Forget brewskis and the big screen.It was...

Forget brewskis and the big screen.

It was Monday Night Gourmet, not Monday Night Football at a stag party for members of the Performing Arts Fraternity this week.

“It’s tradition,” said Bob Divine of the blast that saw black-tied gents (Larry Hoffman was an exception--he wore a jabot) stream into the Robert Mondavi Wine and Food Center in Costa Mesa.

“People ask us every year why we do this,” said Divine, president of the Orange County Performing Arts Center support group. “And we keep answering: ‘Tradition!”’

For the past five years ( tradition in Orange County), frat members have gathered on a weekday, Divine explained, “because our spouses and guests might get upset if we did this on the weekend. On a weeknight, they don’t care.”

For $125 per person, the men enjoyed a wine reception, a sit-down dinner featuring he-man fare--salad with walnuts and feta cheese, halibut, veal chop, and terrine of apple with cinnamon ice cream--and a magician.

What, no girl jumping out of a cake? “We’re here to learn about the arts,” Hoffman huffed. “Now. If she could jump out of a cake singing ...”

Hoffman--a former president of the group--came in a kilt, he said, because his wife, Carol “doesn’t like to go out with me in a skirt.”

“This is the only time I get to wear it,” he added. “I’m Scottish on my mother’s side and this is my mother’s family tartan.”

Hoffman came by limo to the affair with three friends. He had packed his “purse” with money and credit cards. “We’re going to stop off somewhere on the way home,” he explained. “This is the neatest event the Performing Arts Fraternity has. A whole bunch of guys get together to have a blow-away dinner, great entertainment, and everybody gets to smoke a cigar.”

Close, but no cigar. “Unfortunately, the Mondavi doesn’t sell them,” Hoffman said, looking sad.

By this time next year, the group hopes to have donated $1 million to the Center, said Divine, an executive-search consultant. Members pay $1,500 annual dues.

Chairing the affair was Grant Bettingen, who also eschewed the black-tie mandate and wore a red velvet bow tie with matching cummerbund. “I’m warming up my Christmas gear,” he said.

Also on the scene: special guests such as Carl St. Clair, music director of the Pacific Symphony; William Hall, director of the Master Chorale; and Erich Vollmer, executive director of the Orange County Philharmonic Society (Vollmer had a check in his pocket. “I’m joining tonight,” he said).

Other members included Jerold Miles, Thomas Santley, Reed Royalty, Allan Koenig, Jerrel Richards, Richard Engel, William Furlow, Roger Smith and George Engdahl.