] can find a new place, I know people will keep coming.”
