Speaker 1: 1:26

I'm gonna have a smokey in here. It is smoky. My voice is smoky today, I know, danielle, have you ever smoked a cigar before?

Speaker 2: 1:33

I have not ever smoked a cigar before. I've been around cigars but personally have not smoked them. I grew up with a father who smoked cigarettes, but I just haven't ever been around that.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Cigars are a lot different.

Speaker 2: 1:47

Yes, you don't inhale them you just kind of it's a whole flavor.

Speaker 1: 1:53

It's about savoring the moment. You can usually like pair it with a drink or something, and the only reason that I've started smoking them is because my husband's into them now and so he's all into making like craft cocktails and has taught me all the different types of tobacco, leaves and everything. But I won't go into that because our guest today-.

Speaker 2: 2:12

First shout out to Bougie Elliott, though I'm sorry we got it Shout out to Elliott.

Speaker 1: 2:16

He is the one who introduced me to our guest today. We've got Bobby and Janna in the studio today and they are the owners of Cigar District. Welcome, welcome.

Speaker 2: 2:26

Thank you, nice to be here, nice to meet you.

Speaker 1: 2:29

So when I first met them it was last summer at a party, and I remember being kind of shocked because I was asking you know how they got into this business? And Janna had told me that she actually wanted to open up a kitchen supply business and I was like how do you go from that to cigar? So tell me, like tell the story, because I want our listeners to know.

Speaker 2: 2:49

I want to hear too.

Speaker 3: 2:50

So well. In 2007, I started working for the Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and that was about the just two years after Crystal Bridges had been announced, and you could just feel the vibrancy and the changes that were coming, especially to the downtown area. And then my daughter and I decided we wanted to maybe venture into retail, and we both liked to cook, and so a kitchen store was our idea, and so we had done some due diligence about it, looked at some different places. We have a friend in Russellville who has a kitchen store. I had talked to her about it, talked to some of her suppliers, and we were at the point of getting ready to rent a building, a space downtown, and my daughter said I just don't think I can do it right now. Mom, her children were two and one three and one.

Speaker 1: 3:49

She was busy.

Speaker 3: 3:51

So she said I just don't think I can do it right now. And I said that's fine, you know, we'll just, we'll just not do it. So after that I decided that it was time for Bobby and I to simplify our lives and so we put our house on the market. We lived over here in Hidden Springs. We put our house on the market and eventually did sell it and bought a little 1970s ranch house down near Orchard's Park and we're remodeling it. You know, and I had all these grand plans of we were going to, you know, the house. We would sell the house, we would not have a mortgage, we would just simplify our lives. And I was still working part time for the convention and visitors bureau.

Speaker 3: 4:35

And all during this house hunting I had been after Bobby to buy a house in downtown and he's like I don't like old houses. I'm like, okay, but you can't look at what it is, you have to think about what it could be. Right, you know, you have to look at what was happening, happening around and what could be. Don't think about the old house, think about where it is and that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3: 4:59

We eventually got into the older house smaller older house and about the time we moved, bobby said Frank, romeo wants to sell the cigar shop and I said good for Frank. And Bobby said well, I think we should buy it. And I looked at him and I said are you nuts? I don't even like for you to smoke cigars, I would. I want to spend my days in a cigar shop. He said no, I really think we ought to just explore the idea. So I went first time ever to the Romeo's where he spent most of his afternoons. If I didn't know where he was, all I had to do was drive by Romeo's and there was his car.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Is that what it used to be called?

Speaker 2: 5:44

That was that's what it was called.

Speaker 3: 5:46

That's what it was called. So I went and came home and cried because it was smelly, it was dirty, it was dark, it just wasn't a place that Bobby is shaking his head like that was a good thing. It just wasn't a place that I would want to spend my time. And I looked at him and I said you're kind of persnickety, why do you like this place?

Speaker 2: 6:07

And then he flipped the script on you and he said, the potential it's the people.

Speaker 3: 6:13

And then he said you have to think about what it could be.

