Leavitt & Peirce Tobacco

This is the best cigar shop of all time! I love going here because I feel like I am going back in time. The shop has so many neat trinkets in addition to a great array of cigars to choose from. The employees are so friendly and helpful with cigar selections.

I’ve been here with my boyfriend a few times. If you roll your own cigarettes, this is the place to go. If you don’t smoke but you’re here with a tobacco fiend, there’s plenty of knick knacks to look at and this place seems to be stuck in the 1920s. Very cooL!

The latest line of advance in capitalism/consumerism’s assault on western society is «lifestyle» marketing, wherein companies try to convince consumers that buying a particular curated selection of mass-​produced products will somehow enrich our individual existences. (Ugh.) But the bleating of these «lifestyle» brands is just so much sound and and fury, signifying nothing. Whereas Leavitt & Peirce, an unassuming Harvard Square stalwart, has been effortlessly embodying «lifestyle» for over a century.
What lifestyle would that be, you ask? L&P is best summarized as «The place where your badass bachelor uncle got all that awesome, intriguing stuff you remember lying around his house when you were a kid»: penknives, exotic soaps, giant marbles, pimp canes, six-​inch wooden matches, mah jongg sets, and of course cigars + pipes galore. (Or, as another reviewer described it, it’s like «stepping into a mystery novel.» Hell, I would not be surprised if they have a secret back room full of pearl-​handled revolvers, monocles, shrunken heads, and cursed idols.) Merely browsing through L&P is a special experience in itself — the aromas, the craftsmanship, and even the tactile sensation of the hefty, high-​quality items they sell are rare pleasures in today’s world of cheap crap. The staff can be a bit tough to catch the attention of, but once hailed, they are inevitably friendly and helpful– hell, they’ll even refill your Zippo for you.
It’s a miracle that a business as unique and curious as L&P persists in 21^st-​century Harvard Square, which with every passing year becomes ever more swamped by the rising tide of chain banks, chain coffee and frozen yogurt stores, chain pharmacies, and nondescript overpriced bar+grilles. I don’t know how L&P manages it, but those who value independent, unique local businesses like I do owe it to themselves, and to the last-​stand holdouts like L&P, to patronize these special places before they succumb to the cruel economics of nü-​Harvard.
May that day be as far away as possible; long live Leavitt & Peirce!

Good, service was a little rude, nice little store in Harvard square.

Love this place. Very nice atmosphere and superb products. Became a regular here, buying gold shag on weekly basis.

I was in Boson on my honeymoon last week and was looking for a new pipe as I had not brought one with me on my trip.
After a HORRIBLE experience at L.J. Peretti near Boston Common, I went over to Harvard Square and checked out Leavitt & Peirce. The guys there were super friendly and helped me find a nice Peterson Sportsman, a 4^th Generation hybrid pouch and some tobacco which I enjoyed.
The selection was rather limited, but the pricing was reasonable and the staff was knowledgeable and helpful.

I’ve been coming here since high school to buy chess sets, Swiss Army knives, and other assorted classics. I’m 43 now and I still love stepping into the mystery novel feel of the place and all the tobacco smells. Everyone’s incredibly helpful and the selection can’t be beat. Awesome place to visit whether you’re looking to buy something or just browse.

Leavitt & Peirce is a great smoke shop — I stop in every once in a while. They have a good selection of cigars — you can find major labels like Cohiba, Oliva, Nub here. I do wish they’d carry the Ken Kendall 7−20−4 line, however — but so few shops do.
They have a great selection of pipe tobacco too — this is the only place I buy pipe tobacco, when I want it — which isn’t that often — usually in the winter months I switch over to a pipe from cigars.
Lots of other nifty things to see here including chess sets and other man-​type gifts (but not pornography, which is a good thing.)
My only two beefs with L&P is (a) I wish they were open later on weekday afternoons — my commute takes me through Harvard Square most days, but they are only open past 5pm on Thursdays and (b) cigars are pricey there — mostly because they charge the exorbitant Massachusetts tobacco death tax. But that’s not the shop’s fault.
Service is superb, a must visit shop when you’re in Harvard Square!

