SOME FOLKS say there's nothing like a good cigar, and since 1929, many of them have bought their smokes at the corner of East Market Street and U.S. Route 9 in Rhinebeck.

Now they can again, at what is now Rhinebeck Smoke Shoppe.

Owner Jon Urban, who said he's always wanted to have a shop in Rhinebeck, opened the tobacco business there in early November. It occupies the same storefront that was the United Smoke Shop until this past July.

FOR 18 years, Urban has run Smokes 4 Less stores throughout Dutchess County. He opened his first location 18 years ago and now has 10. He also owns three beverage stores and a number of check-cashing shops in Dutchess and Ulster counties.

But Urban's new shop bears little resemblance to his others. Seventy-five percent of the products are the same, but Rhinebeck Smoke Shoppe's emphasis is on cigars, pipe tobacco and accessories.

"RHINEBECK is almost the perfect Hudson Valley, New York town and village," Urban said. "We always talked about Rhinebeck, however knowing there was a cigar shop on ... the most prominent corner in Rhinebeck, we always shuffled around and never wanted to compete with that store."

Urban said he approached United Smoke Shop owners Jay and Debbie Close, who bought the business there in 1985 and put it up for sale in 2001, but didn't come to terms. The Closes eventually sold their store to Ronald Halloway in 2003, but he closed it five months ago.

Urban then "struck a deal with the landlord and the bankruptcy attorneys," he said. "Having always wanted to be in the Rhinebeck market ... knowing that it was a wonderful location and never wanting to compete against it, (we) thought it was wonderful opportunity to keep that monument and tradition alive."

BUT URBAN said one of his Smokes 4 less shops, which he described as tobacco convenience stores, wouldn't have fit in Rhinebeck, so he went with a different motif.

"The challenge ... in Rhinebeck is that here you have this establishment that's almost like an icon. It's been around just about as long as just about anything in that area," Urban said. "Our challenge was to maintain that ambiance and almost ... historic charm, while trying also to be a 2005 retail business. We decided ... we would try something new, an upscale high-profile type of tobacco shop."

THE MAIN hurdle to overcome was space. "It's only about 850-square feet," Urban said of the store, and some mass-market tobacco products didn't make the cut as a result.

"A couple of years ago, they built a small humidor. ... We've taken that out and put in a larger, more sophisticated humidor where you can walk in; 10 or 15 people can shop at once," he said. "It's an incredible feel. It smells fabulous, there are soft lights and classical music playing. You almost want to pull up a chair and relax even if you don't smoke cigars. The humidor is lined with an imported Spanish cedar."

Of the store's offerings, Urabn said: "We still carry a huge selection of newspapers and magazines. They (the previous owners) had some window displays that looked like they were from the 1929 era that ... were kind of in the way. We removed those and created this sort of coffee bar area that looks out at the Beekman Arms and Rhinebeck Department store (two businesses at the same intersection). It's just the sort of perfect place to sit and look out."

GIVEN THAT Urban has 11 shops selling tobacco, the casual observer might think volume purchasing would mean lower prices. But Urban said state regulations govern how much the company can pay for inventory and how low it can set retail prices.

"The one advantage is when you have a larger number of stores, suppliers typically will satisfy their larger customers first," he said. "If there's a cigar that's a hot commodity, like CAO's special edition Sopranos cigar, to be shipped in December with a limited number available, we would have it first and probably more."

LOCAL residents may have been concerned that Urban wouldn't keep the corner shop a tobacco store, or if he did that it would be a Smokes 4 Less outlet that would change the neighborhood's character. But Urban said a sign displayed in the window during renovations reassured people about his intentions.

"I think the tobacco industry has had kind of a tarnished image over the past five or six years, so I think (our) customers are people who know that they're going to a tobacco-friendly environment," he said.

Urban said his Smokes 4 Less stores lost about 50 percent of their business as tax hikes took effect, with many people opting instead to buy tobacco products over the Internet. But that pendulum has started to swing back amid the recent crackdown on Web-based sales tax evasion, he said.

URBAN, WHO estimates he's the largest tobacco retailer within 100 miles, is not a smoker but appreciates the products he sells.

"You can get a sense of pipe tobacco and cigar tobacco," he said. "You can smell the raw tobacco and the lit product and gauge how good or how bad it is by those sensory feels of it.

"Cigars are like a bottle of wine," he said. "I think wines and cigars are equally unique, a taste that somebody acquires. I've had expensive wine and expensive cigars and they're sometimes not as good as the everyday brands."

THE new store has a Web site - www.rhinebecksmokeshop.com - but Urban said he doesn't want the business to become an online tobacco seller.

"We want to be able to talk to our customers and respond to their needs," he said. "We don't want to become a worldwide seller. ... I would be satisfied in serving the local customers and visitors."

THE RHINEBECK Smoke Shoppe employs about six people, including former United employees. Each of Urban's Smokes 4 Less stores employ about the same number. Combined, Urban's tobacco and beverage stores employ about 125 people.

All his businesses are open seven days a week.