Speaker 2: 6:18

Oh, nice job, Bobby. Oh, this is a great full circle story. I am loving it.

Speaker 3: 6:26

It was full circle. So we bought the assets of Romeo's cigar shop. We renamed it the cigar district, we put in some new ventilation. We didn't rename it until we moved. That's right. We didn't rename it. I'm getting ahead of myself. We remained Romeo's cigar shop, Didn't rename it, Painted, cleaned up, took down all the curtains, put in some new ventilation, built a nice deck on the back. But we were in a lease space. It was a leased facility. We tried to talk to the guy that owned it about us buying it. We never could come to an agreement on the terms. Thank goodness, because we really wanted to be in the downtown area, and so I haunted the downtown area. I knew where moment this was before momentary open, but I knew where it was going to be and found this lot for sale by owner and the guy you know. I just went up to the door and said I'd like to talk to you about buying your property and he was just ecstatic that we weren't going to build condos or anything on it.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:32

We were going to build a business, and so we bought it in 2018 and in 2019. We in April almost five years we're about to celebrate our fifth anniversary. That's so exciting.

Speaker 1: 7:44

We opened the cigar district. I love the name, by the way, and the location, the building, but you've done a nice job. I love when Elliot takes me there because it really is like a nice place. You can be indoor, outdoor there's conference room and you can hang out, like sometimes we just go hang out on the patio, and so I love the concept.

Speaker 5: 8:03

Brandy is on point. The name is actually very specific to Bentonville because if you look at the city master plan, there's a certain portion of downtown that's called the arts district you see signs and references to it and then a bit to the east it's called market district. Ok, and our property sat right in between. Oh I love it District.

Speaker 1: 8:31

So you're a district too.

Speaker 5: 8:32

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:33

I know, when I first heard the name I thought it was actually. I didn't know it was one business, I thought it was a whole like street, but it, but your building is multiple stories, so it is like a corner district, so OK, so let's rewind, because we know about how you opened it. How did you guys come to Northwest Arkansas? Are you from here?

Speaker 3: 8:52

No, we both grew up in Central Arkansas, in Dardanelle, and we had lived mainly in Little Rock and in Russellville for a while. We had been up here in 92 in Springdale for a couple of years and then had moved back to Central Arkansas. Bobby worked in the tech industry and it became his account, became Walmart. We're better to service Walmart than up here.

Speaker 3: 9:15

So yeah. So in 2001, we moved to back up here. We looked over the whole Northwest Arkansas area. You know we were considering any of the four major towns and I liked Bentonville because at the time it was the smallest. It had the smallest school district. I know it's unbelievable, but in 2001,.

Speaker 2: 9:39

It was the smallest school district.

Speaker 3: 9:41

It just had the one high school and Springdale and Rogers both had two high schools at that point and we just decided to that Bentonville was where we wanted to be Great.

Speaker 5: 9:52

We will do it. I'm glad you're here. A newly constructed house right over here on Line Barker.

Speaker 1: 9:58

Oh, really, just a couple of blocks from where we're sitting right now. No, yes, yes, wow. How did you guys meet? Did you go to high school together?

Speaker 5: 10:05

So we did attend the same high school, ok.

Speaker 2: 10:09

I have a feeling this is going to be a juicy story, one of those answers were but dot dot dot OK.

Speaker 5: 10:15

So we traveled in very different circles.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Oh, which circles you don't have to share.

Speaker 5: 10:21

Yeah, they need to share, we need to know, this Johnna in the right circles, oh good Bobby in the wrong circles.

Speaker 1: 10:27

Oh, how did I know?

Speaker 3: 10:29

So if you'd have told me I was going to marry Bobby Duncan, I'd have said yeah, when pigs fly, oh.

Speaker 5: 10:36

It's very true.

Speaker 3: 10:38

So did you tell? I told we had this hangout spot in Darden Hill called the Taco Hut and this is, you know, pre-cell phones when kids still drove up and down the streets at night. So we had the Taco Hut and my mom took my sister and I to drop us at the Taco Hut to meet up with our friends. And she said who's that boy with the pretty long blonde hair, long?

