Cigar Lounge on Wheels: Inside STX Mobile Cigar Lounge with Kent and Tamar Fowler

Ever wondered what it’s like to experience the luxury of a cigar lounge on wheels? Join us on Man Cave Happy Hour as we take you inside STX Mobile Cigar Lounge, a unique creation by Kent and Tamar Fowler. Broadcasting from the heart of Detroit's Eastern Market, Tamar reveals the rich tapestry of her East Detroit roots, while Kent shares his transformative journey from a serendipitous encounter in Ireland with a Romeo and Juliet Cuban cigar to becoming a cigar aficionado. Together, they crafted a mobile sanctuary that brings the elegance and camaraderie of fine cigars to celebrations of all kinds—from tailgates to vow renewals—all while being a hit with both smokers and non-smokers alike.

https://stxmobilecigarlounge.com/

Our rolling lounge has become the talk of the town, offering plush seating, a big-screen TV, and a cozy fireplace for autumn gatherings, captivating attendees at every event. And as we gear up for colder months, there’s chatter about pop-up events and strategic winter plans. We also tease upcoming podcast surprises, including appearances by notable guests like Chief Rob Griffin. Whether you’re lighting up for the first time or are a seasoned enthusiast, we invite you to grab a drink and join us, Jamie Flanagan, Matt Fox, and August Gitschlag, as we toast to good times and unforgettable stories. Keep tabs on our adventures by following us on Facebook—your front row seat to all things Man Cave Happy Hour. Cheers!

https://linktr.ee/ManCaveHappyHour

www.ManCaveHappyHour.com

Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit

Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox

Merch www.WearingFunny.com

Chapters

• 0:01 Sticks Mobile Cigar Lounge Story
• 12:12 Tailgate Lounge Event Success Stories
• 20:43 The Man Cave Happy Hour

Transcript

Theme Song: 0:01

I said, hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour.

I said, hey, hey, welcome to the Man Cave Happy Hour.

Jamie Flanagan: 0:16

We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar. It is time for happy hour. It is the man cave. Happy hour whiskey, cigars, spirits, the stories that go along with it. I'm Jamie Flanagan.

Matt Fox: 0:32

I am Matt Fox, just diving in.

Jamie Flanagan: 0:34

Matt Fox, we are. Yeah, it's a. You can hear the music. Stick your face in the camera. There will know you're here and yeah, so the man cave going, going mobile we are mobile going, going about as mobile as you want to, as you want to be, I'm getting kind of comfortable right here it is this is uh extraordinarily, uh comfortable. We are hanging out. We are uh in in the sticks, yes, but we're in the city how Matt? How are you spelling sticks. It's STX, it's a mobile cigar lounge.

Jamie Flanagan: 1:08

It is a mobile cigar lounge. So I tell you, I went down to the Grand Prix and I'm wandering around Hart Plaza. Oh, this past summer, Two summers ago.

Jamie Flanagan: 1:20

And I see this black RV across the way with lawn lawn furniture out front. I'm like, well, that looks comfortable. And I start rolling over and people are smoking cigars and I'm like this is about the coolest thing on the planet, uh, and that that day I met kent and tamar fowler. So, uh, the owners of sticks mobile lounge Lounge. So you guys, thanks for we're here. We're downtown, like I said, we're in the Sticks, but we're downtown Detroit, in the Eastern Market, right outside of Thomas McGee. We just talked to Eric and those guys about Thomas McGee. Go back to that episode To find out about Thomas McGee's. But we're going to dive deep into Sticks and the mobile cigar and the whole project. You guys have going Kent. You're going to dive deep into Stix and the mobile cigar and the whole project. You guys have going Kent. You're going to have to wait your turn no problem.

Matt Fox: 2:12

No problem, you'll appreciate that it's the ladies first on the man cave, that's it.

Jamie Flanagan: 2:16

But, tamar, tell me about your childhood.

Tamar Fowler: 2:19

Oh.

Jamie Flanagan: 2:20

See, I'm sure that mic is right there, it's available.

Tamar Fowler: 2:31

So actually I grew up on the east side of detroit. Okay, me too. Yep, I went to seven and van dyke. Okay, I'm nevada and 75. Oh, I grew up right.

