CLARKSVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- A new cigar lounge in southern Indiana promises an experience unlike any other in the region where business meets pleasure and relaxation.

A ribbon cutting was held at The Bay Cigar Lounge in Clarksville Monday afternoon.

Co-owners Julius and Sondra Wilkerson said they wanted to build a place where people can not only gather and relax with a premium cigar or classic cocktail, but make big moves.

"This place is getting ready to be something extremely special. It's not a club, it's not a bar. It's a lounge," Julius Wilkerson said. "The Bay Cigar Lounge is simply that, a place where you can come and talk business, close business deals, it's really put together for business-oriented individuals. So, I mean, of course you can come and enjoy games and have fun, but it's also, you know, a place where you can come and close that big business deal."

What sets The Bay apart from other cigar lounges, the Wilkersons said, is their hospitality and what they have to offer.

"There's nothing like The Bay Cigar Lounge. I mean our hospitality of course is going to set us apart from any other cigar lounge in our area. You really have to go 400 or 500 miles away to really find anything like The Bay Cigar Lounge. We have 5,000 square feet of really just pure comfort and coziness. It's truly something special, and we are really raising the level of the cultural cigars around here," said Julius Wilkerson. "When you go in, you'll see that the colors kind of represent everything, it's cigar-oriented. Our floors are cigar-wrapped floors, you know, the orange kinda represents the burning ember of the burning cigar, the white represents the smoke, and of course all of the browns that we have are representative of the bourbons, the whiskeys and the tobacco and the cigars in general. So we really have something truly special, we know that."

The lounge will have happy hour between 4-7 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. While The Bay is open to the public, it does offer four different membership tiers and members-only hours three days a week. Memberships start at $500 and go up to $3,500 corporate memberships.

The Bay Cigar Lounge is located at 901 Eastern Boulevard in Clarksville, by Clarksville High School. The Wilkersons said they chose the location because it's close to home.

"We both grew up in the west end of Louisville, bus as we grew up, raised our family, we moved over here to Jeffersonville, we've been over here for about 27 years and so, yeah, as we moved towards retirement we thought it would be cool to have a business closer to home," Sondra Wilkerson said.

The Bay has been in the works for more than a year. Julius Wilkerson said Monday's opening was "a long time coming."

"It's been maybe a year and-a-half since we stepped foot into this building here for the very first time," he said. "We knew that it would be something special."

The Wilkersons said they have "a lot of things" planned and hope Clarksville and the surrounding areas, including Louisville, embrace what they're offering. 

To learn more about The Bay Cigar Lounge or to explore membership options, click here. You can also follow updates on their Facebook page by clicking here.

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