Speaker 1: 11:03

blonde hair.

Speaker 3: 11:04

Bobby had perfect fairer hair, which every girl in 1978 wanted. Yeah, was perfect fairer hair.

Speaker 2: 11:12

And Bobby had it. Bobby, nice, I had that going for me.

Speaker 3: 11:18

So my mom says who's that cute boy with the long blonde hair? And my sister and I said oh mom, that's Bobby Duncan. He's so wild. So when I fast forward college and I tell my mom I'm dating Bobby Duncan, and she says is that the same Bobby Duncan that you said was wild in high school? And I said yes, but he's changed.

Speaker 1: 11:41

So Nice For the woman that he wanted to be with right.

Speaker 3: 11:46

No, he changed before I got him. Oh, okay.

Speaker 1: 11:49

So after high school, calm down a little bit. Me too, I was a little wild in high school.

Speaker 5: 11:53

Went into the military.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Oh.

Speaker 5: 11:56

And that was part of facilitating the change. Came to faith during that period of time and so a lot of good changes. But Janna was good friends and roommates in college with my cousin, so it was really my cousin who brought us together.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Oh nice. What branch did you serve in?

Speaker 5: 12:18

I served in the Navy. Ok, and the nuance is I was a hospital corpsman attached to the Marine Corps, so I served my entire three active, four active reserves, with the Marines in support of them.

Speaker 1: 12:33

So wow, Thank you for your service.

Speaker 5: 12:35

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 12:35

I love y'all's Meat Cute, or is that's what Danielle called it? It's called a Meat Cute. Absolutely. That's a good one, because even though you didn't date in high school, would you still say high school sweethearts? I don't know.

Speaker 3: 12:47

College sweethearts I would say College sweethearts, you started dating in college.

Speaker 1: 12:51

Okay, college sweethearts.

Speaker 5: 12:52

Yeah, definitely not. High school sweethearts. I was like no, literally for such a small town, the distance was vast.

Speaker 2: 13:02

Yeah, okay, I need to know when you cut your hair. Did you still have the long hair in college? Well, I guess you probably had to cut it for the military.

Speaker 1: 13:10

In the military, in the military, okay, and it never grew back since.

Speaker 2: 13:13

My son has long hair, so Never never very long since.

Speaker 5: 13:17

Well, I don't know if you know this about my husband.

Speaker 1: 13:19

But when I met him he also had not long long hair like my long, but he had like probably he could do a ponytail. And my mom I don't know she wasn't a real big fan of that, because when I met him he wore tie-dye shirts. He had long hair. I don't know when he probably when he graduated college he shaped up a little bit, but anyway. So I think that's funny. Yeah, your son does have long hair. I feel like it's very trendy now.

Speaker 2: 13:45

It is very trendy.

Speaker 1: 13:46

A lot of my friends, son he has gorgeous hair.

Speaker 2: 13:48

It's like long beautiful. He has like this curl to it. It's I don't know, but it's definitely a point of contention sometimes.

Speaker 5: 13:56

We have a couple of grandsons and they're involved in various athletics and like the older one, who's 12. There are players on his team that I mean. It's like girl length long hair but beautiful.

Speaker 1: 14:09

Yeah, as long as it's taken care of right Care of no dangles. We're trying to do that for my daughter, so we also wanted to know. So you guys started this business together and I know you're improving it and building it every year. How do you two stay connected as a couple running a business together?

Speaker 3: 14:27

Well, we've always had a routine of going out for breakfast on Saturday mornings. We started that when our kids were little and they would go with us on Saturday mornings, but then, as they got into the preteen teenager years when they didn't want to get up on Saturday mornings, we would leave them and go do breakfast on our own.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Oh, where do you guys like to go? Do you have like? Do you go to the same spot or do you mix it up?

