Reviews of Cafe Calabash Cigar Bar (Coffee Shop)

Tony Naser

Comfortable and casual cigar smoking environment with great service. Wish we had a place like this locally

Lee Hoyt

Relaxing

tammy creamer

Large selection

Antonio Maniaci

Awesome experience.

Phillip Jacques

Great staff, friendly. Food and drinks plus good selection of cigars.

J Del

Welcoming Cigar lounge that will feed you, provide you a little drink and pamper you with a great selection of cigars. Great humidor at an excellent hydration level (dry enough to smell the delicious variety of tobaccos but moist enough to keep the integrity of a great cigar). On top of feeding you a frat meal- this place has a grade A level of hospitality. You will not find another cigar lounge like this one anywhere else in the state of Maine because there isn’t. Come and enjoy your meal, smoke and wine. There’s beer on tap too. Sorry No whiskey. Also, there’s a nail shop right next door, and Burlington factory neighbors this great place too. So if you wanna kick it while your lady does some shopping and get her nails done- this is the place that has it all.

Patrick Arnold

This place is great, good food, great cigars and wonderful people!

Sean OHare

I have been enjoying the Calabash for a number of years, on and off. I enjoy the atmosphere and really enjoy their Cigar dinners. Ali is a great owner and treats all of his customers as friends. They have a good menu and a really nice beer selection, with a few local craft beers. I would certainly recommend the Calabash!

David Abbott

While the cigars were a little pricey, the customer service was priceless. The 2 behind the counter treated us streamline well and were very friendly. We will definitely go back when we're in the area.

Jon Patten

I’ve frequented the Calabash for a few years. The past two to three years have brought many positive changes. The cigar selection has added on many new higher end cigars to appease your tastes. Cigar dinners once a month have also done nothing but improve. The staff and owner are always friendly with a great sense of humor that brings a warm atmosphere to the place. All in all a great place to enjoy a cigar and good conversation. I highly recommend it.

Laurent L'Heureux

Great neighborhood cigar bar with well stocked humidor and terrific employees.

Jay Baker

The food here is fantastic! I usually have the burger, but went for the steak salad tonight and man, what a great choice! Don't get me wrong, if put the Cali burger you against most in the area, but the quantity and quality of the steak tips with the salad was incredible! And yes, I said WITH because the salad was on half the plate and the steak filled the rest. The fact that you can enjoy excellent food, beer, wine AND a great cigar is amazing. Ali had been doing it right for MANY years! Keep up the great work!

Bryan Cyr

Awesome place.

Donald Ruiz

Great cigars, beer and staff!!!!!!

Nathan Hill

The only place in Portland to go

John Lesser

I've been going to Calabash for many years and have always received great service. Everyone is friendly and knowledgeable, and points me in the right direction for a smoke that I will enjoy!

brett allen

Great product.

Alain Nahimana

A great place to spend hours, great cigars and great people, staff and customers. One of the few places of its kind in Maine...

Oscar Jones

Spectacular food and loads of leather chairs good conversations and if course stogies

Gordon Whittemore

Went out to Cabela's to pay my wife's bill ended up looking around quite a bit of things that you could use check it out

Thomas Dahlborg

Very enjoyable. Steak wraps were very good. As was the service. The Camacho Triple Maduro was excellent and well priced.

