Decadence Is Alive, Happily, In New London

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Decadence Is Alive, Happily, In New London

By STEVEN SLOSBERG
Day Staff Columnist
Published on 8/2/2005

Living large on a deck overlooking the harbor in New London on a Wednesday evening in late July, the air fragrant with the smoke of superior cigars and the bouquet of single malts, and skewers of succulent Cuban-style pork, and thinking if I praise Charlotte Hennegan one more time, being stamped as owned-and-operated will be indelible.

So let me toast, instead, Fred Argilagos, Hennegan's long-time partner, both business and domestic, who has engineered the return of monthly cigar and spirits nights with, well, Hennegan's signature flourish and fine taste.

What transpires on occasional Wednesday evenings on the back deck of Thames River Wine & Spirits on Bank Street, a few blocks away from Hennegan's venerable Thames River Greenery on State Street, is a throwback to the headier days of the 1980s and early '90s. This was money-to-burn era of the fabulously decadent cigar dinners, during which well-ventilated establishments would serve up, for maybe $80 to $125, a full-course evening of gourmet food, cigars, wines and whiskies. The protocol was generally a different cigar and wine with each course, and there were typically four to five courses.

Argilagos, in concert with his wine shop manager, Jim Morrison, has been hosting Friday wine tastings, free to the public, in the granite catacomb wine cellar since the shop opened more than a year ago. Lately, with chef Anne Haviland, once of Anne's Bistro in Old Lyme, he's presented weekly limited-seating, themed-cuisine, wine dinners for $50. In June, Argilagos, a professed aficionado of the famed Connecticut broadleaf wrapper, welcomed a gathering to the first cigar and spirits night. For $25, people were treated to four different single malts, with abundant snifter refills, a Davidoff cigar and plates of cheese and fruits and elegant sandwiches.

For those who like their single malts aged and pronounceable, the first array included Cragganmore 12-year-old; Oban 14-year-old; the regal Lagavulin 16-year-old and Dalmore Cigar Malt.

The second such evening, the one in July, featured the best domestic cigar in the land, one equal to most any upscale hand-rolled from the Dominican and Honduras and smoother than many Cubans. They are called Moore & Bode, made by an Irish woman, Sharon Moore, and her Cuban-Dutch husband, Robert Bode, in Miami's Little Havana. The whisky was on the same par: Glenmorangie 12-year-old, and, at around $150 a bottle, 1964 Scott's Selection North of Scotland, a bracing, full-bodied spanking.

Again, the hosts were not shy about refills, and served up a couple of Spanish wines at the finish. Beside plates of cheese, bread and fruits, there were skewers of seasoned pork. The price this night was $35, and all those on the back deck, perhaps 20 people, each received three Moore & Bode cigars.

Among those savoring the evening was Kyrena Robinson, who ran Kyrena's Restaurante in Norwich several years ago and lately works in her family's tack shop, the Paddock, on Rose Hill in Ledyard. She prefers petit cigars, but took her leisurely time on this Wednesday evening to enjoy one of the Moore & Bode coronas. Her husband, Gary Robinson, smoked beside her.

The next cigar night, later in August, will feature Arturo Fuente cigars and world-class rums, including the enviable 15-year-old Barbancourt from Haiti.

Charlotte Hennegan and Fred Argilagos are doing it downtown, again, and I'm saying it again. They are the brand for New London to live and prosper by.

This is the opinion of Steven Slosberg.


© The Day Publishing Co., 2005
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