About us
A pleasure inherited, a lifestyle we built.
The story of LVG Cigars, Habano del Café, and The Conversation Room
Tommy Odama
Founder
A pleasure passed down
Long before any of us were born, our forefathers – and likely their fathers before them – already knew the quiet pleasure of tobacco. It wasn’t refined. It wasn’t blended with any real intention. But the ritual was there, passed down the way certain pleasures always are: quietly, and without explanation.
By the 1960s, something changed. Our parents’ generation – Nigeria’s elite – began discovering handmade Cuban cigars, and later, the New World blends coming out of Nicaragua, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. Across Europe and America, this was already a way of life. In Nigeria, it remained something else entirely – a pleasure enjoyed in private, without the culture, the community, or the space to match it.
One aficionado, one decision
That’s where I came in. What started as an appreciation for a good cigar became something closer to devotion. And somewhere along the way, from smoker to aficionado, I made a decision: Lagos needed a cigar lounge worthy of the culture we’d only ever imported.
That decision became Habano del Café – one of Lagos’ first intentionally curated cigar lounges, built inside the world-class UnArena by LVG Lifestyle. A space designed for one purpose: to let cigar lovers come, sit, and enjoy the finest tobacco money can buy, without compromise.
A quieter room, for a smaller circle
Demand did what demand always does – it asked for more. So we built The Conversation Room (TCR) – a members-only, invitation-driven cigar lounge, set within the same UnArena address, for those seeking something more private, more considered, and reserved for a smaller circle entirely.
That same experience now extends to guests of 1 Arena Loft, our private, membership -driven boutique hotel – because the ritual of a great cigar shouldn’t end when the night does.
From lounge to legacy
As Lagos’ cigar culture grew – faster than we expected, and further than we imagined – one thing became clear: the lounges weren’t enough. Lovers of the leaf needed somewhere to walk in, browse, and take a piece of the ritual home with them. Somewhere stocked with premium and rare cigars at every price point, from the accessible to the extraordinary.
That idea took shape as an upscale walk-in humidor, complete with drinks and accessories to match. And from it, a name was born: Luxury Villas Group Cigars – LVG Cigars.