Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe CHICAGO, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- An upscale lounge offering smokers freshly made cigarettes with imported tobacco along with cocktails and a library launches this week in Chicago. Owned the by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the Marshall McGearty Tobacco Artisans operation has been operating as a tobacco retailer Dec. 7. Since then, the lounge has obtained a liquor license and serves beer, wine and spirits, snacks, desserts, coffees, bottled waters and snacks, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday. Advertisement "There are cigar bars. This is the first cigarette-focused tobacco lounge we know about," said Brian Stebbins, senior marketing director for R.J. Reynolds. A staff of tobacconists run a hand-operated machine that rolls fresh filtered cigarettes at $8 a pack from nine "super-premium" blends under the Marshall McGearty name, featuring tobaccos from Zimbabwe, Brazil, the Mediterranean region and North Carolina. The private opening party Thursday night is just in time for smokers, as Chicago's smoking ban in most public places came into effect Monday.