Ruik Lunox

It bothers me how little this place knows about cigars and the basic science around it, especially considering its niche is a cigar lounge in the Portland area. First, I'd like to say that if you ever have smoked a cigar bought from this place, and claimed it was the best you've ever had, you're literally smoking the bottom of the barrel. It's not that their selection is bad, it's that they let all their expensive product go bad. Ever notice how the cigars are horribly dry, and tend to flake a lot? The first error they make is in their extremely terrible humador that doesn't even qualify as one. Their humador isn't keeping the cigars fresh, not only because it doesn't maintain the humidity, but it's even exposed to the elements through a window in the humador (seriously? Who thought it was a good idea to put your product next to a window where the light and changes in temperature significantly damage your product?). If you want to see a real humador, go to any cigar shop in the Old Port. A real humidor maintains a specific humidity to keep the cigars from going bad. Every single smoke I've had at this place completely pales in comparison to many other lounges nationwide I've had the opportunity to purchase a cigar at. It's a shame, because the place has a lot of potential it never even bothers trying to take advantage of. With the ridiculous mark up on the cigars there (which, by the way, marking your stale cigars up by more than half the base price is ludicrous and is hurting the potential profit in your company), I'm assuming the owner is very greedy deep down, considering he doesn't want to provide a good quality product to his customers even though he marks up the prices insanely. To be honest, his prices for the same cigar rank within the top 5% most expensive prices for that cigar. You should feel ripped off for the poor quality of product here. This is also only the beginning.... Second, their staff and foodservice is horrendous at best. Trying to conform to still being a cafe and serving food is fine, but your menu is lackluster, your staff is tiring, and your final product is something I could make better myself in less amount of time. The staff slog throughout their day, and sloppily perform their job even though all aspects of it are done in front of the customer (that's right! Even food prep and the kitchen resides behind the bar). The menu needs updating and the staff needs to receive training on specific, quick pub style fare they can serve their customers. More people would flock here if the food was actually edible. To make matters worse, don't expect to get an educated opinion on cigars here. The staff do not know much about the products they sell, how cigars are made, the processes the leaves go through, blends, and how all these things make each cigar unique. I honestly feel bad for them, because the staff, besides the owner, is what makes Callabash great. They are friendly, down to earth people that if they had training in a renovated menu, and product knowledge, they would grow Callabash into a great success. If you are still planning on going to this dump expect terrible stale cigars, a try hard lounge atmosphere that attempts to mask their greedy prices, and wonderful staff to get you through the pain of having to smoke a stale cigar and eat that ham sandwich they haphazardly threw you together in the poor kitchen. This lounge stays afloat by being frequented with regulars that don't mind burning their money and buying stale product in exchange for the friendly camaraderie provided by the personable staff. Callabash is in a critical time where it needs to gain focus, and reinnovate its image otherwise it risks losing its company financially and gets washed out with time or competition.

David Montgomery

Best cigar bar in Maine...Owner Ali is a gracious host...can get a beer or wine and smoke a stogie inside while its freezing outside...awesome idea

George Smith

Great selection of smokes... Great draft selection and the only place ive foud in Maine where you get a comfy place to enjoy both. Love CCCB!

Justin Richards

I've been back to the Calabash numerous times with various colleagues of mine. Typically, I will have one or two people with me who are inexperienced smokers and the staff is always eager to help them out with selection. Service is fantastic and the atmosphere is one of the chillest I've seen in Portland, I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a nice cigar and a place to relax.

Rylen Snow

I have been to the calabash a few times and I have to say this is probably one of the worst cigar lounges ever. Terrible pricing for horrendously treated cigars. On top of that they will even charge you $8 if you just want a place to smoke your own cigar! They boast how they have beer and wine on their website yet all you get to choose from is 4 beers. If a new cigar lounge opened up that actually knew how to run a business calabash would be done for in a year.

Joshua Taylor

What a great place to be. I've been a regaular at the shop for years now and it's the only cigar place I'll go. The owner and staff are friendly, funny, and happy to always help. Rain, or shine this place is open and offers a wide variety of cigars, food, pipes, accessories, and beer on tap.

Joe Hanafin

Fair selection alot of sitting room to enjoy your cigar any time of year

Scott Allocca

I don't know what all the whining is about but the Calabash staff treats me and mine like royalty. If you buy your cigars direct of course you will find them cheaper. Ali has rent to pay and staff to support so of course they're marked up. You obviously don't know how retail works. And as for the food goes I have never been disappointed. Always a good time and a huge stress reliever to hang out with the Calabash Gang!

Brian McIntyre

Just went for the first time even though I've known about this place. I went to a monthly gathering of cigar afficianados. It was a set price which included dinner, 4 premium cigars, and free beer. It was a good time. See you next gathering. The owner is interactive and added to the fun. With 20 guys smoking cigars you'd think you wouldn't be able to see much, but the smoke eaters work phenomenally.

Chase Brown

Cool place the incredible , not from this world waitress/bartender alone is way worth the price of admission. Add that to amazing food/drinks and tobacco n cigars and ya get an out of this world combination