Rakesh "Rocky" Patel is the founder of Rocky Patel Premium Cigars. He was born in India (New Delhi, raised in Bombay), moved to the United States in 1974, went to high school in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and practiced entertainment and product-liability law in Los Angeles. He smoked cigars on studio lots, joined the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills as a founding member, and in 1995 invested in Indian Tabac Cigar Co. with Phillip Zanghi III, a boom-era startup that used an Indian Motorcycle name. Early production was in Honduras. He later took manufacturing under closer control with Nestor Plasencia at El Paraíso.
He put his own name on the company in 2003. Vintage and The Edge became catalog fixtures. Brother Nish Patel joined in 2004. Around 2008-2009 Rocky opened TaviCusa (Tabacalera Villa Cuba) in Estelí with Amilcar Perez-Castro, so the catalog could mix owned Nicaraguan rolling with the Honduras Plasencia partnership. Headquarters are in Florida (Naples / Bonita Springs). He does not work for STG or Altadis. Who is Rocky Patel? The founder. Who makes Rocky Patel cigars? Plasencia in Honduras and TaviCusa in Nicaragua, under his company.
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