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Ashton Cigar Bar lights up

Ashton Cigar Bar is new at 1522 Walnut St., upstairs from Holt's Cigar Co.

Ashton Cigar Bar is new at 1522 Walnut St., upstairs from Holt's Cigar Co.

Owner Robert Levin, his son, Sathya, and daughter, Meera, are offering 200 different cigars in a renovated space that was, until February 2012, a cigar bar known as Mahogany on Walnut. (Ashton is the brand of a signature Holt's Dominican cigar.)

New York designer Bentel & Bentel, which won a 2012 James Beard Award for its renovation of Manhattan's Le Bernardin, went with leather chairs, second-floor street views, and walk-in humidor.

Light from floor-to-ceiling front windows reaches to the back, along an 18-seat white marble serpentine bar and surrounding high-top tables. There are two flat-screen televisions behind the bar and a 3-D wooden piece of art from local painter Michael P. Rocco depicting rolling tobacco fields.

The Levins also want to reach out to nonsmokers with 200 whiskeys, signature cocktails and a state-of-the-art air-purification system.

All told, general manager David Marks (Silk City, N 3rd) has 300 spirits plus six draft beers and 20 more in bottles, a variety of eight to 10 wines by the glass, and charcuterie and cheese plates.

Hours: 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.