Room 101 Cigars in Louisville, KY

Room 101 began as a jewelry company — Matt Booth, a U.S. Marine turned Los Angeles jewelry designer, founded it in 2003, naming it after the dreaded room in George Orwell's *1984* (with a nod to Highway 101 running through LA). In 2009 he extended the brand into cigars through a partnership with Camacho, which had just been acquired by Davidoff's parent company. Davidoff went on to manufacture and distribute Room 101 cigars in Honduras for nearly eight years, and Booth's unorthodox packaging, Japanese-inspired motifs, and irreverent branding earned the line a genuine cult following.

The Davidoff partnership ended when the contract expired in January 2017, and Booth briefly stepped away from cigars altogether — only to return that same year with collaborations alongside Robert Caldwell and A.J. Fernandez. Room 101's catalog spans early favorites like Namakubi, Daruma, and The Big Payback through later releases like Farce and Doomsayer, generally favoring bold profiles, creative formats, and limited runs over safe, mass-market blends. In 2022, Scandinavian Tobacco Group acquired the Room 101 brand, with Booth staying on as creative director — boutique spirit, now with major-house resources behind it.

Through every chapter, the constant has been Booth's creative integrity: cigars that look like nothing else on the shelf and smoke like they were built by someone with a point of view.

For Louisville-area enthusiasts who appreciate craft and backstory as much as smoke, Room 101 offers one of the most distinctive catalogs in modern cigar making. The Office Cigar Lounge keeps a rotating selection of key releases on hand — just a short drive from downtown Louisville.