About Us

Build-out 2016

A Cuban Experience began as a group of friends, Cigar aficionados and boaters.  We would meet in the summer at Waukegan Harbor on beautiful Lake Michigan enjoying our cigars while sharing boating stories.  What started as a summer time dock event quickly stretched into the off boating season.  We continued to share our love of cigars with one another and before we knew it, we had formed a social smoking group that continued to grow in size.  A few of our members have had the privilege of touring manufacturing sites in Honduras and two years ago went to Cuba to visit Havana and the famous Robaina plantation.

Over time, our cigar knowledge and experience grew into rolling cigars for our own enjoyment.  We invested in a rolling machine , molds and a cigar press.  We enjoyed ordering leaves, bunching, rolling and wrapping our own blends.  We were quickly learning the best blends to put together and also which ones not too!  Our friends enjoyed trying out new blends that we rolled and provided us with test market feedback.  This drove our passion and desire to bring a one of a kind lounge and on-site  rolling manufacturing facility to Waukegan, Illinois.  We received our federal cigar manufacturing license in 2018.  We have a full rolling section in the front of the lounge, where cigar are actually manufactured-bunched and rolled-in downtown Waukegan, IL!

In June of 2015, A Cuban Experience moved to the next level and became Incorporated.  We opened  our new  6000 sq. ft. Cigar Lounge and Retail Shop in July 2016.   We are located in the heart of downtown Waukegan, in a beautiful historic building on Genesee Street, just steps from the Historic Genesee Theatre in the Art and Theatre District.