Jamie Flanagan: 2:35

I was like right at uh, our first house was on nevada, really right at van dyke, right, right next to bethesda. The house is still there. Surprise, my other house at seven, it's out of driving van dyke. Uh, it's still there. My other house it's out of drive in Van Dyke, it's still there too. But anyway, we were there until like 93. But anyway, this is about you. How did this get about me? Again, it's always about you, jamie.

Tamar Fowler: 2:53

East side of Detroit. I went to St Florian in Hamtramck, which is no longer there. Yeah, Grew up in a two-family home. Parents was married for 48 years.

Matt Fox: 3:10

My mom passed.

Tamar Fowler: 3:13

Four kids.

Matt Fox: 3:15

Were you the oldest?

Tamar Fowler: 3:15

No I was the youngest. Youngest. Yes.

Jamie Flanagan: 3:20

All right, so tell me a little bit about your background. Well, I'm going to Inkster. Hold it close, man, I'm going to.

Matt Fox: 3:28

Inkster, inkster okay, you're right by the airport.

Kent Fowler: 3:30

West side, Not too far West side of this hospital with Inkster Inkster all right, but. I grew up on the west side of Detroit, coming from Southfield area. Sure cool.

Jamie Flanagan: 3:41

So usually when I ask that, it's usually I'm kind of fishing around to say how did you find yourself in the cigar industry? Right, and how did you find yourself a fan of cigars? Uh, and then, how did it lead to this? But first, how did you become a fan of cigars and find yourself in the cigar industry?

Kent Fowler: 3:57

it's kind of a strange story. We love strange stories.

Jamie Flanagan: 4:03

That's what makes a good podcast.

Kent Fowler: 4:07

Me and Tamar. We got married in 2005. Okay, 2004. But we ended up getting a divorce. And while I was sitting on the back patio and a friend came, by.

Jamie Flanagan: 4:18

We were on a break, on a break.

Kent Fowler: 4:23

And a friend of mine came over and he brung cigars and we had a little. And a friend of mine came over and he brung cigars and we had a little cocktail and a cigar and I mellowed out, all my worries went away. I wasn't thinking about you know all the stress and it calmed me. So from there I started smoking.

Matt Fox: 4:40

Okay, what was your first cigar then? Do you remember the cigar? What was your first cigar? Do you remember the cigar, first cigar, the one that kind of turned you on to? I got to do this more.

Kent Fowler: 4:53

I can't remember the first cigar yet. It was in trial.

Jamie Flanagan: 4:57

The first one I did on purpose was in Ireland and it was a Cuban cigar in Ireland. It was a Romeo and Juliet. Oh, I know, I think they come from Cuba. You can't be Cuban. A Cuban cigar in Ireland. It was a Romeo and Juliet. Oh wow, romeo and Juliet, all right, yeah, so I think.

Tamar Fowler: 5:09

They come from Cuba, uk and Cuba.

Matt Fox: 5:10

Okay, fair play, All right. We always refer to the cigar godfather. There are cigars here too.

Jamie Flanagan: 5:15

I could be talking smack and it's like no you were smoking. New Jersey cigars. Jamie, I don't know what you're talking about Jamie. I don't know what you're talking about. So, tamar, how did you? Are you a smoker?

Tamar Fowler: 5:26

Oh, of course you got my cigar right here. There it is.

Jamie Flanagan: 5:32

What was your experience? What brought you into the world of tobacco or fine tobaccos.

Tamar Fowler: 5:36

So Ken, of course, has been smoking for years. I acquired the lifestyle like three years ago.

Matt Fox: 5:44

Okay. And my very first cigar may have been an acid okay a little sweet on the note on the tongue, right, yeah sweet, so I um I don't smoke those any longer thank you yeah, so my favorite cigar now is the uh tabacs or the Olivia.

Jamie Flanagan: 6:13

Okay, because when we were, in the humidor and there's a humidor here.

Matt Fox: 6:19

And when I walked in I'm like, ooh, I don't know what I want to smoke.

Jamie Flanagan: 6:23

I know we got started a little bit late. There's so much to talk to you guys about Just the unit itself. There's so much to talk about. Anyway, how did you move from being cigar fans to, hey, we should open a mobile cigar lounge? What, what was the precipice for that? What launched this whole?

