With the Chattanooga Billiard Club and Burns Tobacconist, Phil Windham established two locations in Chattanooga, TN, to provide pool billiards, food, spirits and finest tobacco products, including Davidoff cigars.
Phil Windham has a dream: He would like to pick up his next Porsche in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. On this occasion he would treat himself to a cigar at the cigar lounge of the German automotive forging. Meanwhile, Phil Windham forges his own destiny. Hard work, perseverance and business acumen have made him a man of some account.
In 1982, the young business man from Columbus, Mississippi, and at the time new to Chattanooga, opened a billiards club on Cherry Street. For two years he was the only employee in his new business. When Windham recorded the first measurable success, he extended his operation. The Chattanooga Billiard Club Banquet and Conference Center, near Hamilton Place and Interstate 75, opened the gates in 1992.
Phil Windham developed the passion for billiards early in his youth. "I loved to go to the pool room when I was growing up,” he recalls. And that hasn’t changed. Today, he has just one hobby: he follows the Pro Billiard Tour as a spectator.
Windham discovered another passion when he was young. In1972 he drove the first Porsche of his life; it was the 1966 Roadster of a friend. The car left a lasting impression on Windham. "The faster it goes, the more stable it is," he noted at his first ride. But it would take thirty-two years until Phil Windham owned his first Porsche.
After a friend in Arizona had invited Windham to smoke the first cigar of his life, he put the idea to open up a new business into practice a lot faster. The cigar was a Davidoff. Within short time, Phil Windham became an enthusiastic consumer of fine tobacco products. He set up a simple calculation: "I thought to myself, it just needs just a few customers like me to open a tobacco business," he smiles.
But the path to his own Davidoff representation - Windham didn’t want to settle for less - was long and stony. "My motivation was to launch a real cigar shop with pipes, humidor and accessories. This is the only way to sell Davidoff cigars”, he explains. Windham decided to build a store next door to the Chattanooga Billiard Club and also added club rooms of different sizes and themes. Burns Tobacconist, the first retail outlet for Davidoff in Chattanooga, was opened in 1999 – five years after Phil Windham had smoked his first cigar.
Since then, friends of fine tobacco have enjoyed being guests of Phil Windham more than ever before. The owner of Burns Tobacconist maintains a close relation to Davidoff director Peter Banninger. Windham also hosts dinner parties or tours Tennessee with friends on motorcycles. Once a year, he welcomes the Grand Seigneur of premium cigars Avo Uvezian at the downtown location. The 84 year old jazz pianist, who was involved in the creation of the hit “Strangers in the Night” in the 60s, established his own cigar brand and manufacture more than 20 years ago. First he sold his cigars, which are said to have best quality, just in the US; later Davidoff distributed Avo cigars globally. The newly established cigar lounge in Cherry Street bears Avo’s name.
Looking forward, Windham follows a second dream. "One day I would like just to go by my Porsche, with no agenda, just drive, drive, drive", he says. “Porsche lets you feel the road. The car gives me a feeling of youth, it’s fun", says Phil Windham. But since that day for the great journey has not come yet, Phil cultivates the habit "When I wake up in the morning, I look forward to go to work in my Porsche Carrera S”, he says.
For more information see www.cbcburns.com
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