Speaker 3: 14:50

No, we mix it up. We have five or six places that we rotate through. So that's one way and that's a no, that's a no business time. I sometimes have to get cranky about it because Bobby would talk cigars all the time, yeah, and I have to say Saturday morning no business. So that's one way I would say our shared Christian faith. That is one way that we stay close. We attend church together. We have grandchildren. Our children and grandchildren are close. We're still a fairly close family. We're always attending something that one of the grandsons is doing, and then occasionally I will go smoke a cigar on the lounge on the roof.

Speaker 3: 15:32

You know, never thought I'd do that, but I've come to appreciate it and to have a glass of bourbon, and so we'll just sit and she's my kind of lady Talk. Yeah, you know, share what's going on. That's great, I love it, but I think it comes down to we have to make, we make time.

Speaker 5: 15:50

Well, and it's a great question because it's anyone who's doing what we're doing should not take that for granted. So it's really a thoughtful question. It's a choice. You have to make that a priority. You're not going to do this if you're not of a certain personality, right, so you're kind of naturally driven and so it can take over your life and it can be very disruptive in your marriage. If you're not being thoughtful and choiceful about things and keeping things in balance. It's not like oh, I'm in balance now, Like switch, switch, it's ongoing.

Speaker 1: 16:31

So I love that. See, I like that you set the boundary of no business talk, because Ellie and I have discussed in the future if we would start a business or run a business together and then I think you would have to create those boundaries because it would start to bleed over into your private life and then even running your business out of your home you're still. You had to find those moments to turn that off. So I love that you guys and you seem to do it really well. So thank you for sharing that. And we also want to hear about the leap of faith that you took, because I know a lot of our guests have. Actually they're starting a business on the side or they're working their day job and they're really trying to hustle to make their own business, to be an entrepreneur. And I know that's what makes a town so great is people doing what they're passionate about and taking that leap of faith. But it's also really hard to this is a kind of a scary thing to do. So tell us about your journey doing that.

Speaker 5: 17:22

Yes, I think that there's a saying that you will occasionally hear older people say getting old is not for sissies, starting a business is not for sissies, and for us it was really what drove. It was the opportunity to be part of all the great things that are going on specifically in Bentonville, but more broadly in Northwest Arkansas. And, as John mentioned before, I wasn't an aficionado by any means of cigars. I enjoyed cigars, but it was mostly like this connection that you have with other people. So we're the Davidoff appointed merchant for Northwest Arkansas, and their marketing slogan is Time, beautifully Filled and the idea is.

Speaker 5: 18:13

It's really that time of connection and community and relationships. That's the real call it sticky part of the business. And so the opportunity to be part of this vibrant community that we lived in and then to do something that was really additive to everything else that was going on the food scene, the entertainment scene, the other types of retail businesses the fact that the county was wet previously and now was dry previously and is now wet opened up a whole new area of opportunity to complement it. So the vision was we're going to do something that is synergistic with all these other things that are going on and we're going to do it in a way that we're going to appeal to people who are truly passionate about cigars. It's not going to be a bar, while we have a private space for members who want to enjoy spirits or beer or wine on a BYOB basis. But we don't want to be a bar. We wanted it to be a place for community with people with a shared passion around cigars.

Speaker 1: 19:34

I really think that it is. Danielle and I were talking off air about how we feel that your business. It really creates a cultured aspect and it's just, it's another feather in the hat of what Bittenville, what we have. We have an elevated food scene and until you created your business, I feel like it really needed that part where people can go outside of a bar and connect, because that's hard when you get older, to make friends and have community. And my husband has found community there and he does like a Bible study there. He loves it and he told me that I asked him once. I said why do you like smoking cigar so much?

Speaker 1: 20:14

Now I was trying to understand it and he said it helps me to be present and he gets really excited when I want to come visit with him because literally it's no one sits separately like you walk up. It's a little intimidating because I don't. I didn't know how to smoke cigars at first. Everyone just welcomes you into the circle, pours you a drink. No one has a phone out, everyone's just talking and I found it interesting. I met some of the female members there. Everyone's got something really cool to add and it does feel like a community. But I will say it was intimidated when I was first smoking a cigar because I knew I was doing it wrong and Ellie was always like correcting me. So it took me some time to like feel confident in that.