Matt Fox: 6:42

craziness was it a fever dream at like two o'clock in the morning.

Jamie Flanagan: 6:45

You wake up I'm like I got a great idea automotive right we both do okay, all right and you're like I need to do something else because this is making me crazy.

Kent Fowler: 6:54

I got to find something to do.

Tamar Fowler: 6:56

We have always been entrepreneurs just throughout the years. Like you said, he worked at Chrysler, I work at Ford. We used to own a women's shoe store down in Ann Arbor, downtown Ann Arbor, soul Sisters.

Kent Fowler: 7:14

You might have heard of the Soul Sisters. It was in Royal Oaks.

Matt Fox: 7:16

Yeah.

Kent Fowler: 7:18

We franchised off them and we opened one in.

Tamar Fowler: 7:20

Ann Arbor, nice, all right, and then I used to have a penny candy store. I used to lay ceramic tiles, so we've always been Hustling, definitely the hustle.

Kent Fowler: 7:31

Yes, all right.

Tamar Fowler: 7:34

So yeah. So actually I was looking for a mobile wine trowel. Okay, there is one or two in the city of Detroit, but I wanted something a little bit more upscale. And then Kent actually was inquiring about a brick and mortar, a bar was inquiring about a brick and mortar a bar. So, just like you said, just one day we started talking and we was like oh well, let's combine our love for cigars and business and come up with a mobile scarlet.

Jamie Flanagan: 8:08

This is pretty unique. I mean, I haven't seen others. I was telling somebody about it. It's like, oh, there's a lot of them and I'm like I haven't seen a lot of them. Are there? Is there? Do you have competition? Are there other? There's a little competition. Okay, ours is a little different.

Matt Fox: 8:20

All right, there is no competition.

Tamar Fowler: 8:23

No, when we were, when we were in the developing stages of coming coming up with sticks, we did find, because I hadn't found any, I didn't know of any in the city, um, but during that stage we, we, uh, we found there was like four or five of them in the metro detroit area you have to do your due diligence to see what's out there, absolutely.

Jamie Flanagan: 8:52

And then how are we gonna bury them?

Matt Fox: 8:54

exactly, yeah, did you go and like secret shop them and see what they were?

Tamar Fowler: 8:57

doing. It was funny that you said that because one, a couple of my girlfriends, I did one I was going to pay for them to go on just to see how it was. Um, but yeah, but you know, just looking online just to see how they operate, and then that's when we decided you know what we want? Something a little bit more, um, intimate. Sure, a know what we want something a little bit more intimate, a little bit more personable a little bit more elevated because we wanted a certain caliber of people to rent.

Matt Fox: 9:25

You want to cater to a certain.

Jamie Flanagan: 9:26

Yeah, all right. So what's the website so people can see? Because you got a lot of pictures on your website, your Facebook and your other thing.

Tamar Fowler: 9:31

Yes, it's SticksMobileCig. Your website, your Facebook and your website?

Matt Fox: 9:35

Yes, it's sticksmobilesigarloungecom.

Tamar Fowler: 9:37

That's F-T-X. Yes, f-t-x mobilesigarloungecom. Okay.

Jamie Flanagan: 9:40

And so people can see pictures of this. Now, what are we sitting in? Because people can kind of see this and it looks like a cool cigar lounge, but we are in.

Kent Fowler: 9:50

I'm like looking at the video behind me 32-foot travel.

Jamie Flanagan: 9:57

What 32-foot travel. What we have here is one heavily on recreational, so it's a 32-foot.

Tamar Fowler: 10:01

Yep travel trailer. Travel trailer.

Jamie Flanagan: 10:03

And you guys gutted it, we gutted the bedroom.

Kent Fowler: 10:06

We gutted the back bedroom.

Jamie Flanagan: 10:08

The back bedroom.

Matt Fox: 10:09

Which is this area that we're sitting in no no no, the back bedroom the humidor. The humidor is the bedroom right. Even better that we're sitting in the humidor is the bedroom.

