James Fox

Another visit to the beautiful city of Dublin so shopping at JJ Fox is a must. The service is always top notch and their selection of Habanos is generally interesting. This time I picked up a few very nicely aged Bolivars along with a handful of Regional Edicions to sample.
If you have any interest in smoking a well maintained Habanos or shopping for high quality smoking accessories then visit this small but elegant shop.

Great store for those oh so bad beautful things that some people want. Great place, helpful, friendly, accommodating.

I came in here to buy a new flint and some lighter fluid for my Zippo the other day and it reminded my why I always go to the Decent Cigar Emporium on the top of Grafton Street.
Pretty girls serving behind the counter. Not really what I am looking for when I am purchasing cigars. Although some of you guys may disagree [I’m looking at the breeders]. But hey all I am looking for is a flint and lighter fluid, not advice on choosing an expensive cigar.
I found the lady who served me quite dismissive. Never having to buy a flint for a Zippo before I did not actually know what to so I asked the girl to show me. She didn’t seem very enthused by this but showed me sufficiently but at the same time almost reluctantly.
I wanted to pay with my Laser card. Quite abruptly and almost looking down ones nose she said «We do not accept cards for anything under € 10»…
It was just under the tenner and I had like 7 quid so my friend checked her bag for some change and made up the difference.
So a word of advice to the management or owners of this shop. Instruct your staff to treat every customer with the same respect regardless of how little they appear to be spending because as a result of this experience when I am spending € 150 in December on cigars for my Dad I will not be doing so in your establishment.
Hello Decent Cigar Emporium

If you are looking for cigars and/​or whiskey in Dublin then this is the place to go. Everything is pretty much high end quality which does mean big $. The employees are helpful and their selection is pretty big for a smaller size shop.

Perhaps in some ways the biggest compliment I can play this place is that it wouldn’t look out of place on New York’s 5^th Avenue or London’s Bond St. It was done up a couple of years and the result is everything now has a classic gloss to it. It really is one of the most well presented shops in the city. Furthermore all the staff truly look dapper in their three piece suits! But despite all this and the nature of the products they sell there’s none of the elite pomp that one might have associated with this type of establishment 20 years ago. They’d be more inclined to invite Homer Simpson in for a good natured chat than ‘kindly ask him to leave without making a scene’.
There’s a good selection of whiskey and scotch in here. You’ll find a few of the more unusual and rare brands that you won’t see even in the most well-​stocked off licenses. The downside is that most brands range from being slight to a lot more expensive than in some other shops. However this is simply down to business economics, I don’t expect an independent shop to be able to compete with the bulk purchasing power of the supermarkets or chain stores. The upshot here is that you’ll get staff who actually know their stuff.
They also have a large selection of cigars consisting of all the traditional Cuban brands (Montecristo, Cohiba, Partagas) and a few non-​Cubans. Sometimes they’ll get in a particular line that they don’t normally do so it can be worth dropping in every now again just to check. I was actually in here right before Christmas and picked up a box of Montecristo Sublimes LE 2008!
There’s a host of various other accessories for the modern gentleman (or lady!) such as zippos, pipes and whatnot as well so I’d encourage anyone just to pop in for a look at the very least.

Kleiner feiner Tabak– und Spirituosen Shop im Herzen von Dublin. Hat zwar nicht die größte Auswahl an Whiskey aber dafür echte Schätzchen. Ausserdem kann man hier gleich nach mit hochwertigen und exotischen Rauchwaren eindecken und was schmeckt besser, als eine gute Cigarre und ein irischer Whiskey — dann auch gerne on the Rocks?!

I enjoy all kinds of tobacco. Pipes, cigars, cigarettes, and in that order too. Don’t judge me. I don’t drink as much as you. When we go out who’s the one who only has a couple and doesn’t end up stumbling down the street putting the contents of your stomach in several different places around town every other night? Oh ya, it’s me. I may be destroying my lungs but your destroying your liver. So there.
Anyway, now that we’ve got that out of the way.
Dublin is not a great city for fine tobacco products. It was a surprise to me when I moved here but unfortunately it is true. There are 3, count em, 3 places to get nice cigars and only 2 places to get good pipe tobacco.
James J Fox is the best place to find a good selection of both cigars and pipe tobacco. They stock a variety of maybe 8 of their own different pipe tobacco blends and 7 or so of the Peterson blends. They have a small collection of their own brand of cigars and cigarillos and carry a good selection of other brands.
Contrary to what I may have made you think at the beginning of this review, I do drink, albeit in moderation. I am a huge fan of single malt scotch and whisky and James J Fox has an excellent selection. Some of it might be priced a tincy bit high but they have some of my favorite brands that I am quite certain could not be found anywhere else.
But have no fear Dublin, as soon as I can afford the massive (and I mean massive) fees for immigrants to start businesses here in Ireland I am going to open up a proper tobacco shop. It will be called T.J. Collins Tobacconists and stock over 40 different kinds of hand blended pipe tobacco. It will have a walk –in humidor with hundreds of brands and sizes of quality cigars, and, oh ya, NAT SHERMAN’S!!!
Can a brother get a pack of Nat Sherman’s somewhere on this island?

Dublin’s emerging Chappy scenesters will be delighted with the very gentlemanly selection of pipes, fine tobaccos and other refined smoking accessories for the gentry.
I’m not a smoker, and I don’t know any who could fully appreciate the fine cigars and cigarillos on offer here (shame, that). But I love the rich and urbane nature of the shop’s stock, and the suit-​and-​tie salesmen behind the counters inside.
Break out the tweed blazers with leather patches and drop in for a look (and whiff) of some of Dublin’s finest tobacco and accessories.

Gifts for gentlemen can be difficult to source but if the gentleman receiving the gift is a smoker the challenge is somewhat reduced. Firstly, you should encourage them to quit and all that, when this fails, there is nothing better than a really fancy lighter.
I got my friend a lighter in James J Fox that operated on the same system as one of those roaring twenties style table lighters. You press the plunger, lifting the cap on the fuel nozzle and striking the flint simultaneously, beautiful. Get this art-​deco piece engraved and, voila! For less than fifty squids — the perfect gift.
I’m not a big cigar or pipe man but I’d imagine these guys won’t let you down on this front. Floor to ceiling humidors full of hand-​rolled Cubans in wooden boxes inspire confidence. I imagine, any issue you have here will be a problem with your budget, rather than their selection.

I have a few vices in life, cigars being one of them. I absolutely adore them, so much so that I have to ration myself to a certain amount each month. I love the smell, taste, the relaxing feeling it evokes. Drinking a coffee or red wine whilst smoking a cigar is one of the small life luxuries that I have.
So all that self-​indulgent pap aside, I need good cigars and here is where I come. In my opinion the best selection in Ireland. Skilled staff, I tend to get stick with Montecristo and they have several types under this brand.
They also have very impressive gift ideas if you want to buy me something ;)