A garden party in Saratoga Springs, with a cigar roller under the tent

A private garden party at a home in Saratoga Springs, in August 2026. His table went under a white tent on the lawn, dressed in the Arturo Fuente cloth that reads “We will never rush the hands of time,” with small lamps lighting the leaf, the boards and the press. Out on the grass, among the guests, stood a brightly painted horse.

For a party at home, that is the whole arrangement: you provide a table and a socket, and the cloth, the lamps and everything on the table are his.

He rolled one cigar at a time and lit each one himself as he handed it across: to a guest in an embroidered white dress, to an older gentleman in a checked jacket bending to the flame, to a woman with a scarf over her shoulders. In his clips the guests stand two and three deep around the table while he works.

As the light went, the lamps took over. An assistant stood at his shoulder keeping the table supplied, and he stayed seated at the board with a cigar of his own lit, still rolling for whoever came up, well into the night.