Tamar Fowler: 10:15

So yeah, so we converted the primary bedroom and had a custom humidor made five foot by five, which carries over 40 different brands or blends of cigars. So again, that sets us aside from other cigar lounges that's in the city because most of them only have, you know, a handful of cigars sure, sure, this is, this is, this is nice.

Jamie Flanagan: 10:38

I mean yeah, so when you somebody walks in um, you know we had a couple people walk in. Uh, we were down here for the event and uh, they're like, oh, let's go to the humidor.

Tamar Fowler: 10:47

And they went the humidor, you can actually, you can actually shop in this humidor actually actually stuff you can, can, you can shop and right behind you, as you can see, it's a full kitchen, so you have a refrigerator stove, microwave oven so if you're throwing an event and you're renting sticks out um, you can have an event yes, right, and be very self-sufficient.

Jamie Flanagan: 11:08

This is I'm just. I'm just digging this. I was just enjoying it so much, uh, when I've seen you guys out and about.

Matt Fox: 11:14

My brain is kind of going crazy at the moment with the events that you guys do. What are some of the events that you really look forward to annually?

Kent Fowler: 11:23

Me personally, I like the weddings, the weddings Okay, I love the weddings. It's more intimate, okay.

Tamar Fowler: 11:30

Weddings. I agree, Weddings, the golf outings.

Matt Fox: 11:33

I was going to say how about the golf outings? I was gonna say how about the golf outings? You know what does that look like? Yeah, you know.

Jamie Flanagan: 11:39

So we we actually yes, we actually um partner, uh, with um.

Tamar Fowler: 11:44

Oh, he's gonna kill me, tom, um, um okay, the shark um his name's tom his name is your partner for some golf outing. Yeah, so he has a charity event every year that he invites us to, so we was there last year, we was again there this year for a golf outing.

Jamie Flanagan: 12:06

Okay.

Tamar Fowler: 12:06

That charity event? Nice, yeah. So that's one of my, the one I look forward to every year, okay.

Kent Fowler: 12:12

You can't forget the tailgates, though we love it.

Matt Fox: 12:15

Are you going to be?

Kent Fowler: 12:16

down here this Sunday, not this Sunday, all right.

Tamar Fowler: 12:19

Yeah.

Kent Fowler: 12:19

We have another we have.

Tamar Fowler: 12:20

We do have another tailgating on the east side of Detroit this Sunday, Right?

Jamie Flanagan: 12:25

So if people bring you out for like a lion's tailgate and you're kind of there and the centerpiece oh yes, I mean this is, this is a centerpiece piece. It's just, it looks great, it's painted. Thank you, brilliant. On the outside you have lawn furniture not lawn furniture, but it's like more lounge furniture that goes outside, and outdoor carpets and fake Fikas, the whole shooting match.

Matt Fox: 12:54

You said fake Fikas. You said fake Fikas.

Jamie Flanagan: 12:59

But it's cool. It's an overused word, but it's a vibe, it's a serious vibe. You set, you set up. Uh, you got a tv on the outside, you got a big tv. But we're here, it's a thursday night, we're down at thomas mcgee's getting ready to watch a little. Uh, thursday night football, yeah, on the big screens this is just tv in the back and there's

Tamar Fowler: 13:20

a small way in the back and then, okay, you have a fireplace in the inside. We have a fire pit for outside for the cooler months. And like you said we have the lounge chairs. We can seat about 20 people outside. We have nice blankets for the outdoors. We try to cover it up.

Matt Fox: 13:39

So again, my brain is just kind of reeling from all this. One of the things I really am enjoying about this is that unfortunately, cigar smoking is not for everybody is not no.

Matt Fox: 13:48

So when you're catering to a group of people some people that don't even smoke cigars, but some people do so it kind of gives everyone the ability to just kind of mingle around. They come and they check it out, you know this is pretty cool, but then they'll go out and do their own thing, but you're getting your word out there that much more. And those people that may not smoke cigars they were like that was really cool, and then they'll recommend you guys to somebody else that maybe wants you to be at their place for an event or whatever.

Kent Fowler: 14:15

That's funny. You said that we did an event for a birthday party or retirement.

Tamar Fowler: 14:19

It was a wedding renewal.

