Welcome

First of all, thank you for being here. My name is Ellory Wells, and I'm the owner of CigarScore and the CigarScore Lounge.

Our goal with the CigarScore Lounge is to bring the premium cigar lounge experience to Midlothian, Texas. We have a passion for cigars and our community and can think of no better way to bring people together than with cigars.

But, before we can all sit down and have a cigar together, we need to build our cigar lounge.

The cigar industry is growing. Regarding the number of online searches, the popularity of phrases like, “cigar lounge,” “where to smoke,” and “cigars near me” has grown nearly five times since 2010 and almost tripled since 2015.

When I think about cigars, I think about community. I smoked my first cigar after coming in second place in the UIL One Act Play competition in high school. My first really good cigar was enjoyed while walking the Bear Trail one evening with a friend, during my freshman year at Baylor University. Since then, I’ve enjoyed premium, hand-rolled, all natural cigars with people from all over the world, from all backgrounds, life experiences, job titles, ages, and ethnicities.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve come to know, enjoy, and appreciate the community that has come together for one thing, cigars.

In the months leading up to today, I’ve worked on a grass-roots marketing campaign. I’ve emailed and spoken with dozens of people in Midlothian, Mansfield, Cedar Hill, Waxahachie, Venus, Grand Prairie and more, and they all want a premium cigar lounge in our growing town. Their excitement and encouragement are quite humbling and serve to motivate us to open the lounge and to start serving the local cigar community.

In short, our goal is to open a premium cigar lounge in Midlothian. Each year, thousands of cigar smokers are spending tens of thousands of dollars outside of our town. Residents of Midlothian are either buying their cigars online or driving sometimes an hour away to lounges in other cities. We'd like to create an amazing space that's not only attractive to the cigar community, but one where we keep our neighbors close to home and patronizing our local businesses.

In this business plan, our goal is to share some of our excitement, show you our passion for this town and the cigar culture, present some of the data we’ve collected, and to help you understand why bringing the CigarScore Lounge to Midlothian, Texas is a great thing for everyone involved.

About Our Company

My background is in technology. I’ve worked for some of the biggest names in the technology industry, and I leveraged those skills and the training I received to start my own business in 2014.

In the years that followed, I learned about small businesses and the struggles they often face. It was during this time that I realized how much need there was for someone like me who both understood the online world as well as understood the value of sitting across the table from someone and shaking their hand.

In 2018, I started my most recent business, CigarScore.com which is the largest directory of cigar lounges in the world. Over the past three years, I’ve learned about the cigar industry. I’ve made friends with manufactures and retailers all over the world. And now, I’d like to bring my knowledge, passion, and experience to Midlothian with the CigarScore Lounge.

My company’s legal name is DwizzyWid Media, LLC. DwizzyWid is the pronunciation of an acronym I learned while at IBM. It stands for Do What You Say You Will Do, and it’s the guiding principle of my businesses.

The CigarScore Lounge will sell premium cigars, cigar accessories, and related items to its customers. We will offer a humidor – a temperature and humidity-controlled environment where cigars are stored and maintained – as well as lounge areas where customers can enjoy their cigars while enjoying the company of others, watching the game on television, reading a good book, or getting some work done.

With a location in Midlothian, the CigarScore Lounge will also help bolster the local economy. According to our research, cigar smokers are often more affluent and enjoy fine dining, drinking wine, and prefer supporting local businesses.

Based on the feedback we’ve received via our website from people in Midlothian and the surrounding areas, over half of them have a cigar lounge they currently visit. Additionally, 23% of respondents said they spend “more than $1500 a year” on cigars. That is all revenue that could be going to support our local economy.

We’d love to be able to give the residents of Midlothian another reason to stay in town, have a bite to eat at a local restaurant, and then finish their evening with a premium cigar at our lounge.

And that's where you come in.

We are seeking proposals for the finish out of a cigar lounge measuring approximately 62' feet in length and 26' in width, with a ceiling height of approximately 10-12 feet. The lounge will be located inside a shell building, on an end cap. You will find photos of the space below, but the dimensions of our space have changed slightly since they were taken.

