Thursday, July 26, 2007
The Dominican Republic is a major producer of cigars... and for that matter a major exporter too with numerous brands having attained an excellent international standing. Being so close to Cuba perhaps that is no surprise because the local climate allows for equally abundant tobacco growth. Directly from Boca Chica we are pleased to be able to bring you cigar fans out there a little inside tip on the subject of Dominican cigars: you can now buy genuinely hand-made quality Dominican cigars in Boca Chica and even watch them being made right here in the center of town.
Basilio Pascual is the man behind this new venture when four months ago he moved his two-year old business from nearby Andres to the main Duarte Street in Boca Chica. He arrived bringing his 12 years of experience in the cigar industry to Boca Chica where he can be found at his extremely well stocked "Fabrica de Tobaco" (Cigar Factory) immediately opposite Banco Popular.
He concentrates exclusively on his self-created "Gran Selecto" brand which comes in five principal sizes: Churchill, Torpedo, Toro, Robusto and Corona. To bolster this and offer a complete range he also produces the smaller "Petit" format and the extra special "Premium". In the two years since its launch Gran Selecto has established itself nationally, in numerous export markets such as Switzerland and France and even as far afield as the Ivory Coast.
The tobacco leaves he uses are treated and classified according to national standards and come from Navarrete in the heart of Dominican tobacco country near Santiago. He claims his creation is a unique fabrication particularly because of the extremely low level of aroma pervasiveness when lit.
The Boca Chica tobacco "factory" is the only place of Gran Selecto production in the country and the entire production process can be observed by merely stepping through the main door. In addition to the work benches dozens of cigar boxes can be seen piled in different corners of the premises ready for direct sale to the public. The ultimate tip is that instead of buying a full box from Basilio you could, of course, try a "Robusto" for size at the Playa Vista bar and see if the refreshing sea breeze and marine view, together with a traditional hand-made cigar really suit your style!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 08:04 PM CST
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Undeniably it is small fare in comparison with a number of other travails that have coursed our years on the Boca Chica beach but nonetheless it is quite indicative of some of the exasperations of the local mindset that we have to deal with from time to time.
It goes without saying, of course, that it was yet another beautiful sunny day with the usual south east breeze slightly on the upside of breezy kindly removing the intensity from the summer heat. We had been ensconced in some Playa Vista office routines and emerged in the late afternoon to notice a layer of red dust. Where you may ask? Actually, everywhere, and it could be traced directly to next door from where was emanating a huge billowing cloud of the stuff drifting through Playa Vista settling on each and every available surface in its path.
A quick visual inspection revealed the very obvious reason: a considerable re-modeling job is underway at the ex-Terraza Cesar restaurant seemingly starting with a wall-to-wall terra cotta tile floor. As we peered over the wall we saw the floorlayer bent over his cutting machine that was spewing out more unwanted clouds of dust as he prepared another tile to be fitted in his mosaic floor creation. The usual panoply of indignant thoughts rushed to mind such as, how could they be so thoughtless? why didn’t they take protective measures or at the least alert us? etc., etc. But the dust already lay clinging to all those receptive surfaces. We appealed to them at least to know if they had finished and then we could begin the now necessary clean up. We started hauling all our white tables and chairs down to the sea to give them a good soaking. While doing this the next door work brigade claimed they had indeed finished. Good we thought and put all hands to work cleaning off most of the offending dirt as we closed for the evening.
Unfortunately, the next morning revealed that the "finished" of the previous day was merely the finish of that day because the electric tile cutter could be heard whirring into action and the same swirling clouds of fine red dust could be seen wafting over the wall again. Immediately we ran next door to remonstrate. "It is the wind you know, that is doing it," claimed the floorlayer with all too predictable entirely-missing-the-point defensiveness. Feeling almost embarrassed for this high level of complete non-comprehension we put our negative frustration to one side and constructively asked if they could at least move as far up wind within their own property then it would definitely reduce the dust spreading to our side. All right then they agreed, after some internal, but obviously reluctant, consultation. The amount of dust certainly diminished but almost immediately on cajoling them into this damage-limiting idea the wind chose to step up a gear and we were almost back to square one. We ran again next door to remonstrate further with the guy who appeared to be the paymaster this time rather than just the tile cutter and almost in unified accord they all nodded in agreement to our next suggestion, "Erect some boarding right next to the machine to trap the dust," we implored. We actually saw them skip off energetically to pull some boarding from the remodeling rubble for this precise purpose.
All then went strangely quiet for about half an hour. Quite abruptly thereafter, the man who we thought was the chief tile cutter stuck his head round the corner of the dust laden wall and yelled, "Heh, everything is all right now we have a real professional Italian on the job you won’t be bothered at all by dust from now on... not at all." He was virtually ecstatic in his proclamation. We heard the cutting machine whirr into action again and sure enough we couldn’t see a speck of dust, not anywhere. The original tile cutter, who seemed to be quite happy to have made himself redundant, was, after some 24 hours of pervasive red dust denial, now proven to be entirely correct!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 03:24 PM CST