Speaker 2: 21:23

But I did want to show me. Oh yeah, I'm going to show me how to smoke a cigar.

Speaker 1: 21:27

But we have to ask you what you recommend, so you'll have to recommend some. Your favorite cigar, bobby, and then Johnna. You should recommend for the ladies, because we want to hear what both of you think Like, and maybe for our listeners that haven't smoked one, what you would recommend they start with and then maybe like your favorite.

Speaker 5: 21:44

Right, right. Well, it's a great question. And you know we have 1400 skews, so lots to choose from at the cigar district, and yet Davidoff is sort of the preeminent brand.

Speaker 1: 21:58

That's my favorite, by the way.

Speaker 5: 22:00

In the industry and you know, in their line there's a particular cigar called Yamasa. Its leaf and its production is from a certain region of the Dominican Republic and it just has the perfect, you know, balance between sweetness and spice. That's my particular favorite and Johnna can manage in hers, and I think part of her answer will be an answer to your other question about what would be a question for people who are not accustomed to it.

Speaker 3: 22:32

So I happened to be working the sales last night while the Bible study was going on and I had a gentleman come in who's here from Massachusetts to ride bikes and he said you know, I don't know, I don't smoke a lot, what would you? But I just wanted one for this trip. And so I was able to tell him, you know, show him. Well, this is what I don't smoke a lot either, and these are the ones I like and you know. So he bought a couple of the ones that I recommended I.

Speaker 3: 22:59

I buy a far and away preferred Dominican tobacco. It's not as peppery as Nicaraguan most Nicaraguan and so I tend toward the white label to have it offline that's my favorite too Is good If I'm not wanting to spend that much on a cigar, because we do, we do buy our cigars. So if I'm not wanting to spend that much, I will go with the sober Mesa by Dunbarton Tobacco. I also like an Ashton aged Maduro by the Ashton company and I just tend toward Connecticut's Connecticut rappers mostly and Dominican tobacco. So when, as Bobby says, that's my wheelhouse that if a cigar has those two components in it, I'm probably going to like it, connecticut is the only one of the few maybe. There's two states in the U? S that raise tobacco for cigars. Connecticut's one of them. That's where most of the broadleaf cigar tobacco broadleaf is used for the rapper and that's where a lot of the tobacco used to be grown is becoming more and more grown in Ecuador, but it's still called Connecticut shade so, but it is grown in it's Ecuadorian Connecticut now.

Speaker 2: 24:15

That's great.

Speaker 3: 24:17

So, but there is still some tobacco grown in the U? S, but at this point our industry at this point.

Speaker 5: 24:23

Connecticut is sort of a generic term for the lighter colored wrapper. Every cigar has three components the wrapper, which is what we see, and of course we buy with our eyes right.

Speaker 1: 24:36

Oh yeah.

Speaker 5: 24:37

And then inside the wrapper is the binder and inside the binder is the filler. Those are the any cigar. Those are the three components, but the Connecticut, as John was saying, are the lighter colors. So, if you're, if a listener came into our shop and they walked around, they'd see a lot of light colored cigars, whereas a darker wrapper is called a Maduro right. Okay, that's the difference.

Speaker 1: 25:02

I'm learning here because I did not know what you were talking about. I should have explained. And when. Well, when I go in and purchase, I usually go off price point, maybe brand familiarity. And if it's bolder, if it's light, I like those little short blonde Davidoffs. Now they are on the pricier side, but just because I feel like they're very, they don't. They're not as strong.

Speaker 3: 25:23

They don't hit you.

Speaker 1: 25:24

Yes, that's a great way to put it. They don't hit you, they're enjoyable. Yes.

Speaker 3: 25:28

Yes.

Speaker 5: 25:28

Always consistent. Always consistent I love it.