The 1595 sq. ft. space will be used for smoking cigars and hosting small events, plus we'd like to eventually have a bar for serving beer, wine, and fine spirits. We also would like to include a 3rd door on the North side of the building to allow access to a future outdoor area.

More details are below.

Your Proposal Should Include:

Design: 

Please provide a design that maximizes the use of the available space and creates a comfortable, inviting environment for cigar aficionados. The design should include the layout, materials to be used, and any special features, such as a ventilation system.

In the diagrams below, we've provided our thoughts on a layout. However, if you have a variation or improvement on those ideas, we would love to hear them.

Construction:

The construction should comply with all local building codes and regulations. The construction process should be detailed, outlining the timeline, and the required resources, including labor, equipment, and materials.

Smoke: We need to ensure no smoke seeps through the shared wall between us an our neighbor. Please outline your thoughts on how you will handle that.

Humidor: For the humidor, the internal humidity will be 70%, so please plan for that. Also, we would like the bottom 4 ft. of the humidor to be wood (or something similar) with the top made of glass so you can see inside. 

Bar: Additionally, please provide information about how you could build a bar space, approximately 15 feet long. Please give us an idea of the cost of doing it with the initial finish out vs coming back and building the bar at a later date.

Air Conditioning: Cigars need to be kept at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. We will need to be able to control the temperature inside the humidor separately from the rest of the lounge. Please take that into account.

Finally, regarding the layout, if you feel you have a more optimal solution or a better design than we we've outlines, we're open to suggestions if you feel like you have expertise in this area.

Budget:

A detailed budget should be provided, including all costs related to design, construction, and finishing of the space. Additional information about expected permits and/or fees would be helpful.

Experience:

Please provide information on past projects, including similar cigar lounges and their experience in the industry. Also, we will only work with contractors who have the proper licenses and insurance.

Additionally, an local contacts or experience working within the city of Midlothian would be beneficial.

Expected Timeline:

Please provide an estimated timeline for project completion, including steps and major milestones along the way. Also, please include any information about a start date and expected delays.

Key Points:

While we have outlined a possible layout in the "Lounge Layout" section below, we are somewhat flexible on where things are located. If, after reviewing our designs and the site photos below, you feel like you have a better solution, we'd be open to seeing it. That said, there are a few key points we require:

Humidor: The humidor is where all of the cigars and inventory are kept. This space must be kept at 70 degrees Fahrenheit and 70% relative humidity, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 

Bathrooms: We'll need 2 bathrooms. They only have to be large enough to be code complaint.

Office: The office doesn't need to be huge, but we do need one. Preferably, the office would have glass walls or glass on the top half, so we can see the sales floor from inside.

Portability: We might not stay at this location forever. Having the ability to take down or disassemble the bar or humidor would be beneficial.

Additional Information:

Proposals should be submitted via email to ellory@cigarscore.com no later than Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 5 pm. The selected contractor will be notified no later than April 3, 2023. 

Finally, if you would allow our team to complete some of the work to offset some costs, please indicate where that would be possible.

Questions can be asked in the area at the bottom of the page and will be answered publicly for openness and fairness.

Thank you for your interest in helping us bring the premium cigar lounge experience to Midlothian. We look forward to reviewing your proposal.

Lounge Layout

Below are some design schematics that we've come up with ourselves. Measurements are approximate. For reference, North is down and South is up in these diagrams. The dotted lines on the left and bottom of the diagrams are where there are already windows.

Regarding the layout, if you feel you can make improvements by relocating an item or structure, please let us know.

Click on each image to open a larger version. 

Site Photos

Decor & Design

To give you an idea of what we have planned for the interior, you'll find a concept image below.

We want dark brown and wood colors. The blue is "Old Navy 2063-10" from Benjamin Moore; we also like "Hale Navy HC-154". The lockers are either "espresso" or "ebony," but they are not black. We would like to light the space with Edison Bulbs, and feature bronzes and other metal colors/textures throughout the space.

For the floor, we would like stained concrete in either bronze or brown.

Click on each image to open a larger version. 

Public Comments

If you have questions or comments about the RFP, please ask them here. We will answer publicly to create a process that is as fair as possible.