It Makes Them Light Up : Cigar Smokers Relish a Night in Their Honor at Restaurant

All of the cigar fans were turned on Tuesday night at a Los Feliz restaurant.

The ones bolted to the ceiling and mounted on the roof were pumping away, expelling the huge quantity of smoke in the place.

The ones standing in the bar and dining room were puffing away, extolling the high quality of the smoke in the place.

“This is a very enjoyable atmosphere,” said Warren Loo, a junior high school teacher from Silver Lake who relaxed in an overstuffed leather chair and watched a blue cloud swirl about his head.

It was cigar night at Pierre’s Los Feliz Inn. And for the 100 or so cigar lovers who crowded in, there would be no disapproving looks or ugly confrontations with nonsmokers.

For the last year and a half, operators of the 40-year-old Hillhurst Avenue restaurant have pulled their ashtrays out of storage, kicked their air-conditioning system into high gear and welcomed cigar smokers on the first Tuesday evening of each month.

Over at the bar, Sheldon Miller, an insurance executive from Montrose, grinned as he fired up his stogie, drew its smoke gently into his mouth and exhaled.

“I wouldn’t miss this,” Miller said. “It’s very hard to find a place to have a good meal and a cigar. No one wants to be chastised for lighting up.”

Cigar night is a gesture appreciated by cigar smokers who have found themselves exiled outdoors in an era where even a whiff of cigarette smoke can set a dining room crowd fussing and fuming.

“Once I was in a restaurant and a woman saw my unlit cigar and complained,” said Dwayne Edelstein, an insurance broker from West Los Angeles who smoked his first cigar 37 years ago when he was a teen-ager. “They told me to put it away or leave.”

That’s a pity, said Lyle Low, a real estate developer who lives in Los Feliz and has enjoyed cigars for 25 years.

“A good cigar is exhilarating. The taste is good. You don’t inhale. Men will tell you the smoke smells good,” Low said, pausing to puff and reflect. “My wife is happy to see me come here, though.”

Billy Spadaro, a television engineer from Studio City who held a long cigar in his hand, laughed.

“My girlfriend hates it,” he said of cigar smoke. “She doesn’t know I’m here.”

Tony Ivancic, a realty agent from Cypres, said: “A cigar is totally relaxing. There’s a therapeutic value to them. But my wife won’t let me smoke them in the house. So on warm evenings I go out on the patio and smoke.”

The mere mention of cigars and women turned the talk in the restaurant to Rudyard Kipling, the Indian-born turn-of-the-century English writer. “A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke,” he once wrote.

“I think Kipling and I would have gotten along famously,” said Lois Richard, one of two women at cigar night who decided to light up.

“People think it’s strange when women smoke cigars,” said Richard, a Los Feliz bookkeeper. “To me it’s a personal thing. I started smoking cigars 30 years ago.”

Marlene Songin, a movie costumer from West Los Angeles, started smoking cigars a month ago.

“I tried one at the last cigar night but I didn’t smoke it right,” Songin said as she bought a $3 panatela from Victor Migenes, owner of the La Plata Cigar Co., Los Angeles’ last cigar factory. “First, I blew out. Then I inhaled. This time I don’t feel so much like a novice.”

Migenes helps Los Feliz Inn owner Pierre Pelech stage the monthly cigar nights, arranging Cognac tastings and free cigar samples for smokers. Cigar aficionados say a handful of other eateries around Los Angeles are likewise experimenting with cigar nights.

Pelech is out of town on vacation this week. But Tuesday’s event included a display of rare cigar box labels collected by Sam Dermengian, a retired West Covina college instructor. The colorful illustrations advertised such long-missing cigar brands as “Covered Wagon,” “Christy Girl” and “Mark Twain.”

Dermengian doesn’t mourn their disappearance, however.

“I don’t like cigars,” he admitted in a whisper as he gamely puffed a stogie that an onlooker had given him. “I think I’m starting to turn green.”

Nonsmoking restaurant customers in a distant dining room seemed unfazed by the cigar haze. Newly installed ceiling air filters were helping clear the smoke. Nonetheless, the restaurant’s back door was propped open to let in fresh air.

The smoky odor became potent as the cigar crowd drifted into their own dining room to order $16.50 Catalina sand dab dinner and $18.50 filet mignon steaks.

The aroma was a turnoff to nonsmoker Dana Cash of Glendale, who stopped at the restaurant with a friend for a drink and dinner.

She tried to ignore the scene at first.

“I kind of like the cigar smell. My grandfather smoked them. It brings back nice memories,” she said.

But soon enough, she was ready to leave.

“Cigar night is only once a month,” said waiter Van Vandervou. “Thank God.”