Speaker 2: 25:32

Yeah, I love sitting right here. I'm just sitting here listening to you talk, donna, I'm sorry John. I love sitting here listening to John and talking about all these different types of cigars and what somebody should look for and choose, and I'm thinking through your journey and I'm actually thinking of I think it's a meme or it's part of an interview with Paul Rudd, who it's that conversation where he's like who would have thought? Who would have thought Not me, not me.

Speaker 2: 26:00

And I just think about your story Like I can't wait for our listeners to hear this and I can't wait to share your story about this journey of wanting to start a kitchen supply store, not wanting to have a cigar shop, not wanting to go in there, not liking the smell of it. You know to the point of where you are an expert. You're a local expert.

Speaker 2: 26:21

She's an expert on cigars and I'm sure you might not look at yourself that way or think of yourself in that way, but from where I'm sitting, you are an expert and I'm so tickled through this whole story of just that journey, and she's apparently an amazing cook.

Speaker 1: 26:37

That's what I've heard.

Speaker 2: 26:38

I love it.

Speaker 1: 26:39

It's very true.

Speaker 3: 26:40

So when we started this I knew I had to find something that I liked about it. Right, because when we started I didn't smoke cigars. I didn't still didn't like the idea of even smoking a cigar. But I got interested in the families who grow and make, who grow tobacco and make cigars. It is still still very much a family oriented business. Oh, I didn't really know, from seed to our shop, from seed to shop. Now there are bigger companies like Davidoff, but there are a lot of small cigar companies who are still very much family oriented. I grew up on a farm, a family farm, so it really appealed to me Love it, that part of the industry, that it was very much family oriented. We visited the Dominican Republic a couple of years ago and got to visit some of the farms and the factories.

Speaker 2: 27:39

Wow, that was my next question I was going to ask you we're talking three and four generations of people who have been in this industry.

Speaker 3: 27:47

One of our best friends in the industry is Manuel Casada. His daughter, raquel, is now taking over the industry. She's a fifth generation tobacco grower. Amazing, that's incredible. I love the stories like that. We're spotlighting the Placencia family right now. They're another one. They've grown tobacco for years. Hundreds of you know over a hundred years They've been in the tobacco growing industry and it's just a fascinating. So many of them have fascinating stories.

Speaker 2: 28:21

That is so incredible and I really appreciate you sharing that. I do want to say that if you ever want a photographer or videographer to go with you to the Dominican Republic, Daniel is volunteer, she's volunteering. I will totally Well, actually, I mean, I'm literally not just saying this the Dominican Republic is at the top of my bucket list of places to visit.

Speaker 2: 28:40

I took a Latin American class in college and I really that was one of my favorite countries to learn about and to learn about the Maribel sisters and their story during the Jajillo regime and overthrowing, just you know, a corrupt government, and so I'm like, okay, can I, can I? I want to go, I want to go. I mean, I want to learn about more tobacco, but I also love that you're sharing about this. I think growing for me, growing up with a dad who was a smoker, and when my dad passed away, part of he had cancer and then when he was doing treatment for cancer and he had emphysema in his body, couldn't fight it off. So I have a very like negative viewpoint on tobacco and on cigarettes and like cigars are different.

Speaker 3: 29:32

They're a totally natural product. There's nothing in a cigar but tobacco and water.

Speaker 3: 29:38

That's it, and early on early on I saw a list of what is added to a cigarette and it was appalling. It was like a page full of chemicals added to the tobacco and when you smoke a cigar you don't inhale. Now I know that's still not. You can still. You still get nicotine, you still get tar, you still get all those things that are naturally in tobacco, but you don't inhale. And most cigar smokers, I would say, aren't? They're not running out at break time to take a puff.

Speaker 1: 30:14

No more like a pastime.

Speaker 3: 30:16

It's a pastime. It's a way to relax.

Speaker 5: 30:19

Yes, Plus, if you come into our shop and our customer lounge in the morning between nine and eight, you'll see primarily men in their 70s, in their 80s. The health impact well, it exists if you factor into it the social community aspect, the emotional benefit aspect. According to studies that have been done by the FDA, it's a neutral. We do not carry vape, we do not carry snuff, we do not carry cigarettes.

