You Can’t Tell Them a Cigar Is Just a Cigar

From sharing their passion for cigars to posing together for a “class photo,” those who attended the Fourth Annual Gentlemen’s Smoker Thursday made for an unusual kind of fraternity.

About 160 tuxedo-clad men, and a few women in gowns, celebrated the cigar at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point. A wisecracking, cigar-wielding Milton Berle served as host of the event, which raised about $5,000 for the Ruth Berle Memorial Fund for cancer research.

Lovers of the Leaf

Actor James Coburn was among those brandishing cigars in the hotel courtyard during a champagne and caviar reception. He gamely tried to explain the appeal of the leaf:

“It’s the aroma, the ritual, the oral satisfaction,” he said, inhaling deeply on a Romeo y Julietta.

“There’s something very pleasant about gentlemen who smoke cigars. There’s a warmth, a camaraderie.”

True to its name, the Gentlemen’s Smoker is a mostly male affair--although women are allowed as long as they promise to smoke a stogie. Pilar Wayne, in her flaming red strapless gown, was one woman who really stood out in the sea of tuxedos.

Some guests watched as a representative from Don Diego rolled cigars by hand from stacks of tobacco leaves; others exchanged tips on cigar etiquette.

Rick Hacker, a Beverly Hills author of seven books on pipes who is working on a book about cigars, explained that in order to better inhale the smoke, one always cuts the end off a cigar, using either a cigar cutter or one’s fingernails.

“The Clint Eastwood method of biting off the end of the cigar with your teeth and spitting it across the room doesn’t cut it,” Hacker advised.

‘Smoke of Kings’

Henry Schielein, vice president and general manager of the Ritz-Carlton and gala chairman, had the first smoker at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston in 1984. That gala was to celebrate the designation of the hotel library as a smoker’s lounge in the evening. To his dismay, Schielein had discovered there was nowhere in the Boston hotel where he could enjoy a good cigar or pipe without offending someone.

“I’m the godfather of smokers,” Schielein said. “It’s a love affair you acquire.”

At the gala, guests could indulge in cigars all they wanted without feeling ostracized.

“Here you’re among peers,” said Reinhard Barthel, a restaurateur from Chicago and a friend of Schielein. “You don’t have to worry about someone looking at you and giving you the evil eye.”

Hacker’s favorite place for enjoying a cigar is at home, usually from 11 p.m. to midnight.

“At the end of the day, there’s nothing like punching up a little Haydn on the CD player and sitting down with a cigar,” he said with a happy sigh. “My cigar and I solve the world’s problems.”

Dinner at 8

After the reception, guests sat at one elegant long table adorned with tall candelabra, old books and other antiques and enjoyed an Escoffier-inspired dinner: mille-feuilles of smoked salmon and sun-dried apple, consomme double with duck confit, lobster ravioli with chervil matignon, sauteed filet mignon with cracked pepper, cepes and Armagnac, baby lettuces with lemon hazelnut vinaigrette and French cheese, and chocolate caprice with mocha sauce. A few enjoyed a cigar with the meal.

After dinner, they adjourned to the hotel’s luxurious antique-filled library, where they sipped aged cognac or port and sampled world-class cigars until 4 a.m. Tables were laden with 3,000 of the finest cigars for the taking, and guests stuffed the pockets of their tuxedos with the zeal of children snatching up Easter eggs.

Among those attending were actor Randy Quaid, R.J. Casale, Jim Mitchell and Dickson Farrington of Alfred Dunhill, and John Rano and Bob Sparacino of the General Cigar Co.