Like father, like son: Heidelmans turning their cigar passion into a Wooster business

WOOSTER - When Mike Heidelman finally found the perfect building for the cigar shop he had been dreaming of opening, there was only one problem.

It was a working bank.

"I'm in the bank conducting business and I'm thinking, 'This would be an amazing cigar shop.' " he said about that visit to the Chase Bank branch at 601 Portage Road about five years ago.

A few years later, he was able to light a long-awaited victory cigar. When Chase closed the branch he put up an offer in November and closed on the property in March.

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"This is fulfilling a 16-year dream." he said recently inside the nearly finished remodeled facility that is expected to open in mid-June as The Cigar Vault, a venture the 54-year-old is opening with his 24-year-old son, Michael.

With a laugh and a quick wink at his son, he added: "I'm a horrible father. I got him into cigars at a young age."

Then with a big smile, he said: "I'm very, very fortunate that he followed my passion and now we're doing it together."

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Mike said his son is an equal partner, including financially, which helped to buy the building.

They are looking forward to bringing their passion to the community — and the community is just as excited for their new business.

"We think The Cigar Vault is going to be a great addition to Wooster," said Samira Zimmerly, president of the Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce. "This father and son venture offers our community a unique experience that is unlike anything we currently have in Wooster. Their business will add to the diverse offerings and the quality of life in our community which in turn makes our area more attractive."

Journey began in Florida when the Heidelman family lived there

It has been a long journey to get to this point, starting in Florida where the family was living and Mike was enjoying the plethora of cigar lounges in the state during some of his free time.

"What drew me to cigars is the culture," Mike said. "You forget everything else that's going on in your life other than that moment."

When he was a kid, Mike said he hated the smell of cigar smoke. Not Michael, who said he loved it when his dad's cigar-smoking friends visited.

Michael, like his dad. loves the camaraderie and the relaxed atmospheres at cigar lounges.

But "the hustle and bustle" of working in the south Florida real estate industry got to be too much and the financial crisis of 2008 hit, so the family decided to move back to Ohio, said Mike, who is from the Cleveland area. His wife of 30 years, Natalie, grew up in Orrville. Michael is their only child.

While she isn't a cigar smoker, Natalie is happy it is bringing her husband and son together in business, the father and son said. Michael's girlfriend isn't a smoker either, but, he said, "she's about as excited as you can be without being a cigar smoker."

And she works as a nurse at Wooster Community Hospital in obstetrics, a hospital department where you think of fathers passing out cigars for new babies, which The Cigar Vault will sell along with hundreds of other cigar types — blue boxes of them that read "It's a Boy" on the outside and pink ones with "It's a Girl."

The Cigar Vault is located near busy Wooster Community Hospital area

The variety of cigar inventory is in their humidor, a humidity-controlled room used for storing cigars, built inside the former bank vault; hence the name The Cigar Vault.

"I pictured how cool it would be to have a cigar humidor inside of a bank vault," Mike said.

As customers walk into The Cigar Vault they will be able to see Wooster Community Hospital, a main reason for the steady traffic in the area, which has the father and son excited about the possibilities despite their market research indicating a cigar lounge succeeding in a city of about 26,000 won't be easy.

"Worst-case scenario is we have a great stash of cigars for the next several years and a great piece of real estate," Mike said.

Ohio isn't like Florida when it comes to cigar shops, which Mike said seems to have as many as it has Starbucks. Most big cities in Ohio only have one or two, though Medina, which has a similar population to Wooster, has one.

When he first returned to Ohio, Mike said, the taxes on tobacco had been raised quite a bit. The state also has a lot of restrictions and specifications with cigar shops, such as they have to be detached buildings and have a certain kind of ventilation, he added.

Those things were a couple of reasons it took so long for Mike to realize his dream. And, of course, finding the right building.

"We looked for years; anytime a building came up for sale, we checked it out," Mike said. "We looked downtown, but nothing hit the mark. It had to feel right."

New Wooster business has hundreds of different kinds of cigars

Besides picturing the humidor in the old bank vault, Mike pictures three lounges with 16 comfortable chairs, several televisions, lockers and, eventually, a patio area where the drive-through part of the bank was. They have kept the speaker and chute system so customers someday can enjoy the fresh air and have cigars delivered to them through the chutes, which won't be used for a cigar drive-through, they said.

People still drive through that area thinking the bank is still open, they added with a laugh. Two vehicles at different times during the interview for this story drove through.

The father and son won't quit their current jobs either. Mike is in sales for Surreal Entertainment, a local company that sells a variety of products in the U.S. that are manufactured overseas. Michael is a server and bartender at City Square Steakhouse in downtown Wooster.

Both have special cigars they will smoke once The Cigar Vault opens. Michael has been saving his for eight years and Mike will smoke a hard-to-get brand he only gets out on Christmas Eve to smoke with his son.

With the positive things the two said they have been hearing from surrounding communities like Ashland and on Facebook about their coming business and at long last having their dream building, there doesn't appear to be anymore problems hindering their June open.

Except maybe one, Mike said jokingly as the two each smoked a cigar: "The biggest problem may be are we going to smoke all our inventory before we open?"

Reach Jarred at 330-287-1659 or jopatz@the-daily-record.com.

On Twitter: @Jarred Opatz

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: The Cigar Vault is a different kind of business opening in Wooster