Prego Ristorante Will Light Up With a Special Dinner

Smokers, take heart. You’re being banned at restaurant after restaurant in Orange County, but there is one place that is inviting all smokers to a special dinner Wednesday.

Italian restaurant Prego Ristorante is inviting not just your everyday cigarette smoker, but cigar smokers.

“There are very few places where cigar smokers can enjoy a good cigar after dinner,” said Franco Vessia, general manager.

The four-course meal includes after-dinner cognacs and a choice of two cigars, Macanudo and Partagas, on the restaurant’s outdoor patio.

Dinner, which is $80 a person, plus tax and tip, includes Italian wines. A sea scallop appetizer is planned, followed by Bauletto di Tagliolini Verdi (spinach pasta with lamb and porcini mushrooms, covered in baked eggplant, fontina cheese and tomatoes) and Filetto di Bue al Vino Rosso (grilled beef tenderloin, porcini mushroom and potato terrine, with a red wine reduction sauce).

Dinner begins at 6:30 p.m.

18420 Von Karman Ave., Irvine. (714) 553-1333.

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John Dominis restaurant will host a dinner Wednesday featuring the wines of California’s Steele Winery. Jedd Steele is scheduled to attend and comment on the food and wine pairings.

The reception is at 7, and dinner at 7:30. The cost, $60, includes tax and tip.

Dishes include assorted cooked oysters, steamed sole with crayfish sauce, lobster and truffle pie, roasted lamb with mustard-chive sauce and lace cookie taco with cabernet franc sorbet.

The restaurant has also announced the hiring of a new chef, Lasse F. Sorensen. He is the executive chef and comes from the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

2901 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. (714) 650-5112.