Speaker 5: 30:55

We do not carry those products because you know we share with you that concern, that rejection of those habits, because of the consequences they take hold of people's lives and it destroys lives. This is not what cigars are.

Speaker 1: 31:14

Oh no, I've actually seen tremendous benefit because my husband was a former smoker and he was able to. Then he was dipping. I didn't like that. Then he found cigars and he's actually got himself to a place where he didn't have to take those breaks like you were saying. It has benefited our life so much because he gets to sit down and have camaraderie with his friends. I'm with you. I'm glad you don't sell cigarettes. I love cigar and we enjoy it together. I love that you guys bring the communities together. I'm like you, john, I have one every now and again just for fun. Tell us what we've kind of gone through your business. Tell us what you like most about Northwest Arkansas, about the area.

Speaker 5: 31:55

There's so many things, it's hard to narrow it down. First of all, it's an amazingly beautiful place. Everybody who's heard of Bentonville recently knows about mountain bike trails, but there's so many other Beaver Lake, hobbs Park there are just so many options and opportunities for people who like the outdoors and enjoy that aspect. The second thing I would say is just it's such a vibrant, such vitality you would not people come in to visit or move in from outside and stuff. That's one of the things that often they comment on to us and at this point, living here since 2001, we're semi-OGs, right.

Speaker 1: 32:40

Yeah, I know you are Anything over five years right.

Speaker 5: 32:43

And then the last thing is just the fact that there's so many things to do and to enjoy here that you wouldn't think an area of this size, the amenities, you know, as John said, we live literally our property back up to Orchard Park, yeah, so, which means we're right there at the Amazium, which means we're right there at Crystal Bridges, which means that we have access and the opportunity to take advantage of all those amenities on foot. We can walk to Crystal Bridges in five minutes.

Speaker 1: 33:17

That's amazing. I wish I lived that close.

Speaker 3: 33:20

I would say that we are trying to blend old and new. We're trying to keep the small town feel, the small town aspect, but with a vibrant community, a vibrancy that a lot of small towns no longer have. True, so I appreciate that part of it. I'm a small town girl, I'm a country girl, as I tell them if I go missing, you'll find me in Yal County.

Speaker 5: 33:50

Well, by the way, danielle, as you know, one of the amenities of our shop is we have a rooftop patio, and one of the most delightful things that happens on a beautiful day like today that we're enjoying is sitting out there and watching planes come and go from Thadenfield yeah, Just a couple miles away, right and literally. You never know what you will see, what type of aircraft.

Speaker 1: 34:16

Yeah.

Speaker 5: 34:16

And we're both come from very modest means, but often it might be a jet, it might be an antique, especially aircraft and stuff. But it's like wonder who that is.

Speaker 1: 34:29

Yeah right, that's fun. Oh I love. I'm going to have to get a sitter and we have to go in the patio. I need to get up there.

Speaker 2: 34:35

I feel like I'm going to get over there as soon as possible.

Speaker 1: 34:38

Yeah, I'm only there at nighttime, so we'll have to bring you. It's fun. Well, thank you for coming. Do you want to share with our listeners how they can find you?

Speaker 5: 34:44

online, and so social media at the Cigar District on Instagram and Facebook, and then our website is thecigardistrictcom.

Speaker 1: 34:55

Awesome, we'll go check them out. You'll probably see me. You'll definitely see Elliot there. We love to go there, so thank you for coming in. We really enjoyed having you.

Speaker 3: 35:02

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1: 35:04

Thanks, hey. Thanks so much for listening today. If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing to the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can also follow us on Instagram at peopleofnwa. Thanks so much.

Speaker 4: 35:14

People of Northwest Arkansas with the two Danielle's produced by me. Rock short of Civil Republic Productions. Please rate, review and like us on any podcast platform where you listen. For more information about today's guests and the show, please check the show notes. Thanks for listening.