Terrific Shop. Ive recently started to smoke a pipe and L&P offers a nice range of house blended tobaccos as well as useful reasonably priced accessories such as tampers, hydrostones, tobacco pouches and cleaners. The staff there are pleasent and helpful folks. …and they offer some good advice for the novice. (I.e. what is a hydrostone and what’s its function.) I love coming into the shop just to browse the inventory.
A nice bit of local history as well. Anyone who is visiting Harvard square should drop in just to browse.

Great place to shop for gifts etc.
Friendly people, huge variety, and good prices for fresh pipe and rolling tobacco.
Rather than buying a pack of cigarettes I can walk out of this place with a few ounces of shag to last me a few weeks.
First time I was so confused but the associate was kind enough to explain the different smokes and find a good fit.
Free matches are always a plus.

Great cigars, a wide variety of other gifts, pipes, lighters, jack knives, large hookah selection, every tobacco accessory imaginable, postcards, chessboards at all price levels along with other strategy games like «Go» all in a historic premises that makes you feel like you’ve gone back to 1900.

Very rude and inappropriate towards women and children. I saw the sales man scold a woman so harshly for shopping for a set of marbles with her young child.

A surviving remnant of the older Harvard Square, great place to get tobacco, or tobacco-​free cigarettes. Many other «smoke shops» in the greater Boston area come off as hokey, «cheap», ratty and dirty… not this place… it is classy, professional, fun, fascinating, retro, and a pleasure to gaze upon.

I have been a regular buying pipe tobacco, straight razors, tie clips, business card holders, pipes, and assorted shaving accessories. Always great friendly service even if you are an out of towner looking for a cool gift. I refer all of my friends and family to check out the store and they get hooked.

Leavitt & Peirce is one of those places you just have to go into, even if you don’t buy anything (it’s not just tobacco). I bought a safety razor and badger hair shaving brush there, and the salesperson was extremely helpful throughout the process. They have beautiful chess boards, unique candies, natural soaps, etc. etc. you just need to check it out.

Established 1883, this store is a fun place to shop for cigars and gifts.

The store was quite an eclectic collection of manly stuff. I went in because I was looking for an aftershave balm that is difficult to find in brick and mortar shops. The store was sold out though. I enjoyed window shopping after being disappointed that my trip to Cambridge was for nothing.
However, the prices are astronomically high, at least the shaving products that I was looking at were.

Attention Nonsmokers: take up smoking, just so that you can experience how great it is to be a customer at Leavitt & Peirce. Lungs shmungs. This Harvard Square mainstay not only offers up a bevy of fine tobaccos and accoutrements, it also has some of the greatest customer service around.
I purchased a lighter from Leavitt & Peirce a while back. When it suddenly stopped working, I brought it into the shop to have it looked at. Within minutes, the clerk had identified the problem and replaced the flint and spring at no cost. The lighter has worked like a charm ever since! The clerk also made it a point to tell me that I can bring in the lighter whenever and have the butane refilled free of charge.
I only wish L&PT sold gasoline and groceries too, so I would never have to shop anywhere else.

There are a handful of people in my life that appreciate cigars as gifts. Heck, even I will enjoy one every once in a while, but I admit that I know zero about them, other than if I like the particular stogie I am smoking at the time or not. Though there are a few other shops in the area that are possibly cheaper and more convenient, none of them measure up to L&PT when it comes to variety and customer service. Yes, their prices may be slightly inflated, but believe me, it is worth it.
Every visit I have made over the years has been stellar. All I need to do is tell whoever is helping me what the giftee prefers, and the magic begins. They go beyond the typical suggestions for cigars and their bevy of accessories will get into the gory details about each cigar brand and type if you let them. The employees’ enthusiasm for cigars would be an understatement.
I simply cannot walk out of this store without dropping at least $ 50. Every time. I go in planning to pick up maybe 5 cigars and spend a couple of Jacksons, but then *POOF*, out I walk with a dozen cigars and $ 100 poorer. I’m not sure how they do it, but they do. And I love it.

A beautiful, well-​maintained store, with old-​fashioned delights. And reasonable prices. I came looking for a variety of cigars, to try a spectrum. At first I was skeptical that the young woman behind the counter would know much about cigars and tobacco, but she proved herself knowledgeable and friendly, even to a relative newcomer to cigars and to the store itself. So top ratings for quality of store and service!
Things also not to be overlooked: a good selection of Caswell-​Massey soaps, which have light, but less common scents, such as sandalwood. Also a great selection of chess sets. And a good place to pick up clove cigars for a good price.