A Conversation With David Berkebile

The owner of Georgetown Tobacco reflects on 60 years in the cigar business

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David Berkebile, 85, has owned and operated Georgetown Tobacco for more than 60 years. The store, located only about two miles from the White House, is a landmark for cigar smokers in the nation's capital, one that sells a host of cigar brands both big and small. Berkebile recently had a conversation with CIGAR AFICIONADO executive editor David Savona about how the cigar business has changed over six decades.

SAVONA: You opened Georgetown in March, 1964. What inspired you to open a cigar store?

BERKEBILE: It was pretty simple. I had a couple of kids and I always wanted to have my own business. I was in the Navy [prior] and I was smoking a pipe, and I decided to open a store. By March, I opened one. I didn't have any money. My father didn't have much, but he lent me $5,000 on his house. I opened with $5,000. And $1,800 of it went to merchandise, and another $2,000 for fixtures and a little escrow. The first year, we did $24,000. And that was terrible, but we made it. I think I succeeded more by having some support. A guy named Bernie Martin, Capital Cigar, he was a distributor here. We liked each other and he saw faith in me. At one point he said anything you buy today you have a year to pay it.

SAVONA: What was the market like in 1960?

BERKEBILE: It was much more pipes. The whole store, all the cabinets on the left side, they were all pipes. I would buy a gross [144] of this shape, a gross of that shape. We’d buy 50 grosses a year of pipes. They were just huge.

SAVONA: So a person walking into your store in the 1960s would more likely be a pipe smoker than a cigar smoker?