Kent Fowler: 14:22

No, not that one. We're talking about the one, the guy who just came out of the military. He retired from the military Air. Force Marines, I think it was Army, army. Okay, his mother-in-law doesn't smoke cigars, but she loved the lounge so much she wanted to book us for a birthday party.

Jamie Flanagan: 14:39

She don't even smoke, pin the tail on the, but just even like the wedding, the vow renewal.

Tamar Fowler: 14:46

They have been married for 30 years. And neither one of them smoked. Neither one of them even came on the lounge. They just hired us for their guests. Yeah, so we were fine with it.

Matt Fox: 14:58

It's a beautiful amenity it really really is and just sitting here and just having this conversation with you, I kind of don't want to leave stick around so this is, this is the retirement plan.

Jamie Flanagan: 15:15

Have you now? Have you taken this? And uh, you have. You guys gone camping.

Tamar Fowler: 15:19

It's funny because we actually do camp. Yeah, and when we first purchased um the trailer we said oh, the weekends that we're not busy, we'll go camping. We have yet to go camping. We had a plan B.

Kent Fowler: 15:33

when we got this, our initial was the cigar lounge, but if it did not go as planned, we was going to rent this out for camping. Since we opened the door, we've been busy every weekend. How long ago did you open the door. We've been busy every weekend.

Matt Fox: 15:47

How long ago did you open the door, though?

Tamar Fowler: 15:49

Last year, no last April.

Jamie Flanagan: 15:53

So that Grand Prix was one of the first things you guys did.

Tamar Fowler: 15:54

It was One of our biggest events yes, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan: 15:57

So I was hooked Right from the get-go.

Kent Fowler: 16:01

You can't keep in touch.

Tamar Fowler: 16:04

It's funny because that's where time we met time. Okay, it's uh.

Jamie Flanagan: 16:08

Yeah, it was uh so do you do that? You, I mean so people hire you for things but you go and make your face seen. You go do some of the bigger events and, uh, just kind of yeah, we try to do pop-ups just to get our name out. Yeah yeah, yeah so what's some pop-ups you have, uh, on the horizon. Do you have anything? Because what we're heading into the the fall. Here things are chilling off a little bit, so do you put it on mothballs over the winter, or is?

Kent Fowler: 16:32

this. We shut down right after Thanksgiving. Okay, I don't want to pull it doing the snow.

Jamie Flanagan: 16:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got all this places, yeah.

Tamar Fowler: 16:42

So we we kind of tapering down. However, um we do, we are able to have a table set up. You know, like if there's an event that's indoors and they have maybe a little patio and don't have room for a 32 foot travel trailer you can curate a table for them. Yeah, yes, yes, excellent.

Jamie Flanagan: 17:03

I like it. I'm really comfortable.

Matt Fox: 17:06

Paul's over here. He's just over there smoking on his stick, you doing all right, paul, it's warm. It's warm outside, it's a little cool outside.

Tamar Fowler: 17:15

Excellent.

Matt Fox: 17:18

Welcome back to the man cave, paul. Thank you, it's been a couple years.

Jamie Flanagan: 17:22

Yeah, and we're not drinking vodka.

Matt Fox: 17:25

No we're not. Was it Zim's that you?

Tamar Fowler: 17:28

yeah, it wasn't and you made that mistake twice.

Matt Fox: 17:31

No, they brought me twice you showed up twice, don't lie well, he didn't think he was gonna have them so one of the things, jamie, people need to follow us on the social media Facebook and to kind of speak towards that. Josh, who's sitting over here in the wings. He saw the event through a cigar club on Facebook and he's like you know what? I'm going to go check that out Because, look, he's newer in the area. So thanks for coming out and sitting with us.

Matt Fox: 18:03

Thank you, josh. So now you know what to do for the folks that your employers say hey, I got a great idea. Company picnic up to 11.

Tamar Fowler: 18:18

Just turn things up.

Matt Fox: 18:19

No, I really appreciate you being here, Josh. Thank you so much.

Tamar Fowler: 18:20

Yeah, it's cool. It's cool. It has definitely been a very good experience.

Jamie Flanagan: 18:24

Um.

Tamar Fowler: 18:24

I mean, you know shy of two years. Um, we, we're learning still a lot and even next year we're already thinking about next year what, what we could do different.

