The Barn at Rocky Fork Creek in Gahanna has reintroduced a curated after-dinner cigar menu, offering diners 10 selections to smoke in an outdoor area tucked beside the steakhouse's patio and fire pit. The relaunch swaps out what the restaurant's dining room manager described as a forgettable prior lineup for cigars with actual tasting notes attached, served alongside the Cameron Mitchell restaurant's already-deep bourbon program.
From Gas-Station Stock to a Curated List
As reported by the Columbus Dispatch, the new Finish & Smoke menu was curated by Storm Ivory, The Barn's dining room manager, who said the cigar selection previously on offer resembled gas station cigars. Ivory noted the lineup follows dessert and the entree, giving guests a distinct final course rather than an afterthought. Each of the 10 cigars on the menu is described as mild or medium in strength, with tasting notes included, and prices range from $15 to $45.
The signature item is the Avo XO Intermezzo, infused with Woodford Reserve bourbon specially blended for The Barn. Ivory injects the bourbon into each of the bourbon-infused cigars by hand, and the restaurant has added wooden pairing trays designed to hold both drinks and cigars together. The menu is not currently posted on The Barn's website, and the Dispatch reports it has received limited publicity beyond a single Instagram post back in April.
A Fire Pit Ringed by 15-Foot Shrubbery
The outdoor smoking area itself is built around eight red Adirondack chairs arranged around a fire pit, encircled by shrubbery standing roughly 15 feet high. Ivory said the greenery keeps cigar smoke fairly well insulated from other diners, a detail that matters under Ohio's smoking rules. The state enacted its indoor smoking ban in 2006, and the American Lung Association still lists Ohio among states with laws banning smoking in bars and restaurants.
That framework, established under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3794 and passed by voters as Issue 5 in November 2006, exempts outdoor patios from the indoor ban only when they are physically separated from enclosed spaces and configured so smoke cannot drift into non-smoking areas. Ohio Administrative Code Rule 3701-52-02 goes further, presuming a covered patio counts as open-air and exempt from the ban so long as no more than half of its combined perimeter walls or side coverings are enclosed. Shrubbery-shielded setups like The Barn's fire pit are built to satisfy that standard while still functioning as a windbreak.
Why Restaurants, Not Just Lounges, Fill This Niche
Ohio law generally bars indoor retail tobacco stores that permit smoking from also holding liquor licenses or serving food, which leaves restaurant patios as one of the few legal spots in the state to pair a cigar with a meal and a cocktail, as Hoodline has previously reported in coverage of Lorain's Crooked Leaf Cigar Lounge. Dedicated cigar lounges elsewhere in the region operate under that tradeoff: standalone spots like the Governor's Cigar Lounge in Westerville and Reynoldsburg, La Chaveta in Clintonville, and The Apothecary in Dublin sell cigars and provide space to smoke them, but none of them sell food. The Barn's model instead threads the needle by keeping the smoking area outdoors and separate from its dining rooms.
Other high-end steakhouses in the area have carved out similar spaces. Prohibition Gastro Lounge in Powell has its own cigar patio, and Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse downtown offers diners a cigar menu of its own. Outside Ohio, Cameron Mitchell's reach extends the comparison further: Big Rock Italian Chophouse in Birmingham, Michigan includes a dedicated indoor cigar lounge, a format not replicated at The Barn.
A Steakhouse Rooted in Cameron Mitchell's Columbus Empire
The Barn at Rocky Fork Creek opened in Gahanna in September 2014, converting a former Hoggy's BBQ site into a rustic upscale steakhouse with seating for up to 300 guests, according to Experience Columbus. The restaurant already runs a dedicated Bourbon Lounge stocked with more than 70 bourbons, alongside private dining rooms and a farmstead brunch, making the cigar relaunch a natural extension of an existing spirits-forward identity. Company founder Cameron Mitchell has categorized the cigar offering simply as a way to make guests happy.
The Barn operates under Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, the Columbus-founded hospitality group that has grown to 51 locations across 20 distinct restaurant concepts in 15 states and Washington, D.C. Hoodline has covered the parent company's aggressive growth before, including Ocean Prime's national building spree, a flagship brand generating roughly $285 million in sales that the company plans to expand by 10 new locations over five years. The cigar menu's low profile stands in contrast to that broader expansion push, suggesting it functions more as an amenity for regulars than a headline attraction.
The Broader Market for a Shrinking Habit
Cigar smoking remains a minority habit nationally — the CDC reported that 3.5 percent of American adults were cigar smokers in 2021 — but Ohio's tax structure shows the state still treats the product as a notable revenue source. The Ohio Department of Taxation imposes a 17 percent wholesale excise tax on other tobacco products including cigars, with the tax on premium cigars capped at 50 cents per cigar, while little cigars are taxed at a steeper 37 percent rate. Establishments serving cigars are also expected to enforce federal T-21 rules, checking government-issued photo ID for any customer who appears under 30.
The Barn's cigar relaunch also lands amid a period of investment in Gahanna's dining and hospitality scene more broadly. The city launched a $100 million redevelopment of its Creekside District in 2026 after demolishing five vacant commercial structures along Mill Street, a project Hoodline detailed in a report on the Creekside overhaul that includes plans for a boutique hotel, apartments, and new restaurant space. Against that backdrop, The Barn's low-key cigar patio offers a quieter, more established counterpoint to the neighborhood's incoming construction.
