My Favorite Cigar
Bo Dietl • Tough Guy
Montecristo No. 2
Every New Yorker knows Bo Dietl, the real-life, real tough detective turned private investigator, actor, television commentator, even a onetime candidate for mayor. He’s the arresting cop at the end of Goodfellas, he plays himself in The Wolf of Wall Street and he’s the Chicago gangster pushing taxis into the river with Robert De Niro in The Irishman. Most of his time is spent running Beau Dietl & Associates, his corporate security firm.
“I still love my cigars,” says Dietl, speaking in the exuberant, hurried, choppy speech that he is known for. Cubans are his favorites, particularly Monte 2s, but he also loves Romeo y Julietas.
Nowadays, most of Dietl’s smoking takes place on the golf course. “When I play golf, I love to have a cigar.” He used to puff more often, when you could smoke freely in restaurants, including his beloved Rao’s, where he famously has a table. “Thirty years ago, I always had a cigar in my hand,” he says. And no matter how many times people try to get him to smoke non-Cubans, he keeps going back to Havanas. “I just love the taste of a real Cuban cigar,” he says. “It’s the same thing with wine—if I’m going to drink a red wine, I like the French stuff.”