Jamie Flanagan: 18:35

So, yeah, what is something that like from your launch two years ago to now that you've changed, that you see as a an improvement.

Tamar Fowler: 18:43

So I know one of the things that we changed was our, so we used to do a minimum of two hours which was $500,. I believe, and then we always was finding everyone that hired us for two hours when it was time to go. It's like why are you leaving? You're gone already because you know people come late.

Jamie Flanagan: 19:04

Sure, yeah, yeah.

Tamar Fowler: 19:06

So they didn't get the full experience for two hours. So this year we started a minimum of three hours, which is $600. You get five complimentary cigars. So we do three, five and seven hours. So that was something that we learned from 2023 to 2024. So little things like that, which you wouldn't think.

Jamie Flanagan: 19:27

So what's the price range of the cigars? You said 40 different cigars back there.

Tamar Fowler: 19:31

Yeah, we can hold up to 40 different brands and blends. So what's the price range of the cigars? You said 40 different cigars back there. Yeah, we can hold up to 40 different brands and blends.

Jamie Flanagan: 19:36

So what's the price range? We go from nine.

Kent Fowler: 19:39

Oh, we got one for nine, nine to about 45. Okay.

Jamie Flanagan: 19:43

All right, and then so what is your go-to? What's your daily go-to? You mentioned one earlier. What did you say? So I do the tabacs.

Tamar Fowler: 19:52

So, that's one of my favorite, and people that don't smoke cigars and they ask me to recommend something that's what they're getting Right on.

Kent Fowler: 20:03

I like the petite so I do a lot of the nubs, like you gave me, I like the nubs yeah.

Jamie Flanagan: 20:09

Oh, the petites. You said.

Kent Fowler: 20:13

The.

Jamie Flanagan: 20:13

Maker's Mark me. I like the nubs. Yeah, oh, the petites. You said the um maker's mark. I like the bourbon. Oh, okay, all right, you got any of those back there? I sure do. We may have to dive into one of those next. That might be my next uh venture for the evening.

Matt Fox: 20:21

I'm enjoying my rocky right now number six. Okay good, I've always been a decade person with the rocky uh patel, but this number six is hitting the spot very good, very good so I'm happy campers.

Jamie Flanagan: 20:35

Yeah, literally this is a happy camping place, for sure. Yeah, all right, you guys. So we got a couple other podcasts lined up today. Uh, chief rob griffin, he's gonna talk to you guys, we're gonna do that. And then, uh, uh, deep for the week and we're going to you're going to be uh, talking to a young lady up there as well. Uh, so, yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be fun. We appreciate you being in the man caver or bringing us a man cave down here to thomas mcgee's in eastern market and uh.

Jamie Flanagan: 21:06

So if these people just follow along on on facebook, they'll, they'll know when you have a public one, that a pop-up that people can can crash the party, because a lot of times it's a private event. People can't uh, can't crash that, but it's fun to see you guys out about because it is. It is cool. So, um, is the lions event that you're doing the tailgates? Uh, is that a private party or is that a?

Tamar Fowler: 21:26

it is a private event, okay yeah, because it's at a home.

Jamie Flanagan: 21:31

Keep your eyes on the Facebook page for the pop-ups, as they happen.

Kent Fowler: 21:36

I know one thing McGee is going to be my new spot. I'm impressed Excellent.

Jamie Flanagan: 21:43

All right, you guys. There we go. Anything else we forget to talk about.

Kent Fowler: 21:49

You cover a lot.

Matt Fox: 21:51

He's the professional. I'm just having fun having a smoke and cover a lot.

Jamie Flanagan: 21:54

He's the professional.

Matt Fox: 21:55

I'm just having fun having a smoke and having a drink.

Jamie Flanagan: 21:58

That's pretty much what the man Cave is all about. So, guys, thank you for bringing this to us downtown here and sharing the smokes with us. Everybody should check them out and then please like, subscribe, do all those podcast things and all the podcast places and, uh, we'll do it all again very, very soon. Yes, uh, on the man cave happy hour.

Matt Fox: 22:21

I'm jamie flanagan I am matt fox and that over there is august gets flagged, that's it and uh, here we are.

Jamie Flanagan: 22:27

Cheers. I smoked to that.