From restaurants to casinos, downtown Detroit offers plenty of entertainment options. But for a long time, the city lacked an upscale cigar bar where some of the its 160,000 or so workers could relax at the end of the day.

Hand-rolled cigars are made on-site at La Casa De La Habana, 1502 Randolph Street in downtown Detroit across from the Detroit Athletic Club.

The new La Casa De La Habana lounge changed all that this month when it opened its doors for the first time in historic Harmony Park.
The lounge held two grand opening events this past weekend to celebrate the opening of its fourth location, showcasing its amenities including its first floor walk-in humidors lined with Spanish cedar and fine cigars from places like Honduras, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic among others; as well as its martini bar stocked with various types of drinks and leather chairs and couches for patrons to unwind on.

The second floor VIP area was also packed on Friday as invitees sampled fine wines, champagne, caviar, and a complimentary Arabic food buffet.

La Casa De La Habana owner Ismail Houmani said he chose the Harmony Park location near the Detroit Opera House and the Detroit Athletic Club because of the area’s safeness and cultural appeal. His cigar bar fits right in and has already begun to draw a clientele that includes local politicians and well-known athletes from the Detroit Pistons and Lions among others.

“We get a lot of professional people in here, businessmen, attorneys,” said Houmani. “They wanted a nice, quiet place to come and enjoy a cigar and relax and we provide that.”

Live music is also a big part of the La Casa De La Habana scene as bands play four times a week on the first floor near the martini bar, and special events are also planned for the future.

But the biggest appeal of the lounge is the vast selection of cigars, many of which are hand-rolled on site and/or specially selected from around the world. A wide variety of cigar accessories are also available at the on-site store.

La Casa De La Habana owner Ismail Houmani (left) poses with his wife Hanan.

Houmani said Detroit once had a booming cigar factory business in the late 1800s, and that tradition is captured with the lounge’s own homemade brand, which Director of Marketing Maria Petrenko said makes La Casa De La Habana the only cigar manufacturer in Detroit.
Customers can also join the “La Casa” club, giving them access to the VIP area with fine coffees and teas as well as wi-fi access and their own locker/humidor, where cigars can be stored at specific temperatures and humidity levels to ensure freshness.

Le Casa De La Habana also features locations in Plymouth, Ann Arbor, and Toledo, Ohio, and more information about the lounges can be found on the company’s Web site //www.lacasadelahabana.com.

Hours of operation for the cigar store are from 10 a.m.-11 p.m. each day except on Sunday, when closing time is 6 p.m. The lounge and bar are open from early afternoon until 2 a.m. every day except Sunday, which usually brings an earlier closing time.